From 73354d2e06d7dd206ef2fb1ab25432dc14ab495d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Benjamin Kaduk Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 16:30:14 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Add gcloud report Approved by: hrs (mentor, blanket) --- .../news/status/report-2014-10-2014-12.xml | 149 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 149 insertions(+) diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2014-10-2014-12.xml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2014-10-2014-12.xml index a0ce4b8120..ba175f44e2 100644 --- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2014-10-2014-12.xml +++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2014-10-2014-12.xml @@ -2604,4 +2604,153 @@ newsletter.

+ + + &os; on Google Cloud + + + + + Steve + Wills + + swills@FreeBSD.org + + + + + The script + used to create gcloud images + More + detail on how to create and use a gcloud image + + + +

Google Cloud is a cloud computing platform that allows users to + run hosted services and servers in a cloud maintained by + Google. The goal of this project is to provide an easy way to + create and manage &os; installations running on Google + Cloud.

+ +

The good news:

+ +

FreeBSD 10.1 runs fine. You can create an image and start it + up and login via standard ssh, via the gcloud command + or via the web console (ssh in a web browser window). More + details on how to do all this can be found in the links. + Basically, you should be able to gcutil addimage + freebsd-101-release-amd64-20150101032704 + gs://swills-test-bucket/FreeBSD-10.1-RELEASE-amd64-20150101032704.tar.gz

+ +

Then spin up an image using gcloud compute instances + create --zone us-central1-b --image + freebsd-101-release-amd64-20150101032704 --boot-disk-size 20GB + gtest1

+ +

These commands are part of the google-cloud-sdk port, which + contains all the commands to interact with Google Cloud. There + is also a google-daemon port which is used in running instances to + create users and set them up and a google-startup-scripts port which + handles running startup/shutdown scripts as specified in node + metadata.

+ +

Additionally, the firstboot-growfs port has been brought back so + that new instances will grow their root filesystem. (Thanks to Colin + Percival for having created that port initially.)

+ +

There is also a firstboot-freebsd-update port which can be used + to update a system on first boot but is currently disabled. See + below. Similarly, the firstboot-pkgs port/scripts will install + specified packages on first boot.

+ +

Overall, Google Cloud Compute is quite nice; instances spin up + in about 60 seconds and it is very reasonably priced with + automatic discounts for longer term usage. There is a $300 credit + for first time users that also makes it free to try out. That + credit covers quite a lot of time, and the instances are pretty + fast, as well, even the ones without SSDs.

+ +

The bad news:

+ +

Google does not make sharing non-official images as easy as + AWS, so you have to create your own using my public tar file. The + tar was created using the script in the links section. That + script can be used to produce customized images, even though there + are no official image (nor will there be any time soon).

+ +

There are some issues running FreeBSD on Google Cloud, + listed in the tasks section.

+ + + + + +

The 8 and 16 cpu instances seem to reboot randomly.

+ + + +

Repeated UFS panics that Google folks have reported, but + I do not think those are particular to Google Cloud. The panic + message is "ffs_valloc dup alloc".

+ + + +

Running freebsd-update causes the system to become + unbootable, so updates do not work. (Reboots work fine + otherwise.)

+ + + +

There is no gcimagebundle command in the Ports + Collectiong so you cannot easily create an image from a running + machine.

+ + + +

There are a few minor issue with the startup script + that is supposed to regenerate ssh keys (for when you + create an image from an existing system).

+ + + +

10.1 works, but 10.0 does not boot; other versions remain + untested.

+ + + +

The kern.vm_guest sysctl node does not detect that it is in a + guest.

+ + + +

The vtnet driver needs wq disabled on 16 cpu boxes, but + is just disabled everywhere for now since that is easier.

+ + + +

There is a work needed for the Google + safe_format_and_mount command which formats and + mounts newly attached disks, but this is just a nicety really.

+ + + +

I need to look into irq affinity for vtnet.

+ + + +

We need to support virtualized clocks; bryanv@ is + working on this. In fact, all his ongoing work in the virt area + would probably make things work better.

+ + + +

It would be nice if there as the ability to disable the + spinner before the loader, which clutters up the console log. The + ability to disable it is in HEAD; hopefully it will be MFCd to + 10-STABLE before 10.2.

+ + + +