On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 1:21 PM, Lamar Owen lowen@pari.edu wrote:
I'll take [SRV record examples] as a 'no' for the general case.
How is an RFC quote and an example of a running standardized application using the feature a 'no?' Please read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRV_record and see just how standardized it is.
So can I expect it to work with ssh? SMTP? SNMP? Or any application I'm likely to use? Who's going to open the corresponding firewall holes?
How is [rolling a cloud instance dev VM] easier than saying 'ssh nodename yum -y install postgresql-server'/ Something I already know how to do and how to make happen any number of ties - and something that works on real hardware and in spite of the differences in VM cloud tools.
How do you guarantee a clean sandbox?
Either clonezilla or a minimal OS install to start. Or if it is a VM, copy/revert an image. But except for development build systems we mostly work with hardware.
In the cloud case, every VM rolled is as clean as the template that generated it, and gives you a known starting point. And I use PostgreSQL as the example since I maintained those RPMs for five years, and I understand the need for a clean sandbox, having learned the hard way what can happen if you don't take the care to make your sandbox clean (this was pre-mach, and definitely pre-mock, and buildroots had to be carefully regulated since they weren't cleanly sandboxed by mock and kin).
At the expense of being black magic that won't work outside of that environment. I don't like magic. I don't like things that lock you in to only one vendor/tool/OS.
OpenStack will do most of what I'm talking about already.
On real hardware?
Actually, I'd like to see a single device do all of that gunk plus have an HDMI out to act as a media player so a typical home would only need one extra 'thing' besides the computer/tablet/phone. But it doesn't matter - you still have to configure it somehow. Do you want things to guess at your firewall rules?
That last point is exactly what UPNP was supposed to solve.
Great... Why have a firewall when holes open by magic at an unsecure application's request?
Such a device as you want exists; see the GuruPlug Display and descendants. They are definitely tinkering boxen, and they do have their issues (I have a GuruPlug Server Plus with the eSATA port and the infamous overheating problems) but they are available.
I'd really like at least a 4-port switch and room for at least a pair of 2.5" drives in what could still be a relatively tiny case. That is, combine everything in a typical router, nas, and media player. Current CPUs should be able to handle all those tasks at once.