[CentOS-devel] Re: CentOS5 virtual machine image

Hi Nils,

Nils Toedtmann wrote:
> Dear CentOS developers,
> 
> there is a demand for ready-to-boot virtual machine images for distros
> like CentOS. Since i am an afinicado of CentOS and Xen, i would like to
> build and maintain a CentOS5-image. Is centos.org interested in hosting
> such a sub-project? Testing and tasting CentOS would get much easier, it
> would help making CentOS more popular.

Sounds interesting, and going by just the amount of times such questions 
get asked, I'd say there were a fair few people interested in this as well.

> Planned features:

<- lots of interesting stuff ->

> Different flavors:

<- lots of interesting stuff ->

> RoadMap:
> 
>   * wait for CentOS5-beta2 ;-)

Why ?

CentOS-4 is in quite a decent shape to make it into VM's and _lots_ 
people are going to want VM's for CentOS-3 ( Q: Why? A: I can imagine 
that lots of people who run CentOS are going to want to move to CentOS-5 
for its newer hardware support and better performance on very high end 
machines ). It makes much sense to move the host to C5 and have VM's run 
the C3/ C4 roles.

One of the things on the ToDo list here is a document for a known 
process to help with this migration -> Move a C3/C4 machine into a VM 
under C5, so that your C3/C4 apps remain supported and function as they 
do now, while still getting the added benefit of C5 on the host.

>   * create and post a minimal CentOS5-beta2 i386 image with xen- and
>     vmware configs, wait for reviews/bugreport
>   * create and post a standard desktop CentOS5-beta2 i386 image, wait
>     for reviews/bugreport

Once there is a basic setup and required infrastructure in place, doing 
roles is just a question of adding some more details to scripts etc, I 
am sure there are many roles we can address like this.

>   * if there are enough positive reports, repeat for CentOS5-final

We are really not interested in doing / spending time on something that 
is not going to be there for CentOS-5/Release - so if you are getting 
involved, do so with the intent of seeing this through.

>   * release when/if centos.org is pleased with the (bugfixed) images

yes, we have a QA team now!

> Are you interested in such a project? I am eager for comments.

You have my attention and I am happy to push this along from the inside, 
but if we are going to do this - lets try and cover the spectrum, not 
just focus on C5 ( specially taking on board what Daniel has said, C5 
VM's are trivial once you have the C5 host running ) - One (of the many 
) places where users are going to see really good benefit is when we can 
provide some alternatives to move their C3 / C4 machines into.

Still interested ?

- KB