[one-users] Workflow Management in Open Nebula

[Carlos Martín Sánchez]

Hi,

We don't have any tool to manage the workflow, but OpenNebula can be easily
tweaked with a few shell script lines.
The scenario you describe can be achieved using hooks [1] in the following
way:

1 - After a VM creation (or a Template instantiation), a VM "on create" hook
can be triggered to hold the VM (the scheduler ignores VMs in this state)
and send that notification email.
The hook can query OpenNebula for details about the user, the VM or any
other resources used in the requested VM like Images or VNets. That email
could look like this:

The user john_doe (8) wants to deploy a VM with
VM ID  : 31
CPU    : 2
MEMORY : 1024
DISK   : IMAGE ID 15
         Ubuntu Server
         10G

2 - If the administrator decides to approve the request, then he simply has
to enable that VM. For a denied request, the VM can be deleted.
This could be done manually, using the CLI or Sunstone.
I guess it shouldn't be too difficult to configure a mail delivery agent
such as procmail to enable or delete the VM after reciving a "yes/no" email
reply from the administrator.

3 - Another hook can be triggered when the VM reaches the running state.
This one will send an email to the owner user with the login instructions,
including VM details like the assigned IP.
You have to come up with a way to store the user's email. Maybe a small
sqlite DB, a new table in OpenNebula's DB, or even use the email as the
OpenNebula username.

This is a basic configuration to get you started, but the hook mechanism can
be combined with:
- ACLs [2] : you may want to fine-tune the allowed user actions
- usage quotas [3] : after certain limits, the new VM creation requests
would be denied without bothering the administrator with more emails
- Sunstone tuning [4] : you could modify sunstone to adapt it to your needs.
Views can be configured to show only certain tabs, or maybe hide some
buttons. You could even include a new text input box that would allow users
to include a personalized message for the administrator each time a VM is
created. The "on create" hook can look for that attribute in the VM template
and add it to the email.

Best regards,
Carlos.

[1] http://opennebula.org/documentation:rel3.0:hooks
[2] http://opennebula.org/documentation:rel3.0:manage_acl
[3] http://opennebula.org/documentation:rel3.0:quota_auth
[4] http://opennebula.org/documentation:rel3.0:sunstone#plugins
--
Carlos Martín, MSc
Project Major Contributor
OpenNebula - The Open Source Toolkit for Cloud Computing
www.OpenNebula.org <http://www.opennebula.org/> | cmartin at opennebula.org


On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 11:43 AM, Joydipto Banerjee
<joydipto.b at in.ibm.com>wrote:

> Hi - Does anyone know if there exists a workflow management system in Open
> Nebula.
> I am thinking of a scenario where a User requests a Virtual Machine(VM)
> through the Open Nebula Sunstone web interface, after which an email
> notification is sent to the Cloud Administrator to approve/reject the
> request.
>
> Post VM creation, an automatic email is sent back to the end user, giving
> him the details of IP of the new image and login details (userid , password
> ).
>
> Are such scenarios possible ?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Users mailing list
> Users at lists.opennebula.org
> http://lists.opennebula.org/listinfo.cgi/users-opennebula.org
>
>
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