diff --git a/website/content/en/status/report-2023-01-2023-03/cloud-init.adoc b/website/content/en/status/report-2023-01-2023-03/cloud-init.adoc new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..27ba87410f --- /dev/null +++ b/website/content/en/status/report-2023-01-2023-03/cloud-init.adoc @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +=== FreeBSD as a Tier 1 cloud-init Platform + +Links: + +link:https://cloud-init.io/[cloud-init Website] URL: link:https://cloud-init.io/[] + +link:https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/[cloud-init Documentation] URL: link:https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/[] + +link:https://github.com/canonical/cloud-init/blob/main/WIP-ONGOING-REFACTORIZATION.rst[cloud-init ongoing refactorization] URL: link:https://github.com/canonical/cloud-init/blob/main/WIP-ONGOING-REFACTORIZATION.rst[] + +Contact: Mina Galić + +cloud-init is the standard way of provisioning servers in the cloud. +Unfortunately, cloud-init support for operating systems other than Linux is rather poor, and the lack of cloud-init support on FreeBSD is a hindrance to cloud providers who want to offer FreeBSD as a Tier 1 platform. +To remedy the situation, this project aims to bring FreeBSD cloud-init support on par with Linux support. +The broader plan is to lift support across all BSDs. + +This quarter has been going very, very slowly, for personal reasons — but also for lack of access to right resources. +I have been trying to link:https://github.com/canonical/cloud-init/pull/2003[port the Infiniband functions]. +This has proven difficult, because it falsified my thesis that man:ifconfig[8] is all that is needed to figure out network interfaces on FreeBSD. + +A cloud-init colleague who works for Azure managed to give me access to an link:https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/topics/high-performance-computing[HPC VM on Azure]. +Unfortunately, it was only for a limited time, and that was not enough to figure out how to get Infiniband up and running on FreeBSD — a task handled by package:sysutils/azure-agent[] by Linux, but Azure Agent's FreeBSD is rather lacking. + +People interested in helping with this project could provide man:ifconfig[8], man:ibstat[8], man:ibv_devinfo[1], etc… link:https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-infiniband/2023-February/000005.html[pastes from their Infiniband systems]. +I would also be very happy about getting access to hardware with Infiniband NICs, or hearing from people who have successfully used FreeBSD on Azure HPC with Infiniband. + +If there is interest in that platform, I will direct some energy to fixing Azure Agent. + +Sponsor: The FreeBSD Foundation