The document discusses developing a lightweight cloud instance contextualization tool with the following key points: 1. Existing tools are heavyweight, slow, and complex. The goal is a simple tool written in C or Go with no dependencies that can set up users, SSH keys, passwords, firewall rules, disk resizing, notifications, and scripts. 2. It will support AWS EC2 metadata, generic config drives, and Google Compute Engine metadata. 3. The tool will provide basic contextualization functionality quickly and lightly to allow a single virtual machine image to work across environments.

1. Lightweight Cloud instance contextualization tool
Project Information:
Project Title: Lightweight Cloud instance contextualization tool
Project Description: To Develop a lightweight, zero dependancy cloud instance
contextualisation tool.Virtual Machines running in the cloud (or virtualised environments) need
some way to have their instance contextualised to run within that environment. This allows
providers to build a single instance image that can be used in different places.
Details:
All existing cloud instance contextualization tools are heavyweight, have long dependency
chains, are hard to customize and extend, and are slow to execute. The aim here is to deliver
something written in 'C' or 'Go' so it has no dependency and delivers on the key basic
functionality that is needed by a majority of situations. The functions include:
 Setup a user.
 Setup a ssh key for the user.
 Set a password, or block passwords from being used.
 Manipulate the firewall as needed.
 Be able to resize the disk backing image, based on disk blocks available and policy.
 Be able to do some basic notifications.
 Be able to run an arbitary script.
The basic formats this tool needs to be able to consume:
 AWS EC2 Metadata over network.
 Generic Config drive.
 Google Compute Engine metadata.
The main focal points are to deliver the basic functionality with the fastest and the most
lightweight solution possible.

2. Benefits: The providers are benefited in such a way that a single instance image can be used in
different places rather than creating single images for different purposes.
Exsisting sytem:
Cloud computing represents the on-demand instantiation of Virtual Machines per user request. In
that mode of operation the contextualization is achieved when the user passes data to the cloud
API, data that is then made available within the instance. As an example, the following strategies
are available in commercial providers:
 Image layout conventions (e.g. do not include swap partitions or user data FS should be
availble under /dev/sde).
 Valid Image Formats.
 Recommend software packages (e.g. ssh)
 Virtual Appliance Metadata (e.g. name of maintainer, version and date of creation,
contents...)
 Support for the instance level contextualization process.
Implementation: we propose a cloud contextualization mechanism which operates in two
stages, contextualization of VM images prior to service deployment (PaaS level) and self
contextualization of VM instances created from the image (IaaS level). Almost all of the private
or public cloud infrastructures provide a mechanism of passing arbitrary data to the instance at
the creation time. A good example is Amazon's Instance Metadata for EC2.
Encrypt the context information using a secret key generated by ssh.
After preparing contextualization information, generate the base 64-string for encoding the data.
The tools provide the option to specify a user-data string while starting the instance.
Timeline:
Week 1: 19th may to 25th may - A better understanding and learning contextualization tools
available
Week 2: 26th may to 31st may - creating a user and providing public key and private key
using ssh to the user
Week 3: 1st June to 7th June – generating a password and providing the firewall so as to
implement restricted access
Week 4: 8th June to 14th June – working on disk resizing and disk backing images.
Week 5: 15th June to 21st June – working on basic notifications

3. Week 6: 22nd June to 28th June – Working on running the arbitrary scripts.
Week 7: 29th June to 5th July – Checking for the availability of supporting the basic formats
by the tool
Week 8: 6th July to 18th July – Testing the compatibility of the tool whether it is dependency
resolving or not.
Week 9: 19th July to 25th july – Testing the code written for the light weight tool
Week 10: 26th July to 2nd Aug – reviewing the code and modifications to be done if any.
Week 11: 3rd Aug to 9th Aug – preparing a manual documentation of the tool
Week 12: 10th Aug to 17th Aug –preparing screen shots of the work done, presentations,
documentations in the guidance of mentors.
II) General Information:
 Name: PARAMKUSHAM SRUTHI
 Email: shrutiparamkusham@gmail.com
 Mobile Number: 8985039134, 7036199284
 Mailing Lists: CentOS,CentOS-gsoc,CentOS-Newsletter
 Why Cent OS: With the support and help of GSOC 2015, I want to stick to Cent OS
projects where I can contribute my skills of linux,python and openstack into the projects
and develop a effective module that benefits to the organization and also benefits in
gaining and sharing knowledge which would be an exciting and interesting journey. It
also carries worth for the third parties and vendors as the services provided to them are
easy to consume.
 Technologies known: Python, Linux (user management and permissions,network
configuration,package management,process management,disk management),Openstack
juno version,Open SSH server/client.
 Software experience: worked on openstack dashboard(Instance management through
Nova project),installation of single node and multi node on debian based distribution,
Worked on Devops tools such as Jenkins,Git,Gerrit through persistent systems.
 Worked on opensource projects based on PHP on WikiMedia,MediaWiki software.
Projects done:
1) Openstack project hands-on on local environment.
2) Developedbanking application using python 2.7

4.  Important Links:
 Mailing lists on Cent-OS , CentOS-devel,CentOS-Newsletter
 https://kmitshruthi.wordpress.com/
 References:
 http://docs.openstack.org/user-guide/content/
 http://docs.openstack.org/user-guide/content/ch_dashboard.html
 http://docs.openstack.org/user-
guide/content/dashboard_launch_instances.html
 http://docs.openstack.org/user-guide/content/ch_sdk.html
 http://lists.openstack.org/pipermail/openstack-docs/2015-
February/005935.html
 http://docs.openstack.org/icehouse/training-guides/content/
 http://docs.openstack.org/
 http://docs.openstack.org/juno/install-guide/install/apt/content/
 http://docs.openstack.org/juno/install-guide/install/yum/content/
 http://linux-bible.com/
 http://linux-training.be/files/books/LinuxFun.pdf
 https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Use+Jenkins