Synnefo

Welcome to the Synnefo documentation

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

.. image:: /images/synnefo-logo.png

Synnefo is a complete open source cloud stack written in Python that provides

Compute, Network, Image, Volume and Storage services, similar to the ones

offered by AWS. Synnefo manages multiple `Ganeti

<http://code.google.com/p/ganeti>`_ clusters at the backend for handling of

low-level VM operations and uses `Archipelago

<http://www.synnefo.org/docs/archipelago/latest/>`_ to unify cloud storage. To

boost 3rd-party compatibility, Synnefo exposes the OpenStack APIs to users.

Synnefo powers GRNET's `~okeanos public cloud service

<http://okeanos.grnet.gr>`_ and you can try it out live at `demo.synnefo.org

<http://demo.synnefo.org>`_.

Synnefo has three main components providing the corresponding services:

.. toctree::

   :maxdepth: 1

   Astakos: Identity/Account services <astakos>

   Pithos: File/Object Storage service <pithos>

   Cyclades: Compute/Network/Image/Volume services <cyclades>

This is an overview of the Synnefo services:

.. image:: images/synnefo-overview.png

   :width: 70%

   :target: _images/synnefo-overview.png

Synnefo is designed with simplicity, scalability and stability in mind.

Although it can be deployed in small configurations, it was initially designed

to address large-scale installation problems.

All Synnefo components use an intuitive settings mechanism, that adds and

removes settings dynamically as components are getting added or removed from a

physical node. All settings are stored in a single location.

.. _general-arch:

Synnefo General Architecture

============================

The following figure shows the whole Synnefo stack and how it interacts with

multiple Ganeti clusters and the storage backends. Synnefo decouples the cloud

from the cluster layer, enhancing robustness and easing administration and

upgrades without impacting VM stability. As shown in the figure below, Synnefo

sits on the cloud layer:

.. image:: images/snf-architecture.png

   :width: 70%

   :target: _images/snf-architecture.png

Synnefo manages multiple Ganeti clusters and different storage backends

(e.g., Ceph/RADOS or NFS-based backends as shown in the figure).

For an extensive view of all components, the interconnection and APIs between

them, please take a look at the Admin Guide's :ref:`corresponding figure

<syn+archip>`.

Synnefo Guides

==============

There are 4 guides for Synnefo.

The Quick Installation guide describes how to install Synnefo on a single node

in less than 10 minutes using the `snf-deploy` tool. This kind of installation

is targeted for testing and demo environments rather than production usage

deployments. It is the perfect way, even for an inexperienced user to have the

whole Synnefo stack up and running and allows for a quick preview of the basic

Synnefo features.

The Admin's Installation guide describes how to install the whole Synnefo stack

in just two physical nodes. This guide is useful to those interested in

deploying Synnefo in large scale, as a starting point that will help them get

familiar with the Synnefo components and overall architecture, as well as the

interconnection between different services. This guide explains the whole

procedure step by step, without the use of the `snf-deploy` tool. Anyone

familiar with this guide, will be able to easily install Synnefo in a larger

number of nodes too, or even expand the two node installation dynamically.

The Administrator's Guide targets system administrators, who want to dive into

more details and common tasks regarding Synnefo. For the experienced Synnefo

administrator, there is also a section that describes how to do scale-out

Synnefo deployments with corresponding examples. This targets large scale

installations of Synnefo.

The Developer's Guide targets developers, who want to build on top of Synnefo

and so describes all the different types of interfaces Synnefo provides to the

external world. Also documents all Synnefo external REST APIs.

.. The Integrator's Guide targets developers, who want to actually

.. extend/modify/change Synnefo itself, so describes Synnefo's indepth

.. architecture and the internals of Synnefo components (currently out-of-date!).

.. toctree::

   :maxdepth: 1

   Quick Installation Guide (single node) <quick-install-guide>

   Installation Guide (on two nodes) <quick-install-admin-guide>

.. toctree::

   :maxdepth: 1

   Administrator's Guide <admin-guide>

   Developer's Guide <dev-guide>

   API Guide <api-guide>

Synnefo tools

=============

There are also the following tools:

.. toctree::

   :maxdepth: 1

   kamaki: Command-line client <http://www.synnefo.org/docs/kamaki/latest/index.html>

   snf-deploy: Synnefo deployment tool <snf-deploy>

   snf-image-creator: Image bundling/uploading/registering tool <http://www.synnefo.org/docs/snf-image-creator/latest/index.html>

   snf-image: Secure image deployment tool <http://www.synnefo.org/docs/snf-image/latest/index.html>

   snf-burnin: Integration testing tool for a running Synnefo deployment <snf-burnin>

Design

======

v0.15

-----

.. toctree::

   :maxdepth: 1

   Pithos separate view domain <design/pithos-separate-view-domain>

   Cyclades networking <design/cyclades-networking>

   Astakos resource defaults <design/resource-defaults>

Drafts

------

.. toctree::

   :maxdepth: 1

   Resource-pool projects design <design/resource-pool-projects>

   Volumes design <design/volumes>

   Volume Snapshots design <design/volume-snapshots>

Contact

=======

You can contact the Synnefo team at the following mailing lists:

 * Users list: synnefo@googlegroups.com

 * Developers list: synnefo-devel@googlegroups.com

The official site is:

 `http://www.synnefo.org <http://www.synnefo.org>`_