WMF Projects/Virtualization cluster

Wikimedia is building a sandbox server environment based on a virtualization cluster for supporting development and operations engineering by both staff and selected volunteers. This will allow access to necessary system resources, software and configuration without compromising the security of the production server clusters, in a time and cost effective way.

Feature justification
There is a constant demand on new server resources for temporary usage in testing, development and operations engineering projects. Right now this often requires the purchase and deployment of new servers and custom setup, configuration and access control to maintain security of the network. The procurement of new equipment costs money, time and staff resources, which is not always justified by the duration or importance of the projects. The availability of a virtualization cluster that allows quick and automatic setup of new virtual servers after a simple moderation process would solve these problems.

The Wikimedia Foundation also wants to enable and encourage volunteers to contribute to Web Site Operations more actively, in order to reflect the core values of the broader movement and to make maximal use of the technical talents within the community. The continued growth of the movement and its ambitions is a constant challenge for the organization's capacity, including the Operations team. Active involvement of volunteers can support the Operations staff and allows identification of technical talent and skills for hiring purposes.

Wikimedia Operations is already unusually open, enabling the general public to both learn and brainstorm about it. For example, nearly all documentation, statistics and monitoring overview information concerning Wikimedia Operations is publicly available. However, giving the public and/or specific interested volunteers access to necessary software, tools and configurations without disclosing strictly private information (such as passwords) remains a challenge. We think that the availability of a sandbox environment consisting of virtual servers will be an important step in the right direction.

Schedule
Due to the relative immaturity of the available Open Source solutions in this field, deployment of this cluster is delayed. We hope to have a usable system available by the end of the year.

Task management

 * RT #310: Build a Virtualization Cluster for development and operations engineering