[committee] VM request script / committee policy on "VMs for members"

[Alex Dawson]

Fun fact: This essentially how UBC does VM provisioning - we have a
web page where users submit requests, which generates a shell script,
which we copy and paste to run to build the VM (after doing
sanity/billing checks)

.. we now have 1600 VMs.

On 1 April 2012 23:15, Ash Tyndall <atyndall at ucc.asn.au> wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 2:03 PM, Sam Moore <matches at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> For those who are new to committee, I have been looking into
>> making it easier to setup VMs for members. If you are feeling particularly
>> masochistic, I can forward you all the emails sent on the subject last year.
>>
>> Committee may care about this script:
>> http://www.ucc.asn.au/cgi-bin/ucc-vm-register.py
>>
>> tl;dr The script asks some basic questions, makes some simple checks
>> against spammers, and emails wheel about it
>>
>> Questions:
>> 1. Is this the sort of thing that we want to advertise to members?
>
>
> Yes, it's an interesting technical option for people to play around with.
> Although we should also make it clear that if you just want to host a
> website or something simple, there are much easier and better options.
>
>>
>> 2. Do new committee members think this is worth pursuing?
>
>
> I feel violated by the fact I cannot answer this question.
>
>>
>> 3. Do those who were on the last committee still think this is worth
>> pursuing? (I do)
>
>
> Yes.
>
> I am also very glad your script sends its warm regards. I would otherwise
> want to kill it with fire.
>
>>
>>
>> Giving people VMs may work well for various tech talks / workshops.
>> It also encourages people to learn stuff without worrying about breaking
>> important things. With VMs we can also give people the chance to break
>> stuff and try things, without worrying about them breaking important things.
>>
>> Below is an example of what gets sent to someone requesting a VM.
>> Replace all the matches@ with wheel@
>> Something very similar to the below also gets sent to wheel@
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Sam Moore [SZM]
>> UCC Secretary 2012 (and wheel member)
>>
>> "I have written you a long letter because I did not have time to write a
>> short one." - Blaise Pascal (probably)
>>
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:43:34 +0800
>> From: nobody at ucc.asn.au
>> To: matches at ucc.asn.au
>> Subject: UCC VM Request
>>
>> The following information was registered for a UCC VM request:
>>
>>
>> Name     : Sam Moore
>> Username : matches
>> VM name  : mufasa
>> Phone    : 0404606638
>> Email    : matches at ucc.asn.au
>> OS       : Debian
>> Purpose  : test
>>
>> General Notes
>> ---------------
>> test
>>
>> If this is incorrect, or you know nothing about this, please contact
>> matches at ucc.asn.au
>>
>> Warm Regards,
>> The UCC VM Registration Script
>
>
>
>
> --
> Ash Tyndall [ASH]
> UCC OCM 2012
>