Simplifying the VPC instructions

[Dr Nic Williams]

Re: http://cloudfoundry.github.io/docs/running/deploying-cf/ec2/

I think we could simplify the fiddly getting started experience here. Currently we need to:

* manually create a working folder

* manually create a Gemfile (because of the secondary gem source) [1]

* manually create an environment file containing user data

* manually add a DNS to route53

* manually change some templates (or is this fixed now?)

* run the commands

I've proposed one change in [1] - just requires that bootstrap-cf-plugin gem is released somewhere.

The other user data could be collected via a CLI prompt (a la bosh-bootstrap & bosh-cloudfodunry):

* route53 can be automated via fog or another ruby lib

* environment file could be easily created after collecting the data

Are you ok with interactive prompts being added into bosh_aws_bootstrap plugin as a PR? Or do you have some other plan in this area?

Yes, I'd probably implement prompts that are similar to the ones in bosh-bootstrap (auto-detection of .fog file, etc)

Nic

[1] PR suggestion https://github.com/cloudfoundry/cf-docs/pull/61

--

Dr Nic Williams

Stark & Wayne LLC - consultancy for Cloud Foundry users

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[Matt Reider]

We would prefer interaction models closer to what you built in bosh-cloudfoundry, but I am not sure adding Cloud Controllers, or other CF components makes sense as a place to start. I think it makes sense to have Small, Medium, and Large Cloud Foundry installs, and then (maybe) add more than the number of jobs in those manifests? It seems to be what we are hearing from people within corporations that are using / want to use Cloud Foundry.

Yes, interactive prompts for other things that help make this easier would be sweet. For instance - if we ask questions about domains / subdomains then there's no need to edit manifests...

Ok, I visited with my nieces for a while and now I'm going back to the tutorial.

Matt