Changes/Fedora Images On Azure

Fedora Images on Azure

This is a proposed Change for Fedora Linux.
This document represents a proposed Change. As part of the Changes process, proposals are publicly announced in order to receive community feedback. This proposal will only be implemented if approved by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee.

Summary

Azure is a massive public cloud and offering an official Fedora Cloud image there would expand Fedora's user base. It also gives Fedora Cloud users more options when selecting public clouds.

Owner

• Name: Major Hayden, David Duncan
• Email: major@redhat.com, davdunc@amazon.com

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora Linux 39
• Last updated: 2023-04-21
• devel thread
• FESCo issue: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
• Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
• Release notes tracker: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>

Detailed Description

We want to:

• Get Azure images built via the existing Pungi processes
• Publish Azure images via Azure's image gallery
• Test these images during regularly scheduled Fedora Cloud test days before final release
• Ensure that the Azure URN is linked on the Fedora website in the cloud downloads section (similar to how AWS images are listed today)

Feedback

Another alternative would be to offer a VHD download option from a mirror, but that would require users to download the image and upload it to Azure on their own. This could be challenging for users without technical skills to complete these steps or for users with slow network connectivity.

Benefit to Fedora

• Expands Fedora's official image public cloud footprint to Azure (currently just AWS and GCP)
• Allows Azure customers to launch official Fedora images which were tested before launch
• Raises awareness around Fedora Cloud images

Scope

• Proposal owners: Isolated change that does not affect the OS itself but does improve its availability in public clouds.

• Other developers: Does not affect other developers or features in Fedora.

• Release engineering: #11398

• Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)

• Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)

• Alignment with Community Initiatives: N/A

Upgrade/compatibility impact

This is a net new offering in a cloud where Fedora was not previously offered.

How To Test

• Verify that the Fedora image appears in Azure's image gallery
• Launch an Azure VM with the new Fedora image
• Complete the usual verification that is done on other clouds during test days

User Experience

Customers on Azure will notice that a new Fedora official images is available to them. Users of other platforms, such as workstation and server, will not see a change. Customers of other clouds, such as AWS, will not see a change either.

Dependencies

All dependencies are already packaged and tested. One of the biggest is the Azure Linux agent (WALinuxAgent), but it has been packaged in Fedora for multiple releases and is verified to work on Azure.

Contingency Plan

• Contingency mechanism: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
• Contingency deadline: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
• Blocks release? No

Documentation

N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Release Notes

Fedora Cloud Edition is now available for use in Microsoft Azure.