
Deis: Open Source PaaS based on Docker, Chef, and Heroku Buildpacks - nickstinemates
http://deis.io/
======
gabrtv
Gabriel Monroy here, creator of the Deis project. I'll be answering questions
here and on Twitter (@gabrtv). I want to give a big shout out to the Docker
crew for their support.

I should also mention the release notes (which explain what's next) can be
found here: [http://deis.io/deis-0-0-5-public-
beta/](http://deis.io/deis-0-0-5-public-beta/)

~~~
kylek
Hi Gabriel, how will this compare to the other Docker-PaaS projects going on?
(Flynn, Dokku). I see the inclusion of Chef as a major feature?

~~~
gabrtv
Well firstly, I believe we're the first distributed Docker-based PaaS to be
released. We are using Buildstep for Heroku Buildpack integration, which is
part of Dokku. And we've been talking with the Flynn crew about how we can
create more reusable components for the Docker PaaS community.

Our use of Chef is reflective of a larger design decision to work with DevOps
tools that are already in widespread use.

~~~
shykes
Speaking on behalf of the Docker project, I am very glad that the two first
PaaS projects built on Docker happen to be led by Jeff, Daniel and Jonathan
(for Flynn) and Gabriel's crew (for Deis). They are all active and helpful
Docker contributor who "get" the importance of interoperability between Docker
projects. They have pledged to play nice with each other by focusing on
reusable components which will benefit the entire Docker community.

So for that, thank you! I hope more people follow your example and remember
open-source is not a zero-sum game.

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pdeuchler
This is really exciting, I've been waiting for someone to combine all of the
various deployment technologies like this for a while.

However... If I set up my servers manually, or even through chef, I have
pretty intimate knowledge of how my apps are being deployed. I know the
various pipes data goes through, software versions, what services are running,
etc. In other words, I have a pretty reasonable mental model of my deployment
architecture. This is especially helpful when troubleshooting. However while
the magic of Deis looks like a godsend, I am very caution about upgrading my
technical debt from "managing my app servers, load balancer, and db servers"
to "managing a PaaS that I happen to run my app on". I'm not trying to do ops
for a Heroku clone, I'm just looking for an easier way to streamline my
deployment process. What happens when I run "git push deis master" on a new
release and everything breaks? The last thing I want to be doing is searching
through the Deis github repo for error strings while my site is down.

Can anyone from the project assuage my fears? I realize this is kind of an
open ended question, but a little assurance can go a long way.

Related: What are the planned price ranges for support on this?

~~~
gabrtv
I understand the concern about potential black box on the deployment side. Few
points 1) this is an open-source project with a relatively small code-base and
few moving parts 2) Chef does most of the heavy lifting on the deployment side
using Databags and traditional Chef runs and 3) the build/release/run workflow
is described here:
[http://docs.deis.io/en/latest/gettingstarted/concepts/#build...](http://docs.deis.io/en/latest/gettingstarted/concepts/#build-
release-run)

With regard to support, OpDemand (creator/maintainer of Deis) will be
launching paid support and professional services once the project stabilizes.
Price points are not set yet. How would you like to see it priced?

~~~
pdeuchler
Cheaply :)

Thanks for the response, I'll delve into the docs more. What would be really
cool would be a snapshot/description of a sample deployment I could look
through. A fake ssh session demo in the browser that I can poke around in
would be pretty awesome. Reverse engineering chef cookbooks from github isn't
exactly an easy way to learn about what a product does.

More specifically as per support pricing, I'd love site licensing as opposed
to a per-deployment or per-server setup.

Just a thought: what would fit my needs almost perfectly is some sort of
tiered email/forum/ticket based support option, which is upgradeable to
phone/dedicated support when I'm doing deployments

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jaytaylor
shameless plug:

Open-source Heroku-esque PaaS which uses Go, Git, LXC, and HAProxy.

ShipBuilder is a freely available open-source project which aims to make it
fast and easy to deploy arbitrary web-applications.

Get total control over all aspects of your staging and production
environments.

More info:

[http://shipbuilder.io/](http://shipbuilder.io/)

[https://github.com/sendhub/shipbuilder](https://github.com/sendhub/shipbuilder)

~~~
diminish
Why not docker? and do u use cgroups etc? in any case, would be great to here
about it..

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alperakgun
is there a public paas deis server where i can deploy some test apps? or do u
or does anyone plan a commercial heroku or dotcloud clone?

~~~
gabrtv
Deis is designed for running your own PaaS. You can use public or private
clouds, but we still require you run your own controller.

If you're looking for a public PaaS solution, we recommend you take a look at
dotCloud or Heroku.

With regard to a commercial offering, OpDemand (the company behind Deis) plans
on offering paid support and professional services for Deis deployments once
the project reaches stability.

~~~
fizx
ProTip: If you are building anything that you expect users to run themselves,
copy/steal FoundationDB's AWS CloudFormation setup. One click and a couple
form fields to setup, one click to tear down.

Edit: [http://foundationdb.com/documentation/beta1/getting-
started-...](http://foundationdb.com/documentation/beta1/getting-started-
ec2.html)

~~~
gabrtv
Many of the companies interested in using Deis want a private cloud
deployment, so we have intentionally avoided tying ourselves exclusively to
AWS/EC2. That said, we can certainly make the installation process a bit
easier in future releases. CloudFormation could be part of that.

------
ogghead
So how does this compare to flynn.io?

~~~
jpetazzo
I'm not involved in Flynn nor Deis, but since Flynn is not available yet (and
no source is visible at this point), I would be surprised if anyone could tell
:-)

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zobzu
i like this is more "private cloud" oriented and "not a whole os" i think
thats a better move than attempting to "capture market" like quite a few other
projects.

Now for unshare() to become more secure... ;-)

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waxzce
operate PaaS and use a PaaS is very different...

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andyl
I wouldn't use Deis because of its tight integration with Chef. (I abandoned
Chef in favor of Ansible) But for Chef users, it looks like a great project,
and am glad to see an expanding community of Docker-based tools.

~~~
ghayes
Yes, I was very sad when I read that I needed a running Chef Server to begin
using Deis.

