[Koha] RFC: Koha Virtual Appliances

[Kyle Hall]

Hey All,
   It's been awhile since I've put out any new Koha Virtual
Appliances. And I was hoping to get some input on what types would be
most useful. There are so many combinations, so I was hoping to narrow
down the list.

First off, we have 3 software options to choose from:
1) VirtualBox
2) Xen
3) VMWare

I've switched from using VMWare to VirtualBox for my local vm's, and
switched from VMWare to Xen for our big iron virtualization. I like
the fact that VirtualBox is has a completely Free version. Not need to
get serial numbers from anyone, plus I despise VMWare Server 2, I
don't like the direction it has taken.

So I would say VirtualBox images are a given.

I could also roll Xen appliances. However, I'm not sure if anyone
would actually use them. If you can set up Xen, then setting up a Koha
demo is trivial in comparison.

I would also be willing to continue making VMWare images if there most
people would still use them.

Second is the issue of configuration. In the past, I've been rolling 2
types of vm's for each Koha version:
1) Fully configured up to but not including the web-based setup. This
allows someone to still choose Zebra or NoZebra, and decide what if
any example data is imported.
2) Fully configured up to and including the web-based setup, with all
example data included.

I think this is a good combination, but I'm interested in hearing
opinions from others. Is number 2 really useful when it can be created
from number 1 trivially? I'm just wondering of the web-based config
would be enough to scare off any potential Koha converts.

Third, which versions of Koha should be rolled, and how often? Koha
changes to fast to make one for every version, but I'd be willing to
try doing monthly/bi-monthly updates. Should I bother with main
releases, such as 3.01? These days, it seems like the latest version
is always pretty stable, and I think the manual tends to follow the
latest version. Are there frozen versions of the manual for releases
such as 3.01?

Any other input is welcome.

Thanks,
Kyle

http://www.kylehall.info
Information Technology
Crawford County Federated Library System ( http://www.ccfls.org )