University Cloud

Introducing Cumulus

Welcome to Cumulus, our new university cloud platform. Cumulus is Latin for a "heap" or "pile," and refers to a type of cloud characterized by puffy, white formations. Built on OpenStack, our new platform should feel familiar if you've worked with CSCloud before. We'll be using this self-hosted environment to create virtual machines (Infrastructure as a Service, or IaaS).

As we transition to this new platform, there might be a few hiccups, but we'll work through them together.

Getting Connected

To protect the platform, Cumulus is hidden behind a firewall. To access it from outside the university network, you'll need to use a VPN. Be sure to connect to the VPN before trying to access Cumulus.

  • VPN Guide: You can find the updated guide for connecting to the VPN here.
  • Accessing Cumulus: You should be able to access the platform in your browser at https://cumulus.lnu.se/. Please check that your VPN is working and that you can access the site.

Your Cumulus account credentials and SSH keys will be available in your GitLab projects, provided you are registered on Ladok.

Using Cumulus

Cumulus is an OpenStack environment, and the tutorials on CSCloud should still be relevant, but there are a few differences. We'll update the tutorials as we go, but the core functionality will be the same.

  • Domain Addresses: Your web servers will now have a different domain address, like cu1224.cloud.lnu.se.
  • Network Selection: There are three networks available: "public," "campus," and "mass." It is crucial to select the public network for your projects. Let's Encrypt certificates will not work on the campus network.
  • IP Addresses: Remember that IP addresses are a limited resource. Please be mindful to release them when they are not in use.
  • Namespaces: Currently, only one namespace, "Education," is available.

Infrastructure Creation

In this course, we'll create our own infrastructure both manually and using Terraform/IaC on Cumulus. For Assignment 2 and the Group Project, it is also acceptable to use a managed Kubernetes service on a different platform.