Frequently Asked Questions
==========================

Where does the name Ensemble come from?

  The word ensemble could be defined as "an assemblage of parts or details
  (as in a work of art) considered as forming a whole". Ensemble assembles
  machines and software components and manages them as a whole, providing
  service deployment and management, hence the name.

Why is Ensemble useful?

  Ensemble is a next generation service deployment and orchestration
  framework.  It has been likened to APT for the cloud. With Ensemble,
  different authors are able to create service formulas independently, and
  make those services coordinate their communication through a simple
  protocol.  Users can then take the product of different authors and very
  comfortably deploy those services in an environment.  The result is
  multiple machines and components transparently collaborating towards
  providing the requested service.  Read more :doc:`about`

When will it be ready for production?

  As of Ubuntu Natty 11.04, Ensemble is a technology preview. It is not yet
  ready to be used in production. However, adventurous users are encouraged to
  evaluate it, study it, start writing formulas for it or start hacking on
  Ensemble internals. The rough roadmap is to have Ensemble packaged for
  Universe by 11.10 release and perhaps in main by 12.04

What language is Ensemble developed in?

  Ensemble itself is developed using python. However, writing formulas for
  Ensemble can be done in any language. All Ensemble cares about is finding a
  set of executable files, which it will trigger appropriately.

How can I contact the Ensemble team?

  User and formula author oriented resources
   * Mailing list: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/Ubuntu-cloud
   * IRC #ubuntu-cloud
  Ensemble development
   * Mailing list: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/Ensemble
   * IRC #ubuntu-ensemble

Where can I find out more about Ensemble?

  * Project Site: https://launchpad.net/ensemble
  * Ensemble Documentation: http://j.mp/ensemble-docs
  * Work Items: http://people.canonical.com/~niemeyer/budapest.html