Installing

No offense to the wonderful github, but sometimes their system just does not work. Unfortunately, PoolParty has befallen the “my gem does not build” problem. So, until they (and I) can get it resolved, the most efficient way to install PoolParty is to install it manually.

Dependencies required to build gem locally

gem install technicalpickles-jeweler # for gem building tasks
gem install tarruby # depends on libtar -- on macports: sudo port install libtar rb-archive-tar-minitar
gem install rake rubigen activesupport logging ruby2ruby thin
gem install RedCloth # note: case sensitive
gem install json ruby-openid stomp  # chef dependencies
gem install chef ohai -s http://gems.opscode.com

Instructions

git clone git://github.com/auser/poolparty.git
cd poolparty
git submodule init
git submoduile update
rake build # if this fails, try a rake clean_pkg && rake gemspec first
[sudo] gem install pkg/poolparty-<version>.gem

make a clouds.rb file, for example:

pool :pond do
  instances 1..3
  keypair "/path/to/keypair"  
  cloud :party do
    has_file :name => "/etc/motd", :content => "Welcome to your PoolParty instance"
  end  
end

./bin/cloud-start -s clouds.rb
If all goes well you should be able to
cloud-ssh
and be greeted with your motd.

notes
poolparty gathers most of the dependencies and configuration files for the cloud at /tmp/poolparty. This directory is rsynced to the server, so if you want to make changes, be sure to rm -rf /tmp/poolparty to ensure none of the old, cached data is being used