Synnefo is a complete open-source cloud stack written in Python that provides Compute, Network, Image, Volume and Storage services, similar to the ones offered by AWS.
Synnefo manages multiple Google Ganeti clusters at the backend that handle low-level VM operations and uses Archipelago to unify cloud storage.
The project is outsourced and opens for public beta to the members of the Greek academic and research community in May 2009.
This service, called ~okeanos, aims to provide the Greek academic and research community with access to a virtualized infrastructure that various projects can take advantage of, e.g. experiments, simulations and labs.
In search for a solution, in October 2010 GRNET decides to base the service on Google Ganeti and to design and implement all missing parts in-house.
This version (v0.9) includes a complete integration of the new Pithos as part of ~okeanos and now acts as the unified store for Images and Files.
Pithos runs at the cloud layer and exposes the OpenStack Object Storage API to the outside world, with custom extensions for syncing.
The process of mapping user files to hashed objects is independent from the actual storage backend, which is selectable by the administrator using pluggable drivers.
The effect path is activated in response to a user request; Cyclades issues VM control commands to Ganeti over RAPI.
The update path is triggered whenever the state of a VM changes, due to Synnefo- or administrator-initiated actions happening at the Ganeti level.
For the configuration of their VMs they can select number of CPUs, size of RAM and system disk, and operating system from pre-defined Images including popular Linux distros (Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Gentoo, Archlinux, OpenSuse), MS-Windows Server 2008 R2 and 2012 as well as FreeBSD.
The REST API for VM management, being OpenStack compatible, can interoperate with 3rd party tools and client libraries.