h1. Apache Whirr

Apache Whirr is a set of libraries for running cloud services. Whirr is currently in the [Apache Incubator|http://incubator.apache.org/]. 

Whirr provides 
* A cloud-neutral way to run services. You don't have to worry about the idiosyncrasies of each provider. 
* A common service API. The details of provisioning are particular to the service. 
* Smart defaults for services. You can get a properly configured system running quickly, while still being able to override settings as needed. 

Find out more about Whirr at our [wiki|https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/WHIRR].

h2. Which services and cloud providers are supported?

Whirr uses [jclouds|http://code.google.com/p/jclouds/] for provisioning, so in principle it should support all the cloud providers that jclouds supports. The following table shows
the cloud provider and service combinations that have been tested.

||Cloud provider||Cassandra||Hadoop||ZooKeeper||
|Amazon EC2|Yes|Yes|Yes|
|Rackspace|No|No|No|

h2. Download

Download a release of Whirr from a [nearby mirror|http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/incubator/whirr/].

h2. Getting Started

You can use Whirr's CLI or APIs to [get started with Whirr|quick-start-guide].

h2. Getting Involved

Have you got a suggestion for improving Whirr? It's easy to [get involved|https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/WHIRR/How+To+Contribute].