Eucalyptus is open source software for building Amazon Web Services-compatible private and hybrid clouds.

• Eucalyptus is broken into five components: Cloud Controller, Walrus, Cluster Controller, Storage Controller, Node Controller. There is also an optional, proprietary VMware broker plugin, available from Eucalyptus Systems. These components are software services and are arranged in three layers: cloud, cluster, and nodes. You can install the components on the same physical server or on separate physical servers as business, security, and resource needs dictate.

• The Node Controller requires libvirt and KVM.

• The libraries that Eucalyptus depends on are described in detail in the INSTALL file.

• You will have to choose one of several network modes, which are described in the installation guide. Your system's and network's requirements will vary based on which mode you choose.

• Generally, you will need two IP address ranges. The first range is private, to be used only within the Eucalyptus system itself. The second range is public, to be routable to and from end-users and VM instances. Both sets must be unique to Eucalyptus, not in use by other components or applications within your network. Static mode requires only one available IP address range, and system mode does not require an available IP address range.

Eucalyptus is published under a BSD license. For more information, see the LICENSE file.

For information about building Eucalyptus, see the INSTALL file.

The product name "Eucalyptus" was originally an acronym, derived from "Elastic Utility Computing Architecture for Linking Your Programs To Useful Systems."