20080319

Agenda

Items we will be discussing:

Minutes

iSCSI support

soren talked with slangasek about supporting root-over-iscsi and was granted a FeatureFreezeException for this work. About half of the job is done, however this feature won't make it for Beta.

soren doesn't have any test hardware - however he is in contact with one person that has a proper test environment. He is particularly interested in blade systems that support booting from an iscsi device.

faukles- mentioned he may have access to an iscsi box sometime next week and would be willing to perform some testing.

LSB compliant init script

kirkland and owh started to work on adding a status action to init scripts responsible for starting daemons on ubuntu server. Further discussions with the release team lead to a rejection of the FeatureFreezeException. Although the technical reasons are sound, the current phase of the hardy release cycle isn't suitable for implementing such a feature.

So further work on this has been deferred to the next release cycle - which would take a different technical approach based around upstart integration.

ACTION: kirkland to update the Roadmap wrt to the init script work.

Ubuntu Server Guide

sommer reported that most of the review work has been done on the Server Guide. DocumentationStringFreeze is effective on Thursday, March the 20th. He's happy with the new sections added during this cycle. So for hardy the Ubuntu Server Guide is completed.

sommer has some ideas about improvements for the next cycle. mathiaz advised him to add them to the Server Team IdeaPool page.

ACTION: sommer to add ideas to the IdeaPool page about documentation improvements during the next release.

Status reporting

mathiaz is still rethinking the process for status reporting within the server team. Now that the weekly meeting minutes don't have a status for each task the server team has been working on, he is thinking about other ways to talk about what's going on in the server team. The server team section of the monthly report is already kept up-to-date on a weekly basis.

mathiaz tossed the idea of using a blog to publish a weekly report of what's going on in the Server Team. nijaba wondered if a weekly report wasn't too often. mathiaz said that a monthly report may be too big as a lot of things are happening within the team. An option would be to start with a report every other week.

Beta testing

mathiaz reminded that the Beta for Hardy should be released on Thursday and testing is more than welcome. nijaba added some instructions to test the JeOS iso [1]. mathiaz wondered why the JeOS isos weren't added to the iso testing tracker [2]. nijaba said that it will be after beta is released.

nijaba also reminded that everyone willing to help to test pre-released isos should register on the iso testing tracker [2] so that they can be notified when new builds are available for testing.

[1]: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/Cases/JeOSInstall [2]: http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/

Agree on next meeting date and time

Next meeting will be on Wednesday, March 26th at 21:00 UTC in #ubuntu-meeting.

Log

Started logging meeting in #ubuntu-meeting
[22:00:40] * kirkland o/
[22:00:50] <mathiaz> welcome to this pre-easter server team meeting
[22:01:00] <nijaba> pre beta as well
[22:01:20] <soren> o/
[22:01:27] <mathiaz> nijaba: right - I was putting my stomach before ubuntu...
[22:01:31] * soren is only sort of here.
[22:01:44] <mathiaz> Today's agenda: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam/Meeting
[22:02:04] <mathiaz> [TOPIC] iSCSI Support
[22:02:20] <mathiaz> soren: while you're around what's the move on iscsi ?
[22:02:21] <soren> That's me.
[22:02:53] <soren> Right, I've gotten the "Ok, go!" from our mighty release manager to make the appropriate changes to make root-on-iscsi work.
[22:03:16] <mathiaz> soren: when would that work land in hardy ?
[22:03:24] <mathiaz> soren: I guess it won't make it for beta
[22:03:26] <soren> I've got the easy 65% done, but I'm missing the confusing last 65%.
[22:03:37] <soren> No, certainly post-beta.
[22:03:40] <soren> Unfortunately.
[22:03:40] <mathiaz> soren: the next widespread testing would be RC
[22:03:54] <mathiaz> We should try to get widespread testing before that
[22:04:06] <soren> Sure.
[22:04:39] <soren> I'm off from after this meeting until Tuesday, so if anyone wants to pick it up, now's the time to sout.
[22:04:41] <mathiaz> soren: what is needed to test root-on-iscsi ?
[22:04:42] <soren> shout, even.
[22:04:51] <soren> mathiaz: Fancy, expensive hardware :(
[22:05:07] <mathiaz> soren: pick it up == implement it ?
[22:05:18] <nijaba> what about iscsi target, would it work?
[22:05:20] <soren> mathiaz: The specific use case I'm trying to cater for is blade servers that have iscsi support in the bios.
[22:05:42] <nijaba> guess not then
[22:05:43] <soren> It hurts my head just thinking about it.
[22:05:57] <soren> These things install grub on the iscsi share... and it works.
[22:06:11] <soren> It's very confusing.
[22:06:15] <mathiaz> soren: do you have access to such hardware ?
[22:06:18] <soren> mathiaz: Nope.
[22:06:29] <mathiaz> soren: or do you know of such products ?
[22:06:30] <soren> mathiaz: ...and that's not helping either :)
[22:06:48] <soren> mathiaz: I'm aware of their existence, and I have a friendly guy that tells me that it doesn't work.
[22:07:09] <soren> and I totally see why, and he's given me some helpful hints about what to do.
[22:07:10] <mathiaz> soren: so you have a tester at least
[22:07:16] <soren> Yes.
[22:07:19] <mathiaz> soren: great.
[22:07:46] <nijaba> faulkes- might have some dell blade at hand, not sure if he can use them for testing though
[22:07:54] <soren> I just need to accept that fact that the initial booting procedure works and the try to make ends meet.
[22:07:57] <mathiaz> of course if anyone has access to such hardware, I'm sure that soren would appreicate some help in that
[22:08:30] <nijaba> and I don't even know if dell blades supports this
[22:09:08] <mathiaz> ok - let's move on
[22:09:17] <mathiaz> [TOPIC] LSB compliant init script
[22:09:45] <mathiaz> kirkland: how do you survive to this task ?
[22:10:09] <kirkland> mathiaz: :-) The task will not be completed in Hardy
[22:10:21] <kirkland> mathiaz: discussion ensued on ubuntu-devel@
[22:10:37] <kirkland> mathiaz: and it was determined that these changes are not acceptable in a Beta Freeze timeframe
[22:10:42] <nijaba> (from Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who), "A feature's a
[22:10:42] <nijaba> feature no matter how small".
[22:10:58] <kirkland> mathiaz: I still believe in the importance of the work, but I understand and agree with the freeze process
[22:11:17] <kirkland> mathiaz: at this point, I suggest that we work with Keybuk on a plan for Intrepid
[22:11:18] <zul> imho ideally we should have a spec for this in ibex and we can pile in more features that we want
[22:11:19] <mathiaz> kirkland: Well - to be correct - the changes are suitable for a FeatureFreeze Exception
[22:11:41] <mathiaz> kirkland: yes - let's differ that to UDS
[22:11:57] <kirkland> mathiaz: s/differ/defer/, yes
[22:12:29] <kirkland> mathiaz: I'll update the Roadmap accordingly
[22:12:39] <mathiaz> kirkland: thanks.
[22:12:41] * kirkland action ^
[22:12:59] <mathiaz> [ACTION] kirkland to update the Roadmap wrt to the init script work
[22:13:16] <mathiaz> [TOPIC] Ubuntu Server Guide
[22:13:28] <mathiaz> sommer: so tomorrow is string freeze
[22:13:38] <mathiaz> sommer: what's the state of the guide now ?
[22:13:38] <sommer> should be good to go!
[22:13:58] * nijaba hugs sommer
[22:14:04] <sommer> made a bug fix, grammar fix, update commit about 45 min ago
[22:14:05] <zul> yay!!
[22:14:13] <mathiaz> sommer: which section have been updated and reviewed wrt last week ?
[22:14:58] <sommer> mathiaz: pretty much all of them
[22:15:31] <sommer> I guess the only one I may have a question about is the bzr section
[22:15:31] <mathiaz> sommer: so once we're in documentationstring freeze, what are you plans ?
[22:15:48] * nijaba thinks sommer should take some vacations
[22:16:11] <sommer> heh, probably help test dapper to hardy upgrades and what not
[22:16:25] <mathiaz> sommer: I meant on the documentation front ?
[22:16:34] <mathiaz> sommer: are we pretty much done for hardy ?
[22:16:49] <sommer> mathiaz: oh right, I think we're pretty well there
[22:17:12] <sommer> I guess if there are ideas for ibex we can start gathering them
[22:17:23] <sommer> I have a few, but the more the merrier
[22:17:37] <mathiaz> sommer: could you add them to the IdeaPool page ?
[22:17:49] <sommer> sure, will do
[22:18:02] <mathiaz> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam/IdeaPool
[22:18:14] <nijaba> I think someone should go sort the good ideas from the brainstorm stuff
[22:18:30] <mathiaz> for general interest, this page is used to track ideas for the next cycle
[22:18:55] * zul didnt know about that
[22:19:17] <mathiaz> [ACTION] sommer to add ideas to the IdeaPool page about documentation improvements during the next release.
[22:20:22] <mathiaz> [TOPIC] Server survey
[22:20:55] <mathiaz> nijaba: what's new on this front ?
[22:21:20] <nijaba> We are currently fixing the last bugs
[22:21:40] <nijaba> and waiting for the security review of limesurvey by keescook
[22:22:22] <mathiaz> nijaba: ok.
[22:23:15] <mathiaz> [TOPIC] Status reporting
[22:23:42] <mathiaz> I've been trying to rework the satus reporting
[22:24:10] <faulkes-> there were some questions re: isci booting and testing?
[22:24:28] <mathiaz> and how we try to know what's happening in the Ubuntu Server team on the development side of things
[22:24:29] <soren> faulkes-: Yeah. WOuld you be able to help with testing?
[22:24:33] * nijaba notes that he asked faulkes- to join about iscsi testing
[22:24:43] <nijaba> duh
[22:24:50] <faulkes-> yes, I can help, there is one caveat to that, which is time based
[22:25:08] <soren> -> /msg
[22:25:15] <faulkes-> I inherited this environment, the previous admin who shall remain nameless has never turned on the iscsi box ;)
[22:25:31] <faulkes-> so I have to go to the colo and conf it up
[22:25:44] <faulkes-> which won't be until next week, tuesday most likely
[22:25:48] <mathiaz> so I have the idea of publishing a weekly status report from the server team
[22:25:53] <faulkes-> otherwise, I'd be happy to help test it
[22:26:02] <soren> faulkes-: Cool.
[22:26:13] <mathiaz> to list what we've done and what needs to be tested and or when we request feedback
[22:26:16] <soren> faulkes-: I'm off until Tuesday. We can talk then?
[22:26:21] <faulkes-> sure
[22:26:43] <mathiaz> any ideas on the form this could take ?
[22:26:58] <mathiaz> email or blog or something else ?
[22:27:13] <mathiaz> would this be useful ?
[22:27:36] <nijaba> blog is nice
[22:27:44] <nijaba> but should it be weekly?
[22:28:00] <mathiaz> nijaba: well - there is already the montlyreport
[22:28:18] <mathiaz> nijaba: however a lot of things are happening in the server team
[22:28:34] <mathiaz> nijaba: and our section in the monthlyreport is already big.
[22:28:37] <nijaba> I mean, we could have a server team blog where we log the new stuff
[22:28:42] <mathiaz> nijaba: may a every other week then
[22:28:47] <nijaba> does not have to be a *weekly* thinkg
[22:29:43] <mathiaz> nijaba: I thought about starting a blog for the serverteam
[22:29:52] <mathiaz> nijaba: mainly focused on development
[22:29:59] <nijaba> yes
[22:30:06] <mathiaz> nijaba: a sort of - what's cooking in ubuntu-server
[22:30:14] <sommer> would it be called "You've been Served" ?
[22:30:16] <mathiaz> the content would be based on the ReportingPage
[22:31:04] <mathiaz> sommer: I don't know how it could be named
[22:31:26] <mathiaz> sommer: I like the idea of cooking - what's coming from the kitchen of the server team
[22:31:33] <sommer> heh, my last comment was mostly a joke :-)
[22:31:48] <sommer> from south park???
[22:32:38] <sommer> I think it's a great idea though
[22:33:23] <mathiaz> Ok - so I'll think about this a bit more.
[22:33:31] <mathiaz> Just wanted to throw the idea
[22:33:51] <mathiaz> [TOPIC] Hardy Beta
[22:34:15] <mathiaz> As you may know, we're planning to release beta tomorrow thursday
[22:34:31] <zul> yippe skippe!
[22:35:12] <nxvl> wasnt' the beta released on sunday?
[22:35:17] <mathiaz> As usual - testing is welcome !
[22:35:28] <mathiaz> nxvl: nope - we always release on Thursday
[22:36:15] <nijaba> I have added some test cases for JeOS https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/Cases/JeOSInstall
[22:36:24] <nxvl> oh you are right
[22:36:40] <mathiaz> nijaba: is anyone responsible for testing JeOS ?
[22:36:54] <nijaba> I've been on it...
[22:37:13] <mathiaz> nijaba: they're not listed on http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/
[22:37:14] <nijaba> people should defintely register on http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/
[22:37:25] <nijaba> they will be right after beta
[22:37:30] <nijaba> was too late for beta, sorry
[22:37:37] <mathiaz> nijaba: ok
[22:38:10] <mathiaz> [TOPIC] Any Other Business
[22:38:22] <mathiaz> anyone wants to add something ?
[22:38:25] <nijaba> bug #162167 ?
[22:38:26] <ubotu> Launchpad bug 162167 in mysql-dfsg-5.0 "mySQL password asks only once" [Wishlist,Triaged] https://launchpad.net/bugs/162167
[22:38:36] <nijaba> was cited in LinuxJournal
[22:38:49] <nxvl> 16:30 < mathiaz> email or blog or something else ?
[22:38:55] <nijaba> nice paper about the security features of the server
[22:38:58] <nxvl> sorry for that
[22:39:16] <nxvl> i hit the button i shouldn't hit
[22:39:33] <faulkes-> nxvl: dell media direct?
[22:39:40] * faulkes- whistles innocently
[22:40:42] <nxvl> faulkes-: nop, left click -> middle click :P
[22:41:01] <nxvl> nijaba: what about that bug?
[22:41:20] <nijaba> well, I think we should make sure it is fixed soon
[22:41:39] <nxvl> ok i will work on it right now
[22:41:39] <nxvl> :D
[22:41:50] <nijaba> Thanks Nicolas
[22:43:10] <mathiaz> alright then
[22:43:12] <mathiaz> [TOPIC] Agree on next meeting date and time.
[22:43:24] <mathiaz> next week, same place, same time ?
[22:43:44] <kirkland> mathiaz: yep
[22:43:45] <nxvl> +1
[22:43:46] <nijaba> +1
[22:43:56] <sommer> o//
[22:44:01] <faulkes-> +1
[22:44:44] <mathiaz> awesome - so see you all in a week
[22:45:09] <mathiaz> and happy beta testing/easter chocolate eating :)
[22:45:14] <sommer> thanks mathiaz, later all
[22:45:24] <mathiaz> #endmeeting

MeetingLogs/Server/20080319 (last edited 2008-08-06 16:59:54 by localhost)