CoreDevApplication

After applying for MOTU and ServerDev, and exploring a CoreDev possibility, I have received feedback about needed remaining steps in order to be a CoreDev. Usually, this kind of feedback focus in things you haven't much experience with AND are needed for the role.

In my case, I was told I was missing: seed changes, full package migrations AND turning deltas into sync. Since I have helped with mysql-server-8 migration (dependencies, merge back to debian, etc) we have focused in seed management, specifically MIRs, and syncs.

Since then, I have been working in the following MIRs to Focal:

  1. ndctl - https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1853506

  2. mysql-router - https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1852367

  3. libslirp - https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1854404

And I have continued doing new merges, upstreaming delta and doing syncpackages:

  1. drbd-utils

  2. heartbeat - https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1853467 (upstreamed delta from xnox, syncpackage)

  3. crmsh - https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1853450 (syncpackage)

  4. dbconfig-common - https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1852788 (upstreamed delta, syncpackage)

  5. sg3-utils

So, after addressing DMBs concerns, and with the good recommendations I received in my previous application, many of them mentioning that I should go for CoreDev instead - at that time - I'd like to be considered for the Ubuntu CoreDev role, with the promise that I'll keep working hard trying to continue making Ubuntu the best Linux Distribution out there.

(I have copied my previous application here, to use as a reference, removing the comments and endorsements that didn't explicitly mention core-dev as a path for me. Please feel free to add and/or remove comments or endorsements as you judge appropriate)

Contents

  1. CoreDevApplication
  2. MOTUApplication
  3. UbuntuServerApplication
    1. Who I am
    2. My Ubuntu story
    3. My involvement
    4. Plans for the future
    5. Comments
    6. Endorsements
    7. Dan Streetman
    8. Eric Desrochers
    9. Bryce Harrington
    10. Andreas Hasenack
    11. TEMPLATE

I'm placing here 2 applications at once, instructed by a senior DMB member that it would be acceptable.

MOTUApplication

I, Rafael David Tinoco, hereby apply for the following roles:

  1. MOTU
  2. Ubuntu Server Developer
  3. Ubuntu Core Dev (TO BE ADDED IN A NEAR FUTURE)

with the intent to maintain and develop Server, Universe and Multiverse related packages. My initial focus will be maintaining Ubuntu HA related packages, including, but not limited by, the following packages:

  1. pcs
  2. crmsh
  3. booth
  4. cluster-agents
  5. cluster-glue
  6. corosync
  7. corosync-qdevice
  8. crmsh
  9. csync2
  10. dlm
  11. drbd-doc
  12. drbd-utils
  13. drbd8
  14. fence-agents
  15. gfs2-utils
  16. heartbeat
  17. kronosnet
  18. libqb
  19. ocfs2-tools
  20. openais
  21. pacemaker
  22. pcs
  23. redhat-cluster
  24. resource-agents
  25. sbd
  26. keepalived
  27. pcs
  28. crmsh

thus the reason why I'm applying to both roles simultaneously (note: I'm placing here 2 applications at once, instructed by a senior DMB member that it would be acceptable).

Furthermore, future Ubuntu Server documentation, in my opinion, should concentrate efforts in having only "pcs" tool used to configure HA pacemaker clusters, since its the current preferred tool for upstream, but, as crmsh still is heavily used, its important that it is updated and fixed regularly. PCS might face a MIR soon so at least one cluster configuration tool is well supported and maintained in "core" pocket.

If board does not think I'm ready yet for those roles, the alternative will be to continue doing the merge requests and asking for not only reviews but also sponsored uploads until I'm considered good for the roles.

UbuntuServerApplication

Name

Rafael David Tinoco

Launchpad Page

https://launchpad.net/~rafaeldtinoco

Wiki Page

n/a

Who I am

In formal terms:

Curiosities:

Personal life:

My Ubuntu story

My involvement

Examples of my work / Things I'm proud of

Areas of work

Recent work, trying to show different skills (merging, debugging, backporting)

A complete example of a merge and then another quick one on top

This is an example of a merge https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bind9/1:9.11.5.P4+dfsg-5ubuntu1 for bind9 during Eoan development and, right after, another quick merge with Debian as soon as they've delivered the _same_ fix for the CVE in question, bind9/1:9.11.5.P4+dfsg-5.1ubuntu1, as it was better to keep up with upstream code instead of the delta.

All of my upstream work is done with latest Ubuntu Devel package sources debian/ directory being placed in upstream tree (with proper .gitignore). This way I usually do merges whenever working with upstream, even when not uploading them. The work directory I use is described at https://github.com/rafaeldtinoco/work and has been presented in a conference also: video

A complete example going upstream and backporting the fix

An example of complex debugging for QEMU

And one example backporting new features (security related) to QEMU

And some of my work helping out @rbasak during this last weeks for Eoan MySQL 8 upgrade: @rbasak has done a huge amount of work to upgrade MySQL to 8 in Ubuntu Eoan

  1. dbconfig-common (Upstream Debian Merge Request): Because of cacti (2) I had to create a debconf variable to set MySQL authentication plugin to be used by dbconfig-common consumers. Because of MySQL 8 changes, ALTER SQL commands had to be altered also.
  2. cacti (Upstream Debian Merge Request and Upstream Merge Request): MySQL 8 does not allow ALTER to create a USER by default anymore AND its default authentication plugin is caching_sha2_password, not supported by some PHP packages.

Some public visibility of my Sustaining Engineer work at SEG

Things I could do better

Plans for the future

General

What I like least in Ubuntu

Comments

If you'd like to comment, but are not a sponsor, please do it here. Don't forget to sign with @SIG@.

I've worked with Rafael in the same team. He's been my mentor and tech lead, and while being technically skilled in userspace and kernel, he's proven to be a hard working, committed and reliable engineer. Being the proficient Ubuntu contributor he is, his natural step would be to be a full coredev, but he would still be a great asset as a MOTU :).

-- vtapia 2019-10-15 13:16:32

Rafael has been a expert reference for us (SEG) in the Linux internals (in both fronts; userland and kernel), virtualization, storage and HPC areas since he joined Canonical.

His debugging and analytical skills have produced reliable and consistent bug fixes and outstanding bug reports over the years that have benefited both the Ubuntu users and the many customers that Canonical supports.

In my opinion, based on the amount and quality of his contributions, it should be pretty clear that having him as part of the coredev or MOTU teams would be a ideal scenario that would benefit the whole Ubuntu ecosystem.

-- niedbalski

Rafael used to be my team member and a tech lead. He was always a invaluable source of knowledge and ideas for approaching difficult technical problems. I have always values his ability to create efficient software and workflow setups optimizing performance.

I strongly believe he has everything it takes to be a great MOTU and eventually a coredev.

-- dgadomski 2019-10-15 14:23:48

Rafael helped out on a project (especially setting things up) before I joined Canonical. Since joining Canonical I am now working in that same project and still benefit from his structured work and farsightedness - and this is now years ago! During my time at Canonical I got in touch with Rafael every now and then, mainly in his role at SEG, and I always enjoyed his deep expertise, commitment and patience. I am convinced that he has everything that's required, not only to be a Masters of the Universe, but definitely also to become a coredev!

-- frank-heimes 2019-10-18 15:23:00

Endorsements

If you'd like to endorse me, please do it here. Don't forget to sign with @SIG@.

Dan Streetman

General feedback

I've worked with tinoco for many years; he was a co-worker when I first started at Canonical and shortly after rose to Team Lead. He's extremely knowledgeable and sharply focused, and I have always had 100% faith he will be capable to handle any task he takes on. He has not proven me wrong yet. I have no reservations about endorsing him for MOTU or listed per-package rights.

Specific experiences of working together

I've only one example of actually sponsoring his work, however I've worked with him on debugging/fixing many other packages.

Package

Version

Bugs

Action

Notes

apache2

2.4.27-2ubuntu4

apache2

2.4.18-2ubuntu3.7

apache2

2.4.7-1ubuntu4.19

Areas of improvement

I'm not sure why he is applying only for MOTU, instead of full coredev, but hopefully the coredev application won't be far behind. Smile :)

Update (Dec 3, 2019)

For the same reasons I endorsed him for MOTU, I highly endorse tinoco for his current coredev application. He has additionally done more work towards coredev activities since his MOTU application, and I have full confidence he will do excellent work as a coredev.

-- ddstreet 2019-12-03 18:39:49

-- ddstreet 2019-10-14 20:42:23

Eric Desrochers

General feedback

Rafael and I worked in the same team (Canonical STS for at least 2 years). During that period of time, I had the chance to work with him closely and learn from him. Rafael used to be my mentor back in the days.

Specific Experiences of working together

Over the years I've sponsored a few package for Rafael such as multipath-tools, kexec-tools, systemd and apache2. The packages I've sponsored and other updates I've seen were high quality, and showed a good attention to detail.

Areas of Improvement

I have the same question as ddstreet who also point it out in his endorsement ... I wonder why Rafael doesn't go straight for coredev instead but hopefully, that would be the next step for him.

-- slashd 2019-10-15 07:04:12

Bryce Harrington

General feedback

I work close with Rafael on the server team, and follow his work on a day-to-day basis. I also had the opportunity to get to know him personally as roomies at the Paris Ubuntu Engineering Sprint. I agree with others Ubuntu would be improved having him as Core Dev, and see attainment of MOTU as a solid step towards that objective.

I once heard that a good sign of someone being ready for MOTU/CoreDev is when people react, "What?? He's not that already??" and this definitely applies to Rafael. Smile :-)

Specific Experiences of working together

Many of the packages he tackles (e.g. qemu/libvirt) are in areas I don't feel suitably qualified to judge, but usually by the time he needs formal review the changes have been thoroughly studied and discussed so the reviews have been straightforward. Even when I have little to give in review but nit picks, he's been welcoming of critiques. Rafael is comfortable with critiquing his own work, and not shy about pointing out flaws, which gives me strong confidence he is worthy of trust.

In addition to reviewing his HA packages, he and I collaborated on some of the MySQL transition tasks, and I was very impressed by both his teammanship and his ability to dig deep into difficult problems even in unfamiliar areas. He is a good communicator and verbose documenter, and I found it easy to hand off things I was stuck on, and easy to pick up and continue from his work in turn.

As a verbose person myself, I certainly can't fault anyone for lack of brevity, but actually I have more than once appreciated Rafael's detailed comments as saving me time coming up to speed on the issue. I say keep it up!

Areas of Improvement

I feel Rafael is already more than qualified for MOTU, and probably CoreDev as well. For proving the latter, I'd encourage generalizing by working on a wider variety of packages, including non-Server types of software, and to look especially for opportunities to do review/sponsorship.

Update (Dec 3, 2019)

I'm still a strong +1 for Rafael receiving CoreDev. I'm doing merge coordination for the server team for focal, and as such I've been working closely with Rafael. I find I can trust that his work will be solid, well thought-out and well tested. Among other things, he has taken ownership over the high-availability stack which involves a variety of different packaging activities (MIRs, syncs, upstreaming, merging, etc.) He plans this work with care to ensure packages get updated in concert, and things have moved quite smoothly. I trust his work and feel he would be an asset to add to the CoreDev team.

-- bryce 2019-10-15 19:37:23

Andreas Hasenack

General feedback

Rafael produces high quality work and leaves "no stone unturned" when chasing down a bug. He also comes up with test cases, which I always appreciate, and good instructions on how to do things, like setting up a testing rig.

I think Rafael will be great asset to Ubuntu as a MOTU, and Server Dev, and he should be able to become CoreDev very quickly.

Specific Experiences of working together

I sponsored 7 unique packages for Rafael: list

Of these, the most complex one was samba, with many changes, and that was also his first. There was a lot of back and forth, but I'm happy to say that the subsequent uploads were straightforward.

Rafael picked up the Debian merge workflow very quickly, and I think just a few more merges, so some edge cases can present themselves, will be enough.

Rafael quickly volunteers to fix hard bugs, and a recent example as bug #1838525 which affected the subiquity server installer. I troubleshooted that a short while with him, and it was clear he was heading in the right direction.

Areas of Improvement

I think in the upcoming LTS cycle Rafael can ramp up his Debian merges, and that will give him a lot more packaging experience and should make obtaining CoreDev the next natural step. I'd also like to see him get more experience in seed management and chasing down dependency trees in Ubuntu, which is something CoreDevs have to do sometimes.

-- ahasenack 2019-10-18 14:47:26

TEMPLATE

== <SPONSORS NAME> ==
=== General feedback ===
## Please fill us in on your shared experience. (How many packages did you sponsor? How would you judge the quality? How would you describe the improvements? Do you trust the applicant?)
=== Specific Experiences of working together ===
## Please add good examples of your work together, but also cases that could have handled better.
=== Areas of Improvement ===
## Add here areas where you think applicant could improve.

CategoryUbuntuServerDevApplication

rafaeldtinoco/CoreDev (last edited 2019-12-03 18:39:49 by ddstreet)