Sarah,
Thanks for the comments. I am working on a updated version with more
information like user cases, possible new commands etc. See my response
below.
Sarah Jelinek wrote:
> Hi Sundar,
>
>> The automated installer uses three kinds of manifests as of 09/06
>> release. They are sysmap (or criteria) manifest, install (or AI)
>> manifest and system configuration manifest. The purpose of these
>> manifests are as follows:
>>
>> The install manifest is an XML document that defines the client
>> installation. It contains disk target, partition and slice
>> operations, IPS repository selection etc. The SC manifest or system
>> configuration manifest contains the information needed to configure
>> the system after installation is completed. This contains IP address,
>> user account, time zone etc. The criteria manifest associate the AI
>> manifest and the SC manifest with a client.
>>
>> The 09/06 release provides a default manifest for each service. The
>> users can add custom manifests and associate a client based on MAC
>> address, IP address, memory, and architecture.
>>
>> Jack worked on the manifest inter-file functional specification. The
>> discussion about criteria manifest helped us to realize that it is
>> very complicated and difficult to understand.
>>
>> I would like to propose removing criteria manifest from AI and keep
>> only install manifest and SC manifest for the following reasons:
>> - The client specific setup is done in two places. First to associate
>> a service, the user needs to do 'installadm create-client' and to
>> associate a manifest, the user needs to add a custom manifest with
>> MAC address of the client as the criteria. We can combine service and
>> manifest association in one command if the criteria manifest is
>> removed from the manifest.
>> - Removing criteria manifest reduces the type of manifests the user
>> needs to manage from three manifests to two manifests and improve
>> user experience with AI
>>
>> One potential disadvantage is that the proposal will remove some
>> functionality. Currently the users can use different criteria other
>> than MAC address or combine multiple criteria to customize the
>> environment. This feature is not used by many because of the
>> complexity of setting up custom manifests. The derived manifests can
>> be used in some of those cases.
>>
>
> Hi Sundar,
>
> Some comments/questions:
>
> 1. Would it be possible to have a default, null, criteria even for a
> client-specific setup? So, we would still be able to use one command
> in most cases. Also, couldn't we still make this one command even if
> there is a criteria manifest?
It is possible. Our thinking is that criteria manifest doesn't belong
with the rest of the manifest. The AI client, and derived manifests
don't use criteria manifest. The default manifest (as of 09/06) doesn't
contain criteria manifest. So it will be cleaner if we remove criteria
manifest.
>
> 2. My concern about relying on derived manifests to do the additional
> client specific mapping, for things outside of mac addr, is that
> requires the users to write scripts to get the data on the client.
> Some users may not want to do that.
Agreed. Initially we thought of making it simple. After talking with
Dave, we are working on alternate ways to retain the functionality on
the server side rather than relying on derived manifests.
>
> I guess I am not clear what we are trying to solve with this proposal.
> Is it the difficulty using the criteria manifest, the users having to
> run more than one command to setup a client-specific service? Both?
I would say both. One other reason to remove criteria manifest is that
the current design was focused on initial setup and on-going maintenance
was not considered. It is difficult to update the criteria of a manifest
which was already published in the current model. We have the remove the
published manifest, change the criteria and re-publish the manifest. It
would have been much easier to have a single command to update the
criteria of the manifest.
>
> I don't recall what Jack's proposal about inter-manifest organization
> said regarding the criteria manifest? Is this part of his plan?
No. Jack's proposal still included criteria manifest. We will use Jack's
functional specification for install manifest and SC manifest.
Thanks,
Sundar
>
> thanks,
> sarah
> *****
>> Please send your feedback about the proposal.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Sundar
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>
