Re: [SL-Users] any update on CERN Linux and CentOS-8 situation?

2021-05-04 Thread Yasha Karant

Jack,

From what I can tell, SL users is not a developers/internals list as 
such -- those also exist. It is an experienced, "sysadmin", porting, 
running, and defect-work-around list.  Many of the questions that I have 
asked and the few that I have answered are similar to what I have posted 
to Ask Ubuntu now that I have deployed Ubuntu LTS on some machines. On 
SL I got/get meaningful answers (including "cannot be done" as systems 
libraries upon which the whole edifice depends are not up to the minimum 
current production versions used by some applications that I needed -- 
not even with "Snaps").  On Ask Ubuntu it is like pulling teeth in many 
cases -- and in at least one, I was told that if I wanted information 
from an Ubuntu specialist, I needed paid Canonical support. Also, the 
user interface forces often cryptic questions or answers (character 
count limits) that force the use of poorly constructed uses of the 
English written language. The only time that I need paid support is if 
something has been hidden (or deeply buried) -- "behind door number 
two". I also have found that Ask Ubuntu often does not have key word 
searches on the key words I need, and often the solution is for releases 
that are EOL and for which the solution to an issue has changed.  The SL 
list is much more clear, particularly given the many configuration 
changes between earlier SL major releases and SL current.


Yasha

On 5/4/21 12:23 PM, Jack Aboutboul wrote:

Yasha,

We have no resistance to a hosting a devel mailing list. The drive to have a 
graphical forum was requests from users in the community.

Jack


On May 4, 2021, at 13:01, Yasha Karant  wrote:

If I correctly have read the IBH RH EL9 CentOS announcement below, EL 9 will be in production before the end of this year, 
leapfrogging EL 8 as it were.  I wonder how much of this is due to the various issues with EL 8?  As SL 8 is not happening, SL 9 
certainly is not -- forcing one to choose to stay RPM or not.  If one stays RPM and does not want the instability of CentOS 
stream (please see a previous posting to this list with direct deployment observations of stream -- totally unsuitable for a 
production hardened environment based upon what I read -- even less "stable" than Fedora), then one is forced to either 
Rocky or AlmaLinux, assuming either pushes out an EL 9 clone as soon as CentOS or other IBM RH buildable source is released.  
Otherwise, for those who do not have a too heavy investment in hardware "driver" or specific software/systems 
application RPMs, there is Canonical Ubuntu LTS.  Ubuntu lacks anything similar to this list, as from my direct sign up and 
inspection of AlmaLinux does that distro as well -- both have something similar to "Ask Ubuntu" that is much more 
cumbersome and much more eyecandy than this straightforward list.  And, many more "non-systems" comments, much less of 
an "engineering" approach than this list.

On 5/4/21 9:46 AM, Leon Fauster wrote:

On 04.05.21 17:41, Dave Dykstra wrote:

Yasha,

I'll try to answer as I understand things as an observer.

On Mon, May 03, 2021 at 02:51:30PM -0700, Yasha Karant wrote:
...

1.  Fermilab and the non-CERN HEP community are not part of the Linux Future
Community analysis as far as I can read, but are consulted later after the
analysis is prepared (for HEP or CERN internal)?


Fermilab and CERN have made it clear that they want to do everything
jointly.  They are considering input from the rest of the HEP community.


2. CentOS Stream 8 repositories -- are these available outside of CERN?
Outside of HEP?


CentOS Stream 8 comes straight from Red Hat.

JFI:
"CentOS Stream 9 will launch in Q2 2021 as part of the RHEL 9 development 
process."
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.redhat.com_en_blog_faq-2Dcentos-2Dstream-2Dupdates=DwICaQ=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A=hYk1ITQcUtbqa-Vlm6RCnkOJbUbC15278L1IWzXyRqw=SfSn-uhVE6EuC2nmdoDVqqJNPWL1Ak06bk4NTVMleN0=
 Availability of Stream 9 packages on Gitlab, and a koji instance where you can watch package build 
activity.
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__blog.centos.org_2021_05_centos-2Dcommunity-2Dnewsletter-2Dmay-2D2021-2D2105_=DwICaQ=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A=hYk1ITQcUtbqa-Vlm6RCnkOJbUbC15278L1IWzXyRqw=1_prbp5ptWOW4IlH1AtwMdgIqTByadUaIjE00obAC3A=
 
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__composes.stream.centos.org_test=DwICaQ=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A=hYk1ITQcUtbqa-Vlm6RCnkOJbUbC15278L1IWzXyRqw=dzekCNHUpo0DVAy9dFQWWJ38-TVG9bhnDuypLQJB2yU=

3. Note CC7 not SL7.  What are the differences?


CERN and Fermilab did diverge on their approach to EL7.  You know what
SL7 is, and much of the HEP community stuck with that, but CERN based
their operating system on CentOS.  CC7 stands for CERN CentOS 7.  They
are basically 

Re: [SL-Users] any update on CERN Linux and CentOS-8 situation?

2021-05-03 Thread Jack Aboutboul
I will respond inline here.

> Linux Future Committee
> Membership is internally comprised of representatives of key business units 
> of CERN
> 
> Future Linux distributions will be RPM based•

AlmaLinux is RPM based and 1:1 compatible with CentOS and will continue to be 
with RHEL.

> Efforts required for retraining and retooling are too high to move away from 
> RPM•

Agreed.

> Future Linux distributions will need to support both x86_64 and aarch64•

We already have 8.3 x86_64, we plan on released aarch64 for 8.4 and work on 
other architectures down the line (Other variants of arm, POWER).

> Many (several thousand) SoC systems will soon come online with aarch64

This is one of our top priorities as well and we can work together to make sure 
we support the board/chip you need out of the box.

> CERN, Fermilab and other scientific sites are strongly interested in common 
> roadmap(s)
> Provide CentOS Stream 8 
> repositories:•http://linuxsoft.cern.ch/cern/centos/{s8,s8-testing,s8-snapshots}
> Long-term: 31.12.2021 onwards•

Will be provided by CentOS.

> Drop support for CentOS Linux 8•
> Support CentOS Stream 8 (until end-of-life 31.05.2024)•
> Support “Next” Linux Operating system
> Based on the analysis from the Linux Future committee, collaboration with 
> Fermilab and other HEP communities, as well as the WLCG -decide on the path 
> forward

FYI, we plan on supporting AlmaLinux 8 for at last 10 years from last month. We 
have the experience, knowledge, resources and partnerships to do so.

Jack