MPU Meeting Tuesday 10th April 2012

LCFG Server Refactoring

Some of the functions in the LCFG::Server::Mutators Perl module have been rewritten to avoid the possibility of generating warnings about uninitialised variables. The build-time test suite has been extended to cover all possible types of input values so that we will spot anything like that this in the future if we make changes. The new code has also been thoroughly tested by comparing the generated LCFG XML profiles with those created using the current code. These changes have introduced some changes to the whitespace in tag lists but there are no functional differences.

We are going to deal with the rsync timeout issues separately as they do not seem to be related to the refactoring of the server code. This project is now completed, Stephen will write it up and propose it for sign-off at the development meeting in May.

Simple KVM Service

This project is going for sign-off.

Server Upgrades

Chris has prepared an upgrade plan for the LCFG master server tobermory.

Now that Stephen has fixed mod_waklog so that it works on SL6 we can upgrade another couple of MPU servers. Chris will do the package slave, cochin, and Stephen will do the pkgforge master, ardbeg, which is currently on vmware so will move to being a KVM guest.

Server Hardware

Chris has been working through the various tools provided by HP and Dell to see what we could be using. So far it's not looking particularly promising. Chris will write up what he has discovered so far.

Miscellaneous Development

SL6.2

The upgrade to SL6.2 is now ready for deployment. We need to decide on when the roll out will occur, we think it should be ok to do after the stable release on 18th April 2012. Once the upgrade has been done it will not be possible to install SL6.1 machines, this might cause problems with lab machines which are being held back until after the exams. If absolutely necessary we could introduce an additional installbase profile to work around the problem. Stephen will contact the Support Unit to make this clear and tell them they need to talk to MPU if new installs are required. We need to chase up Redhat bug #707444. Details of the changes are on the LCFG wiki.

SL6 kernel and openafs

The latest SL6 kernel is now ready to be deployed to the stable machines. When this happens we will also switch to openafs 1.6.1. We will need to reboot all the MPU servers, probably best to combine this with upgrading to SL6.2.

perl AFS module

openafs still does not have all the support necessary for the perl AFS module to be used on x86_64. The patches have gone into the openafs git repository and will be in 1.6.2, there is also a large patch for the perl AFS code itself. We should find out what each unit needs from this module and consider whether we should provide an alternative solution (possibly just in the short-term).

Operational

SL6 epel DR

We now have a disaster recovery backup of epel for SL6.

LCFG boot resources

The use of the hacky XXD and XXP strings in the boot component resources has been replaced in all our headers with the new really resource.

lcfg.org data

The lcfg.org data has been moved to a new SAN array.

installroot docs

The docs on how to manage the PXE installroots have been updated.

apacheconf rate limiting

Chris has added a new header - dice/options/apacheconf-iplimit.h - which can be used to limit aggressive access of websites. We should consider enabling this for all MPU websites.

pam_kx509

We need to investigate whether the pam_kx509 module is still required in the DICE pam stack.

afsbuild server

We need to finish the upgrade to SL6 of the afsbuild server, lochranza, so that we can begin supporting builds for SL6 and newer versions of fedora.

This Week

• Alastair
  • Bring Simple KVM project for signoff at May devel meeting
  • Investigate network component problem with central
  • MeToo for RHEL bug 707444
  • Update FC in budapest's profile - which evo, which volume, which LUN
  • Ditto for telford.
  • Ask services unit to create storage for northern/piccadilly at KB on evo - Asked, now awaiting volumes
  • Call meeting re inventory project

• Chris
  • Add actions wrt ordershost to tobermory upgrade plan
  • upgrade tobermory to SL6
  • writeup server h/w project so far on blob/wiki
  • server h/w project

• Stephen
  • Bring LCFG refactor project for signoff at May devel meeting
  • Ask other units about their perl-AFS module usage (which functions etc)
  • Upgrade lochranza
  • Finish Theon work

-- AlastairScobie - 10 Apr 2012