Open Stack

Providing some initial thoughts inline to better illustrate where I am coming from...

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Thomas Goirand" <zigo at debian.org>
> To: openstack-docs at lists.openstack.org
> Sent: Monday, June 2, 2014 11:46:31 AM
> Subject: Re: [Openstack-docs] Patch for automated Debian installations
> On 06/02/2014 08:58 PM, Steve Gordon wrote:
> > Although the above hasn't merged there seem to be a couple of other
> > patches in the queue that take the approach of removing the manual
> > configuration steps in favour of debconf:
> >
> > * https://review.openstack.org/#/c/97158/2
> > * https://review.openstack.org/#/c/97156/
> 
> Why should we hide from Debian users the fact that there's debconf screens?
>
> That you don't like the new chapter I propose "Automatic debconf
> pre-seeded deployments" (which is explaining just the concept so that
> our users can build their own tools), to me is disturbing. But not
> agreeing on review #97156 and #97158, I think this is going too far.
> 
> Probably you wouldn't like to just remove the "openstack-config --set"
> things which we see all over the place in the documentation, and which
> are RedHat specifics. The debconf prompts are the exact same thing: it's
> user interface to OpenStack configuration. Removing both and replacing
> them by manual edition of the config file would be inappropriate.

At the summit the team resolved to remove the openstack-config statements and replace them with manual editing of the configuration file to provide more consistency for the guide across distributions [1], and I agree, it's functionally very similar to the use of the debconf prompts. That's why I was surprised to see further patches going in the direction of adding more such steps in place of manual configuration rather than the opposite and noted this on the reviews.

Similarly I believe we resolved to consolidate on documenting RabbitMQ as the message broker and set SELinux to permissive mode, again with the aim of being pragmatic to improve consistency of the guide across distributions. Another outcome from summit was agreement that each guide should explicitly state its target audience, and Matt filed a bug to this effect, which would make the distinction as to what the guide is and isn't trying to cater to clearer and less hand wavy than it has been up until now. This would be a good opportunity to get involved with shaping that target audience if you disagree with the current group think on this, nebulous as it may be.

> Please at least back-up from trying to block #97156 and #97158, then
> let's calmly discuss about #96695.

I provided my feedback with a -1 (not a -2) on those two patchsets (#97156 and #97158) specifically to avoid blocking them - if two core reviewers agree with the approach at this point they can still approve them for merging. I did put a -2 on the other one (#96695), as did Tom, because I am more strongly of the opinion that its inclusion is not appropriate in its current form.

> I can make it look better if you like, and look less like an "easy button" (it isn't the goal anyway, so
> if it looks like that, then it needs polishing). But I am convince this
> section should be there. And finally, it'd be best for both OpenStack
> and RedHat to avoid it, but if we can't agree on something, then the
> technical committee can decide.

I, like you, contribute to OpenStack documentation primarily in my spare time - it has not been a requirement of my $DAYJOB for some time now. The reason Matt raised this on the list, and I chimed in individually, was to highlight our concerns to the wider team and to have an open discussion with an aim to reaching and documenting consensus as this is a frequent area of contention, and arguably inconsistency. We're all adults here and I am sure we can come to an agreement one way or another as a team. I don't think threatening escalation to the technical committee in your first post discussing the issue raised necessarily promotes healthy discussion, which is all I am trying to do.

Steve

[1] https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/installation-guide-audit