DICE development projects - ascobie

Manager:

Unit:

Summary:

Implement various enhancements to the computing.help.inf.ed.ac.uk web site

What:

The existing computing support form is still hosted on the old CVS based computing support web site. This form needs to be implemented in the new drupal service.
The mechanism for editing and displaying system status was a quick and dirty solution so as to not hold back delivery of the new help site. It needs implemented properly, ideally deriving some of its data from Nagios
A user must click on the printer icon to display a printer-friendly version of a page. It would be nicer if this was automatic, using a printer specific stylesheet.

When:

Not time critical

Other:

LCFG systemd component

ascobie — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 17:45:07 +0000

Project ID:

297

Current stage:

2_Evaluation

Assigned Priority:

Manager:

Unit:

Summary:

Produce an LCFG systemd component

What:

Produce an LCFG component that configures systemd, the system initialisation system used in RHEL 7.

Why:

Traditionally, Redhat based distributions have used the SystemV initscripts system for stopping and starting system services such as network, dns, http etc. Whilst an LCFG managed system doesn't use the SystemV initscripts system directly to bring up a system, it does make use of the individual scripts that each system service provides.

RHEL 7 uses the systemd system for stopping and starting system services. A new component is required to configure this system.

When:

This is required for the LCFG RHEL7 port

How:

Blog on the RHEL7 port blog

Read up about systemd
Consider how systemd might interact with LCFG components
Presentation to COs
Decide how components will be started/stopped with systemd
Design schema for component
Circulate schema for discussion
Implement component
Configure systemd to start a system (with no LCFG components)
Configure systemd to start system with lcfg-client component

Effort estimate:

LCFG SL7 port (inf level)

ascobie — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 10:15:43 +0000

Project ID:

296

Current stage:

3_Implementation

Assigned Priority:

Manager:

Unit:

Summary:

Develop LCFG inf level support for Scientific Linux 7 (SL7)

What:

Develop Inf level support for Scientific Linux 7 (SL7) targetting the desktop and server environments the x86_64 cpu architecture. This work will form the basis for the next DICE desktop and server platforms.

This will utilise DICE authentication/authorization and name services in client mode (no local services). AFS home directories will be supported. This will also create an SL7 platform at the LCFG level which can be utilised by groups which are external to Informatics.

Why:

The current DICE platform, Scientific Linux 6, was released in 2011 and is showing its age in terms of software component versions. It is important, from both teaching and research perspectives, that we keep the platform up-to-date so that recent versions of software can be used.

When:

We are dependent on RHEL released RHEL 7. As soon as RHEL 7 beta is released (expected early 2014 Q1) we should start work. Experience has shown that we need at least 4-5 months to port the DICE desktop to a new platform. If RHEL 7 beta does not ship by early March, it is unlikely that we will be able to complete the DICE desktop in time for deployment before start of academic year 2014/2015.

How:

See SL7 port home

Effort estimate:

10w

A new project to check the migration

ascobie — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:46:16 +0000

Project ID:

271

Current stage:

4d_Dropped

Assigned Priority:

Manager:

Unit:

Summary:

A proposal to create a new project

What:

what stuff

Why:

why stuff

When:

when stuff

How:

how stuff

Effort estimate:

5 weeks

Other:

Dependencies: just my time

Risks: Risk free

Redevelop School Equipment inventory

boss — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:46:29 +0000

Project ID:

269

Current stage:

3s_Stalled

Manager:

Unit:

What:

Description: Design and implement a new School equipment inventory.

Deliverables:

Why:

Customer:

Case statement: The current inventory system does not meet all our requirements and there is concern that tracking machines has now become unreliable. This is particularly the case for self-managed machines. We are not able to easily answer fundamental inventory questions - this is a particular problem for planning expenditure and machine allocation.

A previous project reviewed the existing system. It had been hoped that this project would identify some simple fixes to the existing system, but unfortunately the conclusion was that the base inventory schema was sufficiently flawed that many problems could simply not be fixed. Basically, the system was not designed to cater for self-managed machines.

It is widely accepted that a complete redesign is required. It may well be possible to re-use some components of the existing system.

When:

Status:

Timescales:

Priority:

Time:

How:

Proposal:

Resources: 9 weeks effort in total.

Plan:

Check what other schools are using to inventory equipment
Design (2 weeks)
1. Sketch architecture
2. Design schema
3. Decide on information flow between information sources/sinks
4. Consider whether software inventory could be easily added as a later project
5. Consult
6. Determine how much of Theon can be used (querying/editing/reports)
7. Sketch design of :
  1. inventory editing/querying tools (invedit/invquery)
  2. order editing (rfe orders)
  3. MAC loading
  4. LCFG conduits
  5. client machine conduit (clientreport)
  6. switchdb conduit (switchtoinfdb)
  7. Web reports
8. Consider which existing data to migrate, and how.
9. Consult
Implement (4 weeks)
1. Add schema to Theon and create tables
2. Create test data and load into tables
3. Implement inventory query tool
4. Implement order editing code
5. Implement MAC loading conduit
6. Implement client machine conduit
7. Implement switchdb conduit
8. Implement LCFG conduits
9. Implement inventory edit tool
10. Implement web reports
11. Test against test data
Documentation and training (1 week)
Migrate data (2 weeks)

Other:

Home page:
home page on wiki

Dependencies:

Risks:

Milestones

Proposed date	Achieved date	Name	Description

Top 5 MPU wee projects

boss — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:46:28 +0000

Project ID:

264

Current stage:

Manager:

Unit:

What:

Description: A number of MPU wee projects have not been resourced because prioritised projects have been seen to have higher priority.

This project would tackle the wee projects which we consider to be of highest priority.

Boot component - introduce component timeouts to break deadlock: If a machine is switched off (not just sleeping) when a new profile is made for it, and the introduction of the new profile requires a configure of the boot component, but the boot component meanwhile needs to do a reboot, a deadlock situation is reached. The client component asks the boot component to configure, and waits until it has done so; the boot component meanwhile decides to reboot the machine, and asks all the components (including client) to stop, and waits until they have done so.
LCFG access.conf component to replace and extend the current functionality in the auth component: It would be an advantage to develop a separate component to manage access.conf and similar files. This would increase our ability to manage these files and decrease the complexity of the auth component. This new component would enable us to allow people to reboot their own machines over an ssh connection.
Local copies of server firmware: Extend the server firmware report system so that servers have a copy
on local disk of all relevant upgrades
Reimplement LCFG network component in perl, and simplify logic: The LCFG network component is rather old and has had much extra functionality bolted on over the years. As a result the code logic is a mess making it difficult to safely add extra functionality. This wee project would port the component to Perl and rework and simplify the logic.
Extend pkgsearch to email support of chosen software: Extend the new pkgsearch utility to allow users to automatically create an RT ticket requesting software

Deliverables:

Why:

Customer:

Case statement:

When:

Status:

Timescales:

Priority:

Time:

How:

Proposal:

Resources:

Boot component - introduce component timeouts to break deadlock - 2 days
LCFG access.conf component - 3 days
Local copies of server firmware - 3 days
Reimplement LCFG network component in perl - 5 days
Extend pkgsearch to email support of chosen software - 1 day

Total of 3 weeks.

Plan:

Other:

Dependencies:

Risks:

Milestones

Proposed date	Achieved date	Name	Description

Laptop support - produce platform specific documentation for DICE services

boss — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:46:26 +0000

Project ID:

253

Current stage:

Manager:

Unit:

What:

Description: Project 147, "Implement strategy for self-supported machines", identified that

"Our current systems documentation has, in recent years, become somewhat disorganised and hard to navigate. It was originally targeted at DICE desktop users and pays only lip service to providing information and advice to users of self managed machines."

Project 161 also identified documentation as being important.

This project will add the following documentation :-

instructions on how to configure the major platforms (Windows, MacOS, Linux) for each of our services (e.g. AFS, printing, backups, OpenVPN, kerberos)
notes on suggested modes of working. For example, staff use a variety of different schemes managing their files, and it is felt that this would be useful to document these to provide guidance to others.
recommendations for different software to use for common tasks.
HOWTOs, e.g. on how to encrypt your data

Deliverables:

Why:

Customer:

Case statement:

When:

Status:

Timescales:

Priority:

Time:

How:

Proposal:

Resources:

Plan:

Other:

Dependencies:

Risks:

Milestones

Proposed date	Achieved date	Name	Description

Migrate all VMware guests to KVM service

boss — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:46:25 +0000

Project ID:

251

Current stage:

5_Completed

Manager:

Unit:

Summary:

Migrate all VMware guests to KVM service

What:

Description: Migrate all VMware guests to KVM service. Project created just to track progress (at development meetings).

Deliverables:

Why:

Customer:

Case statement:

When:

Status:

Timescales:

Priority:

Time:

How:

Proposal:

Resources:

Plan:

Other:

Dependencies:

Risks:

Milestones

Proposed date	Achieved date	Name	Description

Documentation update - head of computing

boss — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:46:25 +0000

Project ID:

249

Current stage:

Manager:

Unit:

What:

Description: Review and update end-user documentation. Includes porting across any remaining documentation not already on new drupal based site.

Deliverables:

Why:

Customer:

Case statement:

When:

Status:

Timescales:

Priority:

Time:

How:

Proposal:

Resources: 0.5 week effort

Plan:

Other:

Dependencies:

Risks:

Milestones

Proposed date	Achieved date	Name	Description

Documentation update - managed platform unit

boss — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:46:25 +0000

Project ID:

248

Current stage:

Manager:

Unit: