perfSONAR User Q&A and Other Discussion

[Doug Wussler <>]

Ditto.

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From: <> on behalf of Casey Russell <>
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2020 10:34 AM
To: <>
Subject: Re: [perfsonar-user] The post-Centos 7 perfsonar world

 

As I started typing, it was to ask "If there's a desire to provide something RH centric, have you guys had any time to look at the new Rocky Linux fork?".  Then I realized that question could be rephrased as "have you considered some (as of yet) vaporware announced by some admittedly talented people in response to the CentOS news, that doesn't have a userbase, and no current downloadable distro?"...   so...    Let me say something entirely different.

Best of Luck to you guys.  We (at KanREN, not speaking for the whole community, but I'd bet it's the broad consensus) have faith you'll find your way through.  At KanREN our typical install has been the CentOS toolkit ISO on everything, then we add the central management pieces to the MA.  

If that ISO goes Debian (or something else) we'll follow.  Hang in there, 2020's almost over.

Sincerely,

Casey Russell

Network Engineer

785-856-9809

2029 Becker Drive, Suite 282
Lawrence, Kansas 66047

XSEDE Campus Champion

Certified Software Carpentry Instructor

On Mon, Dec 14, 2020 at 5:08 PM Mark Feit <> wrote:

Uhl, George D. (GSFC-423.0)[Arctic Slope Technical Services, Inc.] writes:

 

This might be too early to ask but with Centos 8 scheduled to be EOL on Dec. 31, 2021, what are the thoughts/plans for future post-Centos 7 perfsonar releases?

 

I have to admit that I’d been secretly hoping nobody would ask about this until after the first of the year.  :-)  We were just as broadsided by this as everyone else and are still trying to digest it.

 

A week ago, the answer would have been that we’re working on CentOS 8 support for the next feature release.  The pScheduler port was done in parallel with the migration to Python 3 as a way to get a feel for the difficulty level.  It turned out to be much easier than the transition between 6 and 7.

 

Red Hat’s announcement throws a wrench into the works, especially with the abrupt end of support next year.  We’ve started discussing how we’re going to respond to it.  At this point, it’s safe to say that we won’t be pulling the rug out from under perfSONAR on CentOS 7 until we have a viable path forward.  A project I talk to on a regular basis reported positive results with Oracle Linux 8 as a substitute for CentOS 8 and has prompted me to work through its quirks and do some test builds, so that’s one option, even if we have to mirror it someplace so all of R&E can reach it.

 

My own take on this is that CentOS Stream will probably be usable but I question whether its post-Fedora-but-pre-EL position in the pipeline will make it something people want to put into production.  I think most of us value stability over having our systems turned into a beta test bed for a commercial product.

 

Being the community-driven project we are, it would be very useful to get early input from perfSONAR-using organizations about where they’re headed.  That will help us make good decisions about what to support and enable us to have something ready when you start to make the transition.  I’ve already heard from one that says they’re going to pull the rip cord and exit anything Red Hat entirely.

 

Anyway, I know that’s not a lot of answers, but it’s the best we have at the moment.

 

--Mark

 

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