[elrepo] el6 kmod-ocfs2 & ocfs2-tools packages

[Dag Wieers]

On Fri, 8 Apr 2011, Mikey Austin wrote:

>> IIRC ocfs2 1.4 does not build on the RHEL6 kernel, and the newer ocfs2 1.6
>> which is its successor is only available with the Unbreakable Enterprise
>> Kernel. (see http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/) There is no separate
>> releases, and no separate git.
>
> That is very disappointing.
>
>> I am not sure if we want to follow Oracle in those dark alleys without a
>> flashlight.
>
> Given the aforementioned unfortunate changes in the upstream ocfs2 
> release process, is it likely that there will even be an el6 kmod-ocfs2 
> package?

That's for us (you, me, the community) to decide. There are a number of 
aspects that may influence such a decision: demand, quality, stability, 
upstream, support, workload and resources.

This new situation has some new characteristics:

  - more work to produce

  - no real releases like we were used to before

  - no clear upstream source to track (mainline ? oracle ?)

  - upstream is less interested to help others compete with their
    new offering in the Enterprise Linux space

  - uncertain if we can provide updates in the future for Red Hat's kernel

So is it in our user's best interest to lead them into something that 
might turn into a dead-end, and is it up to us to make that decision for 
them ?

Also a clustered filesystem is somewhat more sensitive than eg. a hardware 
driver. If a new driver no longer builds, the previous might work just 
fine. With a clustered filesystem you may loose (access to) your data.

Is this our responibility ? Honestly, it's a hard question to answer. My 
first feeling always is that we need to give our users the widest set of 
options, but given all the other items we may not be helping them in the 
long run. Again, is it up to us to decide ? I think not.

But then there's the question about workload, and tracking new releases, 
and the new complexity. And we would need people to test those releases as 
well because we have no setup to test new releases.

If the new strategy by Oracle is not putting you off, maybe you can help 
us with the kmod-ocfs2 RPM packages in the future ? It's always useful to 
have someone in the field leading such an effort.

Would you be willing to help ?

-- 
-- dag wieers, dag at wieers.com, http://dag.wieers.com/
-- dagit linux solutions, info at dagit.net, http://dagit.net/

[Any errors in spelling, tact or fact are transmission errors]