openstack team mailing list archive

[David Kranz <david.kranz@xxxxxxxxxx>]

This is, indeed, the crux of the matter. The release cycle, for both 
diablo and essex, has been that all kinds of incompatible changes are 
made right until
the end. During the critical month before release when we need as many  
people ad possible to deploy and test real clusters, documentation is 
not available. Devstack was a huge step forward in essex because it 
allowed people who already understood the differences between single and 
multi-node to understand and cope with the incompatible changes to the 
components in a way that was known (mostly) to be working. I would guess 
that for every person brave enough to publish their struggles on this 
list, there are many more who do not. The only ways I know to deal with 
this are:

1. More stability. Fewer incompatible changes. This will come over time.
2. Require blueprints, tagged as such, for every API and configuration 
change. Maintain a highly visible list.

The other is longer release cycles with longer freeze periods but that 
is not going to happen.

 -David

On 3/20/2012 2:57 PM, Michael Pittaro wrote:
> > > Is Devstack helpful? I'm sure it is, but for developers only. It's just
> > bad to think about it as "self-documenting" Openstack, or to think that
> > it's the solution for everything. It has never been its purpose, and it
> > isn't taking that path, and thinking that it does is a huge mistake.
> >
> > Hoping that I will be heard and understood,
> >
> > Thomas Goirand (zigo)
> I think you have hit the real issue of documentation right here.
>
> Devstack has become a lightning rod for install and configuration
> problems.  However, I think the real problem is lack of detailed
> configuration and installation information - for development,
> packagers, and real world installations. devstack is just not
> appropriate as a complete replacement for documentation and
> dependencies.
>
> Install and configuration documentation is an area we need to focus
> on more, and it will need much more community involvement to really
> make a difference.  The situation is currently much better than it
> was back in September 2011, so progress _is_ being made.
>
> Having said that, the Devstack-Py [1] is an alternative project
> which is progressing along nicely.  It is intended to support
> multiple distributions, with a focus on developer installs.  Not
> 100% there yet for all scenarios, but usable and definitely more
> hackable.
>
> [1] https://launchpad.net/devstackpy
>
> Mike
>
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