Meeting Minutes 2024

Stephen Daley, Peter Boy
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • Server user poll

      We decided to use the current version with all inserted modifications and with the shorter of the formulated alternatives on hackmd.io.

      Mowest will create a Lime survey version of the discussed draft and reach out to Justin to put the project forward.

    • Testing Release 41

      We agreed to continue the discussion on the mailing list due to running out of time here. See pboy: Improving our release testing efforts. An attempt to summarize our discussion

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

  • Actions summary

    1. ONGOING: eseyman will monitor the change list for possible issues which may affect Serve

    2. New: Mowest will create a Lime survey version of the discussed draft and reach out to Justin to put the project forward.

Wednesday, September 18, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • Testing Release 41

      The discussion focused on optimizing our approach to release testing. There was agreement on the one hand that the test program should be integrated into the distribution QA, and on the other hand that tests of individual functionalities should be automated. Irrespective of this, there is a need for manual testing, particularly of the (hardware) installation media.

      Action: pboy will create a summary on the mailing list, which will be the basis for further discussion.

    • Server user poll

      We finally agreed on 4 goals:

      • Who is the audience for Fedora Server

      • Where is Fedora Server primarily used: Hardware or VM

      • What are the main use cases for Fedora Server

      • Where are future efforts of the Fedora Server WG best applied

        A final version is to be decided at the next meeting.

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

  • Actions summary

    1. ACTION: ONGOING eseyman will monitor the change list for possible issues which may affect Server

    2. ACTION: DONE mowest will reach out to AdamW and discuss how we can use the result tables.

Wednesday, September 04, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • Ansible assisted installation and configuration of NFS service

      Jwhimpel has finished a first version of the Ansible code including a short documentation. We will discuss this in detail at the next meeting when all members have been able to test it.

    • Testing Release 41

      Ticket #144 is available for the test. Based on a discussion with adamw, pboy will create a draft test description in the Fedora Server Wiki area. The aim is to automate as much as possible.

      Eseyman has created a list of potentially problematic changes, see addendum to the invitation. The list will also be added to the ticket. We will discuss it at the next meeting.

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

  • Actions summary

    1. ACTION: ONGOING eseyman will monitor the change list for possible issues which may affect Server

    2. ACTION: DONE pboy will create a tracking issue and copy the table of F 40 as a starting point.

    3. ACTION: ONGOING mowest will reach out to AdamW and discuss how we can use the result tables.

Wednesday, August 28, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • Ansible assisted installation and configuration of NFS service

      The server roles are basically working. Jwhimpel will add some documentation how to use (and test) it. There are some topics we will have to decide after everyone could use it, e.g. type of mounts. On the client side, we tend to only support and handle Fedora.

    • Testing Release 41

      We decided to use the same procedure as last time (F40) for now.

      ACTION: eseyman will monitor the change list for possible issues which may affect Server

      ACTION: pboy will create a tracking issue and copy the table of F 40 as a starting point.

      We want to systematize the process and make greater use of the Fedora options, e.g. the results tables that are created for each build.

      ACTION: mowest will reach out to AdamW and discuss how we can use the result tables.

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

  • Actions summary

    1. ACTION: DONE pboy will create 2 empty docs for installation & configuration to the repo, then everyone can add relevant topics to it and migrate the current integrated doc.

    2. ACTION: DONE pboy will add all WG core members as committers to our pagure repo.

    3. ACTION: eseyman will monitor the change list for possible issues which may affect Server

    4. ACTION: pboy will create a tracking issue and copy the table of F 40 as a starting point.

    5. ACTION: mowest will reach out to AdamW and discuss how we can use the result tables.

Wednesday, August 21, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • Follow-up, findings and conclusions from Flock 2024

      One wish that was expressed was to use Fedora as a router, similar to OpenWRT. It was agreed that this is not possible within the framework of Fedora Server, as the requirements for system and data security are too different.

      One positive feedback was that Fedora was the slowest moving as well as the most backward compatible, and nevertheless with always up-to-date versions of the server software bits, of the Fedora project. A most welcome characteristic of our goals for Fedora Server Edition.

    • Optimizing NFS service documentation

      jwhimpel will start to add topics the the empty doc templates when he completed the first version of the Ansible code.

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

  • Actions summary

    1. DONE eseyman will post Flock recap to the list.

    2. DONE jednorozec will implement the patch to bug #2247872

Wednesday, August 14, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • Follow-up, findings and conclusions from Flock 2024

      We considered a number of different topics that were discussed. By and large, our current course in the further development of Fedora Server Edition has proven itself. The most important change will be the implementation of Ansible for our special supported services (previous server roles).

      Everyone agrees that getting to know each other and discussing goals and next steps in person was a hugely positive experience and a tremendous motivational boost.Nothing else can replace that. Flock was very, very worthwhile and all the effort was very rewarding. Flock next year is already a positive expectation.

      ACTION: eseyman will post his Flock recap to the list.

    • Ansible assisted installation and configuration of NFS service

      We decided to do the development in stg branch and add the directory structure there, too.

      AGREED: Regarding distribution we prefer the rpm path of action.

      ACTION: eseyman review John’s playbooks

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

  • Actions summary

    1. ONGOING pboy will write a draft issue for the goal "file server" as a base for further finetuning and detailed specification

    2. PENDING pboy will create a hackmd draft for a collection of questions about Fedora Server in a virtualized environment

    3. PENDING mowest will come up with a plan and steps to conduct the survey on discussion – waiting for a draft of collection of questions

    4. NEW jednorozec will implement the patch to bug #2247872

Wednesday, July 31, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • Ansible assisted installation and configuration of NFS service

      We discussed again about the specific goal we want to achive with the Ansible Playbook.

      AGREED Server WG agrees to the goal as defined in comment https://pagure.io/fedora-server/issue/138#comment-920322 to issue 138

    • Optimizing NFS service documentation

      We want to split the current NFS draft in 2 parts: Installation and Configuration.

      ACTION DONE: pboy will create 2 empty docs for installation & configuration to the repo

      AGREED to postpone this until we have a working version of the Ansible playbook.

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

  • Actions summary

    1. DONE pboy will add all WG core members as committers to our pagure repo.

    2. DONE pboy will create 2 empty docs for installation & configuration to the repo

    3. CANCELED pboy will close bug #2247872 (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2247872) – There is still an ongoing discussion about improving Server first boot process.

    4. ONGOING pboy will write a draft issue for the goal "file server" as a base for further finetuning and detailed specification

Wednesday, July 24, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • Renaming distribution media for Fedora Server

      AGREED: We defer the renaming until RelEng has decided about the future Fedora tool set AND has updated the documentation.

      ACTION: canceled pboy will file an issue with releng regarding installation media

    • Ansible assisted installation and configuration of NFS service

      Eseyman has packed the the robertdebock roles in an rpm : https://eseyman.fedorapeople.org/ansible-robertdebock-roles/. It’s an alternative to the current Fedora standard package. Jwhimple has 4 roles ready, but can’t upload due to permission issues and incomplete Server repo configuration.

      ACTION: pboy will add all WG core members as committers to our pagure repo.

    • Optimizing NFS service documentation

      We want to split the current NFS draft in 2 parts: Installation and (Basic) Configuration. Jwhimpel will start do add at löeast bullet point to outline the intended information. To support this, pboy will add correspoding empty files. We agreed to document the process using Ansible and by using manually CLI. Whether and how we take Cockpit into account is still to be decided.

      ACTION: pboy will create 2 empty docs for installation & configuration to the repo, then everyone can add relevant topics to it and migrate the current integrated doc.

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

  • Actions summary

    1. ACTION: new pboy will add all WG core members as committers to our pagure repo.

    2. ACTION: new pboy will create 2 empty docs for installation & configuration to the repo, then everyone can add relevant topics to it and migrate the current integrated doc.

    3. ACTION: canceled pboy will file an issue with releng regarding installation media

Wednesday, July 17, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • Ansible assisted installation and configuration of NFS service

      Discussed the specific goal of this work. Agreed to focus on a playbook for commen/default use case and provide hooks to extend to further local use cases.

    • Fedora Server in a virtualized runtime environment

      We agreed to start with a poll and ask users how they use Fedora Server Edition and what they are missing in the first place. Mowest and pboy will work on it.

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

  • Actions summary

    1. ACTION: pboy will create a hackmd draft for a collection of questions about Fedora Server in a virtualized environment

    2. ACTION: mowest will come up with a plan and steps to conduct the survey on discussion

Wednesday, July 10, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    We had an open discussion about ongoing activities.

    • Humaton started to check out Kiwi to create Server iso distributables. There is a SuSE add-on to achieve that.

    • Humaton will care about ticket #114, which is an undecided long standing issue regarding LLMR.

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

Wednesday, July 03, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • Change to a weekly meeting schedule

      AGREED: Server WG switches to a weekly meeting

    • Ansible assisted installation and configuration of NFS service

      jwhimnpel will provide 2 Ansible roles in about 2 weeks for further discussion and testing.

      eseyman and mowest will work on improving the current docs draft.

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

  • Actions summary

    1. pboy will file an issue with releng regarding installation media - pending

    2. pboy will close bug #2247872 - pending because of ongoing work

    3. pboy will write a draft issue for the goal "file server" as a base for further finetuning and detailed specification - ongoing

    4. jwhimpel will provide 2 Ansible roles for NFS service

    5. eseyman and mowest will start reviewing the currnt NFS doc draft

Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • Ansible assisted installation and configuration of NFS service

      We discussed the results of a short poll about the documentation part and how to improve the current article. Amoung others we want to split into installation and configuration and in each part describe the manual procedure and the Ansible usage.

      We will add a new subdirectory to our repo for Ansible scripts.

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

  • Actions summary

    1. Action: pboy will create an additional directory fedora-ansible in fedora-server repo

Wednesday, June 12, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • Elevating Fedora Server VM distribution image

      Jason will start to elevate Fedora Server VM distribution image to a release requirement as the other Server installation images

    • Fixing the "Everything" installation medium problem

      AGREED: Server WG agrees that the Fedora Server option has to be removed from the Everything Install medium in the long term.

      W’ll pick this up again as soon as we have free resources.

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

Wednesday, June 05, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • Fedora Server goal(s) and "story" for F41 / F42

      AGREED: WG’s goal is to provide a spin "local or public file server (NFS, Samba, Ansible support)

      AGREED: WG’s goal is to improve the use of Fedora Server in a VPS infrastructure and to promote it as a standard offering.

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

  • Actions summary

    1. Action: pboy will write a draft issue for the goal "file server" as a base for further finetuning and detailed specification.

Wednesday, May 01, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • Revisiting Server installation media naming convention

      AGREED: Server WG decides to rename the installation media: DVD → offline , netboot → online, KVM → virt, and rawsbc for ARM raw image.

      AGREED: Server WG decides on a consistent naming convention according to the scheme: "Fedora-Server-<rel>-<method>-<arch>-<version>.<filetype>"

    • Elevating Fedora Server VM distribution image

      jwhimpel will check the details of the procedure and report back next meeting.

    • Open Floor

      We will start to discuss and develop NFS service supported by documentation and by Ansible.

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

  • Actions summary

    1. Action: pboy will file an issue with releng.

Wednesday, Apr 17, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • LVM2 configuration & ARM SBC installation

      The issue is resolved, but but - as Vojtech Trefny, one of ghe maintgainers, put it - "unfortunately not thanks to the changes that I made".

      AGREED: Server WG considers the case closed.

    • Testing F40

      AGREED: Server WG considers F40 ready for publication and closes this topic.

    • Our "story" for F40

      AGREED: Regarding our "story" for F40 we stick sich ARM SBC.

    • Our "Fedora Server goal(s) and "story" for F41 / F42

      See: issue #134

      We narrowed the options down to "Fedora Server VM as VPS", "Server Edition as identity server ", and "Server Edition as local or public file server ".

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

  • Actions summary

    1. Action: pboy will close bug #2247872

Wednesday, Apr 03, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • Review installation media

      The discussion revealed obvious inconsistencies between the ways of creating our various installation media that have evolved over time. All of this is difficult to deal with in a matrix discussion. Therefore:

      AGREED: An additional meeting out of turn on Wednesday, April 10, 17:00 UTC in the Matrix Sever room exclusively to discuss the Review Installation Media topic.

      ACTION: pboy will prepare the room and provide a test opportunity.

    • Testing F40

      No additional issues found yet, but not all planned tests have been carried out yet.

      It is unclear how and where the test results should be merged on the server test page. Pboy will contact Adam about this.

    • Revisiting Server installation media naming convention

      The online/offline proposal is welcomed, but the overall solution should be presented more clearly.

      A decision will be aimed for by mid-May at the latest so that there is sufficient time for implementation.

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

Wednesday, Mar 20, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • Follow-up actions & announcements

      • We will first discuss a possible change to the time of our meetings on the mailing list and decide at the next meeting.

    • LVM2 configuration

      The /etc/lvm/devices directory in Fedora-Server-KVM-40_Beta-1.9.x86_64.qcow2 is empty now. So far no check whether First Boot generates a suitable entry.

      INFO update: Beta 1.10 contains a devices file in both server images (KVM and aarch64 SBC). So the issue is not resolved yet.

      Action: cooltshirtguy will monitor and check the aarch64 SBC image, specifically Raspberry Pi.

    • F40 release tests

      We have selected items to be tested and allocated work. Details at

    • Open Floor

      !info: Unfortunately, no movement on the Apache / httpd configuration layout yet

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

Wednesday, Mar 06, 2024
Wednesday, Feb 21, 2024

Our first meeting on Matrix.

  • Essentials at a glance

    • Review installation media

      We are trying here for more then 2 years for now without a lot or results. At Fosdem I met Tomáš, who is very experienced in release engineering (to put it a bit understated) and who has offered to help us with this. This is a great opportunity for Fedora Server Edition.

      After an initial discussion about necessary and desired changes, we agreed that Tomáš would further analyze the current configuration files and compile them in a blog or on the server list.

    • Revisiting Server installation media naming convention

      The various server installation media are (still) named very differently. But it is now too late for a change to Release 40.

      Agreed: We further discuss naming convention on mailing list and aim to make a final decision in 4 weeks latest. And then it is up to releng to find a workable timeframe. There is no urgency.

    • LVM2 default configuration change

      The issue is currently not resolved.

      A proper resolution will involve an anaconda fix as well as a fix in arm-image-installer. We will continue to work on it.

    • Open Floor

      Cloud Sig will stop to maintain ImageFactory. For F41 we have to select another tool for building the non-iso images. Probable choices are Lorax, KIWI, or OSBuild, depending on what is supported in pungi and what artifacts are supported by the different tools.

      Neil would support a move to Kiwi if we decide to do so. We want to make a final decision once releng has decided on available and supported options.

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

Wednesday, Feb 07, 2024

Continuing the Jan 31 meeting

  • Essentials at a glance

    • LVM2 default configuration change

      We finally got information about the reasons for the changes in LVM default configuration and proper ways to resolve the ARM SBC installation issue.

      In short we should retain the current default LVM configuration which includes a system.devices file and adjust the arm-image-installer script und our documentation.

    • Test planning for F40

      We have set up a list of manually "smoke tests". We now need working group members or other interested parties to take over some of the tests and enter their FAS names in the corresponding column.

    • Open Floor

      We will switch our meetings from IRC to Matrix starting February 21, provided we can make the necessary organizational arrangements in time.

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

  • Actions summary

    1. eseyman will check the change proposal set for items we should aware of and care about.

Wednesday, Jan 31, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • LVM2 default configuration change

      Currently the default LVM configuration results in vgscan and vgchange not inspecting new devices that are not listed in /etc/lvm/devices/system.devices. A follow-up to this is also the error when creating aarch64 SBC filesystem images.

      There was neither a change proposal nor a release notes entry for the configuration change, nor any announcement. Accordingly, it is also not known why the change was made.

      ACTION: eseyman will try to contact the maintainers and get information why the change was made.

    • Test planning for F40

      We will continue discussion next meeting

    • A "story" for each release

      We will continue discussion next meeting

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

  • Actions summary

    New business

    1. pboy will create a thread on mailing list to discuss the option for LVM fix.

    2. jwhimpel will try to contact linux-lvm@lists.linux.dev

    3. pboy will create a draft wiki page to help to organise and coordinate our release testing efforts.

Wednesday, Jan 17, 2024
  • Essentials at a glance

    • LVM configuration issues

      Currently the default LVM configuration results in vgscan and vgchange not inspecting new devices that are not listed in /etc/lvm/devices/system.devices. A follow-up to this is also the error when creating aarch64 SBC filesystem images.

      There was neither a change proposal nor a release notes entry for the configuration change, nor any announcement. Accordingly, it is also not known why the change was made.

      ACTION: eseyman will try to contact the maintainers and get information why the change was made.

    • Test planning for F40

      We will continue discussion next meeting

  • Meeting summary

  • Full log

  • Actions summary

    1. pboy will write a info about changing the timeout value and nirik will review – still work in progress

    2. mowest will take care of discussed modifications of the Server download page. - still work in progress

    3. eseyman will try to contact the maintainers and get information why the change was made.