90 lines
4.2 KiB
ReStructuredText
90 lines
4.2 KiB
ReStructuredText
Community Infrastructure Sysadmins
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==================================
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Description
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-----------
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The Infrastructure team is responsible for designing,
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building and maintaining the systems that are used in the day to day
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operation of the OpenStack project as a whole; this includes
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development, testing, and collaboration tools. All of the software
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it runs is open source, and under public configuration management so
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that everyone in the community has the opportunity to participate.
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One very effective way to get involved in OpenStack, gaining a deep
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understanding of and visibility within the community, is by helping
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operate this infrastructure. Attrition due to shifts in employment
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or availability of personal time impacts the team's ability to
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support the community effectively, and so there is a constant need
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for new contributors who can commit to investing sufficient effort
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to overcome the steep learning curve associated with these varied
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technologies.
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Because our community is global, its support needs span most
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timezones. Unfortunately, the bulk of long-term contributors to
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Infrastructure are concentrated in the Americas and so this leaves
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APAC and EMEA community members with far fewer options for immediate
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assistance with urgent issues. Gaining more contributors who are
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active during those times (whether they live in those parts of the
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World or not) would provide a substantial benefit to the community.
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This is not necessarily as easy as it sounds because it's harder to
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get as much overlap with the current bulk of the team for shadowing
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and knowledge transfer, but there are still some existing team
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members in those timezones who can help mitigate that somewhat.
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In particular, the team seeks developers and systems administrators
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with a background both in maintaining Unix/Linux servers and free
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software, and places heavy emphasis on systems automation and
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configuration management (primarily Ansible and Puppet at the
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moment). Everything possible goes through code review, and gets
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extensively documented and communicated with the rest of the
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community over IRC and mailing lists. Server resources are donated
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by companies operating OpenStack services so there is
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substantial opportunity both for people who have experience in those
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technologies as well as anyone wishing to gain more familiarity with
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them.
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Value
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-----
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Reusability
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~~~~~~~~~~~
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The infrastructure team leverages resources donated from companies operating
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OpenStack services. The community uses the software it produces as a tool for
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testing it. Every day, contributors submit thousands of patches for review.
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Infrastructure tools deploy each patch and test it against thousands of tests
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and scenarios. This volume provides an opportunity to improve the software we
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write by giving us first-hand experience with issues at scale. The benefit of
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fixing these issues for the OpenStack CI system is two-fold:
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1. It makes the test platform more stable and robust
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2. Products or services benefits from the fix being applied upstream
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Don't Repeat Yourself or Your Testing (DRY)
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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The culture built around extensive testing in OpenStack makes it easier for us
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to trust patches proposed for review. We've integrated this culture into our
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review process. Duplicating a social and technical CI system of this size takes
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incredible amounts of time, people, and patience. Bolstering the CI system we
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already have in place allows you to focus on testing that is specific to your
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product or service.
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Immediate Feedback
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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The OpenStack CI system is the backbone of feedback for contributors and
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operators. Users get this feedback early, ideally before the patch lands.
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Ensuring early feedback through a robust CI system and testing means fewer
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surprises down the road when you attempt to integrate your product into a new
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release or deploy a new version of a service.
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Contact
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-------
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Join the #openstack-infra channel on the OFTC IRC network or reach out
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through the openstack-infra mailing lists on lists.openstack.org if you would
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like to get involved. It’s a rewarding chance to learn and help others, but
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most of all it’s fun! The Technical Committee sponsor for this initiative is
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Jeremy Stanley (fungi).
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