ironic-specs/specs/liberty-implemented/deprecate-bash-ramdisk.rst

Deprecate the bash ramdisk

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ironic/+spec/deprecate-bash-ramdisk

This spec is a continuation of the blueprint ipa-as-default-ramdisk implemented in the Kilo release. This spec intends to deprecate deployments using the bash script ramdisk.

Problem description

The bash ramdisk is still supported by the drivers prefixed with pxe_ without any deprecation message. In the Kilo release it was agreed that we should stop supporting the bash ramdisk in the future and we worked on making the IPA ramdisk supported by all drivers in tree.

Also, the bash ramdisk is already lagging behind support for some features, for example cleaning only works with IPA. So now we should start dropping the support for that ramdisk.

Proposed change

We can not simply delete the code that the bash ramdisk uses, therefore we should start adding deprecation messages on the deploy-ironic element from diskimage-builder and in the vendor passthru methods pass_deploy_info and pass_bootloader_install_info which are used by the bash ramdisk to pass the deployment information to Ironic.

Apart from the deprecation messages this spec also proposes freezing the features for the bash ramdisk. No new features should be added to it (like we did to include support for local boot), only bug fixes will be accepted.

Devstack and tempest jobs should also be updated to not use the bash ramdisk anymore.

The element in diskimage-builder and the deprecated code in Ironic should be removed in the Mitaka release cycle of OpenStack.

Alternatives

Continue to support the bash ramdisk for a longer time.

Data model impact

None

State Machine Impact

None

REST API impact

None

Client (CLI) impact

None

RPC API impact

None

Driver API impact

None

Nova driver impact

None

Security impact

None

Other end user impact

None

Scalability impact

None

Performance Impact

None

Other deployer impact

Deployer should start replacing the bash ramdisk with the IPA ramdisk. There's no new configuration needed for it, it's a drop-in replacement.

Developer impact

Developers won't be allowed to include any new features to the bash ramdisk, only bug fixes.

Implementation

Assignee(s)

Primary assignee:

lucasagomes <lucasagomes@gmail.com>

Other contributors:

everyone

Work Items

• Update Devstack and tempest to use the IPA ramdisk instead of the bash ramdisk.
• Add deprecation messages on the diskimage-builder deploy-ironic element and vendor passthrus pass_deploy_info and pass_bootloader_install_info.
• Stop accepting new features for the bash ramdisk (code reviews and spec review).
• In the Mitaka release cycle remove the element from diskimage-builder and the code that supports the bash ramdisk in Ironic.

Dependencies

None

Testing

Unittests will be added.

Upgrades and Backwards Compatibility

None

Documentation Impact

The documentation should be updated to say that the bash ramdisk is deprecated and the examples should now use IPA instead.

References