Add openstack/ironic-specs molteniron spec proposal

Change-Id: Ie580c62cd69a9b6840b91626450e4bf7ca26f8b1

doc/source/spec.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+..
+ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
+ License.
+
+ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode
+
+===========
+Molten Iron
+===========
+
+https://bugs.launchpad.net/ironic/+bug/1633540
+
+Running Ironic on a set of Bare Metal machines needs a database and library
+to help manage the pool.
+
+
+Problem description
+===================
+
+When running a Continuous Integration (CI) environment, many patches need
+to be tested. While one could theoretically configure one Bare Metal machine
+in an Ironic setup, you are limited to being able to test one patch at a
+time.
+
+Therefore, we need to maintain a pool of Bare Metal machines that are
+available for a DSVM (DevStack Virtual Machine) to use as a target node
+during Ironic's tempest tests.
+
+We need a system to manage the pool and also to allocate and release
+machines in the pool. This may sound like it is a CI pool manager on top
+of Ironic. However, it does not require that Ironic perform reservations
+and locking.
+
+
+Proposed change
+===============
+
+We will create a new client/server tool that uses a database server as the
+back end. This is intended to be lightweight and not leverage Ironic's API.
+
+This tool is intended for Ironic CI testing environments that uses actual
+baremetal hardware as target nodes rather than using libvirt guests. It
+keeps track of what hardware is currently available for use as a target
+node in baremetal testing, and allows a DSVM to check-out (and eventually
+check back in) nodes from a database. The tool will be used by the DSVM
+and will need two hook points. One that is called before DVSM is run and
+one that is called after DVSM have finished.
+
+One way to do this is in Jenkins where a builder in a job template will
+call the pre_hook and a job publisher will call the post_hook during
+cleanup.
+
+In the pre_hook, you call 'molteniron allocate' to check out the node and
+retrieve the information needed to use the node as a target (ie IPMI info
+and hardware specs). In the post_hook, you call 'molteniron release' to
+return the node to the pool.
+
+The tool will have the following basic functionality:
+    - add a node
+    - allocate a node
+    - release a node
+    - get a field value in a node
+    - set a field value in a node
+    - return all of the node's status
+
+
+Alternatives
+------------
+
+Just use one machine to handle the queue of patches. However, the Ironic
+job is limited to 1 job at a time (with 1 Bare Metal machine). It is slow
+but arguably sufficient.
+
+We could potentially use nodepool. However, nodepool uses virtual machines
+and we want a pool of bare metal machines. Also, there is no storage of
+bare metal controller information such as username, password, and IP address.
+Also, nodepool interfaces with jenkins or zuul after the machine has been
+brought up which we do not want.
+
+
+Security impact
+---------------
+
+There is no security for the MoltenIron REST api. Any security is handled
+by the underlying database application. Credentials are intended to be stored
+in the database and will be stored in a plain text yaml file. We do not
+encrypt the information in the database or any files.
+
+
+Other end user impact
+---------------------
+
+There is no other end user interaction with MoltenIron aside from the CLI.
+
+
+Implementation
+==============
+
+Assignee(s)
+-----------
+
+Who is leading the writing of the code? Or is this a blueprint where you're
+throwing it out there to see who picks it up?
+
+If more than one person is working on the implementation, please designate the
+primary author and contact.
+
+Primary assignee:
+  mark-hamzy
+
+Other contributors:
+  mjturek
+
+
+Testing
+=======
+
+Testing is handled by tox running a set of testcases.