[Freeipmi-devel] FreeIPMI meeting notes + Todos

[Albert Chu]

MEETING NOTES

Compliance Testing:

Linux IPMI Test Suite
---------------------

Use testsuites for major open source applications as a "starter"
testsuite for both vendors and users.  Vendors get extra testing and
some assurance open source projects will work with their hardware.
Users of IPMI (including someone like Cyclades) get extra assurance
their technology will work with certain hardware.  Open source
projects get more testing of their tools.  Combination of multiple
projects covers more IPMI functionality than any one project (can
likely) cover on their own.

TODOS:
Zresearch - Start on FreeIPMI Testsuite
LLNL - Get/devel IPMItool testsuite, speak to OpenIPMI author
General todo: Try to build momentum on this.

IPMItool + Ipmipower:
---------------------

Idea is HPC features of Ipmipower would be very useful in Ipmitool. 
Ipmitool would get HPC features and Ipmipower gets more IPMI
specification coverage.

Interest: Cyclades
TODO: Continue discussions on it with Ipmitool author.  Just need to start.

ICTS
----
Why is the ICTS testsuite only available to "IPMI Adopters".  This is
stupid, users want it too for testing.

TODO: Zresearch, LLNL, anyone: Bug Intel people.

FreeIPMI in Redhat
------------------

Get vendor support by getting FreeIPMI into RHEL.

TODO: LLNL and SLAC will bug Redhat on our weekly conference calls.

FreeIPMI TODOS
--------------

Zresearch TODO: Raw Hex command support

Zresearch TODO: Perl/Python Bindings(?)
(Al: Sorry, my notes weren't clear, I'm not sure.)

Zresearch TODO: Adveritse/document Guile, point to howto's, supply templates

Web GUI/Windows Compilation of FreeIPMI
---------------------------------------

I don't know if we came to a conclusion, I can't remember.  Sorry.
Maybe vendors can tell us if this is important to them and would make
them more interested in FreeIPMI.

FreeIPMI Coding
---------------

CVS Tagging: Announce to freeipmi-devel before making a release tag.

CVS branching: Branch experimental code and work independently until
it is reasonably complete.  Then merge into head.  Incomplete changes
or major architectural changes (i.e. UDM would have fallen under this)
aren't submitted into the head until completion.

fiid_template_t: We will always stay to spec.  Never deviate!

fiid_template_t/fiid_obj_t reorganization: We will all think about it
and discuss further on the mailing list.  There are many different
methods to re-architect the underlying objects to meet this need.

lan session management in libfreeipmie: We all agreed that session
management is getting more difficult in IPMI 2.0.  A rearchitect or
new set of APIs may be necessary to make session management
manageable.

libfreeipmi re-org: The directory libfreeipmi/src/ is large and
big. We agreed that subsections of the library could be put in
subdirectories or organized in some better manner.

LGPL: We need to consider LGPLing libfreeipmi for the potential it may
be used by more vendors.  To be discussed in more detail on the
mailing list.

UDM: One remaining big bug.  Another set of eyes would be useful, so
Al Chu will try and hunt this one down.

Multihost LAN API: Many possible implementations and API
possibilities.  We'll all think about it and discuss further on the
mailing list.

--
Albert Chu
address@hidden
Computer Scientist
High Performance Systems Division
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory