Bug#907672: Rebasing cloud-init to the latest one

[Yanhui He]

Package: cloud-init
Version: 0.7.9-5
X-Debbugs-CC: ***@vmware.com, ***@vmware.com, ***@vmware.com, ***@vmware.com, ***@vmware.com

The package of cloud-init v 0.7.9-5 shipped on Debian 9.5 cannot meet the requirement when do some guest OS customization.

Would you please upgrade cloud-init to the latest v 18.3?

[Martin Zobel-Helas]

Hi Yanhui,

Post by Yanhui He
The package of cloud-init v 0.7.9-5 shipped on Debian 9.5 cannot meet
the requirement when do some guest OS customization.

Could you give more technical details here? What exactly fails, what are
the problems? If we can justify why the package needs to be updated,
chances are higher the stable release team accepts it into a Debian 9
Release. E.g. newer versions by product X is not supported any more...

Also we need to take care of all the other cloud providers that use
cloud-init. We don't want to make cloud-init better for one of the cloud
providers but break it for all the others. Means we need to test very
carfully before we ask for acceptance of a newer version of cloud-init
into Debian 9.

Post by Yanhui He
Would you please upgrade cloud-init to the latest v 18.3?

We had the discussions of updating cloud-init at several meetings
already. In the end this is the decission of the maintainer of the
package and the Debian Stable Release team to accept this package into a
stable release.

Best regards,
Martin

[Yanhui He]

Hi Martin and Debian team,

Thanks for your quick response.

The v0.7.9 of cloud-init was released on 2016, after that there’re many fixes and functions are added.

One of the problems is that on the Debian9.5, the 0.7.9 version of cloud-init will go to fail at the local stage during the gos customization process.
It had been tested on the latest version 18.3, the basic functions of gos customization can be implemented.

There are many fixes during the period from 0.7.9 to 18.3. Not only for gos customization, but also for all the other providers. Details pls refer to https://bugs.launchpad.net/cloud-init <https://bugs.launchpad.net/cloud-init>.
Currently Ubuntu 18.04 has already rebased to cloud-init 18.3, Amazon Linux rebased to v18.3, Sles 15 rebased to v18.2, and other Linux distros also has rebased or plan to the latest cloud-init.

If you have any concern for v18.3 stability we could do some regression test together if needed.
Wait for your response.

Post by Martin Zobel-Helas
Hi Yanhui,

Post by Yanhui He
The package of cloud-init v 0.7.9-5 shipped on Debian 9.5 cannot meet
the requirement when do some guest OS customization.

Could you give more technical details here? What exactly fails, what are
the problems? If we can justify why the package needs to be updated,
chances are higher the stable release team accepts it into a Debian 9
Release. E.g. newer versions by product X is not supported any more...
Also we need to take care of all the other cloud providers that use
cloud-init. We don't want to make cloud-init better for one of the cloud
providers but break it for all the others. Means we need to test very
carfully before we ask for acceptance of a newer version of cloud-init
into Debian 9.

Post by Yanhui He
Would you please upgrade cloud-init to the latest v 18.3?

We had the discussions of updating cloud-init at several meetings
already. In the end this is the decission of the maintainer of the
package and the Debian Stable Release team to accept this package into a
stable release.
Best regards,
Martin
--
Debian & GNU/Linux Developer Debian Listmaster
http://about.me/zobel Debian Webmaster
GPG Fingerprint: 6B18 5642 8E41 EC89 3D5D BDBB 53B1 AC6D B11B 627B

Thanks!
Yanhui

[Thomas Goirand]

Post by Yanhui He
If you have any concern for v18.3 stability we could do some regression
test together if needed.

Not only us, but also the release team. If we sufficiently show it has
been tested, it may help.

Cheers,

Thomas Goirand (zigo)

P.S: Is it really necessary to have 15 people CC-ed on each message?

[Yanhui He]

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for your reply!

Post by Thomas Goirand

Post by Yanhui He
If you have any concern for v18.3 stability we could do some regression
test together if needed.

Not only us, but also the release team. If we sufficiently show it has
been tested, it may help.
Cheers,
Thomas Goirand (zigo)
P.S: Is it really necessary to have 15 people CC-ed on each message?

Based on Debian9.5.0-64 and cloud-init 18.3-35, the following can be customized successfully.
* static/DHCP IP address, Gateway, Netmask
* Hostname
* Timezone

The following is not customized successfully, but most are known issue/limit for cloud-init
* DNS. It was set in 50-cloud-init.cfg but not updated to resolv.conf file (Known cloud-init issue)
* Domain name was not updated to /etc/hosts (Known cloud-init issue)
* Hardware clock setting is not supported by cloud-init, default is UTC( Known cloud-init issue and it is not suggested to set hardware clock to local time on *NIX system)

From the results above, the 18.3 version of cloud-init can achieve most our customization goals, but with the version 0.7.9, our customization can not work at all.

Thanks!
Yanhui

[Thomas Goirand]

Post by Yanhui He
Hi Thomas,
Thanks for your reply!

Post by Thomas Goirand

Post by Yanhui He
If you have any concern for v18.3 stability we could do some regression
test together if needed.

Not only us, but also the release team. If we sufficiently show it has
been tested, it may help.
Cheers,
Thomas Goirand (zigo)
P.S: Is it really necessary to have 15 people CC-ed on each message?

Based on Debian9.5.0-64 and cloud-init 18.3-35,  the following can be
customized successfully.
* static/DHCP IP address, Gateway, Netmask
*  Hostname
* Timezone
 
The following is not customized successfully, but most are known issue/limit for cloud-init
* DNS. It was set in 50-cloud-init.cfg but not updated to resolv.conf
file (Known cloud-init issue)
* Domain name was not updated to /etc/hosts  (Known cloud-init issue)

While these may be cloud-init problems in Stretch, it's kind of easy to
do this in a user metadata script.

Post by Yanhui He
* Hardware clock setting is not supported by cloud-init, default is UTC(
Known cloud-init issue and it is not suggested to set hardware clock to
local time on *NIX system)

Here, I don't see any issue at all. You'll get hardware clock as UTC,
and configure your VM with local timezone if you like. That's the normal
behavior, and I don't see any reason why you would like a different setup.

Post by Yanhui He
From the results above, the 18.3 version of cloud-init can achieve most
our customization goals, but with the version 0.7.9,  our customization
can not work at all.

Why don't you do all of this in a user-data script?

Note that all of what I'm telling/asking here is probably what the
release team will ask if we request for a new version to get into
Stretch. If we don't have the answers, then probably we shouldn't even
attempt to ask the release team.

Cheers,

Thomas Goirand (zigo)

[Debian Bug Tracking System]

Your message dated Thu, 20 Sep 2018 21:04:15 +0000
with message-id <E1g367T-0001J1-***@fasolo.debian.org>
and subject line Bug#907672: fixed in cloud-init 18.3-1
has caused the Debian Bug report #907672,
regarding Rebasing cloud-init to the latest one
to be marked as done.

This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.

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