Hi Steve,



Chipping in from the side (but we are also thinking separately about this kind of thing) this feels like the CA distribution case, where you have a metapackage that is distributed every so often which contains like-numbered RPM packages. In this case it feels like having an approved-vo metapackage with a set of rpms, all of which are the same version, is the way to go. If you don’t want to install all the approved-vo rpms that’s fine, but making sure you’re up to date by checking the package version is efficient, and also similar to something else we already do.



Cheers,

David



On 21/10/2016, 13:33, "Testbed Support for GridPP member institutes on behalf of Stephen Jones" <[log in to unmask] on behalf of [log in to unmask]> wrote:



    On 10/20/2016 07:22 PM, Marcus Ebert wrote:

    > I use them, but we do not support VOs that had recent changes. While 

    > the initial setup and install worked fine and without any problems, I 

    > can't comment right now on how it goes with updates. I'll let you know 

    > about that once there have been changes to the VO-rpms that we support 

    > in Edinburgh.

    

    Hi Marcus,

    

    If you use them, then I'd like your advice. There are two ways to manage 

    the versioning.

    

    The way I have chosen is this: whenever ANY approved VO changes, all the 

    VO RPMs get released with a new version stamp. The reason for this is 

    both practical (it's easy to do) and technical. The technical reason is 

    that the Approved VOs document now has a version number. And if any 

    Approved VO changes, the document version is updated. Thus, if ALL of 

    the RPMs on your site match the document number, then your site is up to 

    date.

    

    The alternative would be: whenever an approved VO changes, only that VO 

    RPM that has changed would  get released with the new version stamp. The 

    others would remain as they were.  And the Approved VO Document gets the 

    new version stamp. Thus to check if your site is up to date, you would 

    have to check which VO supported (if any) at your site  changed and make 

    sure just its RPM is up to date. Sometimes, if none changed, your site 

    would have RPMs where all their version numbers match a stale version of 

    the document!

    

    So, it is harder to be sure you are up to date with the second scheme. 

    But, with the first scheme, you will update "unnecessarily" (i.e. the 

    contents of the RPM may be unchanged, but the version number will have 

    changed and an update will occur if version=latest, in your puppet 

    config). I consider the latter effect to be of negligible impact.

    

    So those are the options -

    

    a) shotgun solution, that causes more updates but which are negligible,

    

    or

    

    b) precise solution, that is harder to verify against and, perhaps, 

    harder to understand.

    

    Which do you prefer? Or is there another option? (I can think of one, 

    but I don't like it!)

    

    Cheers,

    

    Ste

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    -- 

    Steve Jones                             [log in to unmask]

    Grid System Administrator               office: 220

    High Energy Physics Division            tel (int): 43396

    Oliver Lodge Laboratory                 tel (ext): +44 (0)151 794 3396

    University of Liverpool                 http://www.liv.ac.uk/physics/hep/