We have moved the Ubuntu Sever blog to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam/Meeting

All updates will occur there now. Please follow the latest on Ubuntu Server there.

We have moved the Ubuntu Sever blog to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam/Meeting

All updates will occur there now. Please follow the latest on Ubuntu Server there.

Today we announced a collaborative support and engineering agreement with Dell.  As part of this agreement Canonical will add Dell 11G & 12G PowerEdge models to the Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS Certification List and Dell will add Ubuntu Server to its Linux OS Support Matrix.

In May 2012, Dell launched the OpenStack Cloud Reference Architecture using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on select PowerEdge-C series servers. Today’s announcement expands upon that offering by combining the benefits of Ubuntu Server Certification, Ubuntu Advantage enterprise support, and Dell Hardware ProSupport across the PowerEdge line.

Dell customers can now deploy with confidence when purchasing Dell PowerEdge servers with Dell Hardware ProSupport and Ubuntu Advantage.  When these customers call into Dell, their service tag numbers will be entitled with ProSupport and Ubuntu Advantage, which will create a seamless support experience via the collaborative Dell and Canonical support and engineering relationship.

In preparation for this announcement, Canonical engineers worked with Dell to enable and validate Ubuntu Server running on Dell PowerEdge Servers.  This work resulted in improved Ubuntu Server on Dell PowerEdge support for PCIe SSD (solid state drives), 4K-block drives, EFI booting, Web Services Management, consistent network device naming, and PERC (PowerEdge RAID Controllers).

Dell hardware systems management can be done out-of-band via ipmi, iDRAC, and the Lifecycle Controller.  Dell OMSA Ubuntu packages are also available but it is recommended to use the supported out-of-band systems management tools.  Dell TechCenter is a good resource for additional technical information about running Ubuntu Server on Dell PowerEdge servers.

If you are interested in purchasing Ubuntu Advantage for your Dell PowerEdge servers, please contact the Dell Solutions team at Canonical.  If your business is already using or thinking about using a supported Ubuntu Server infrastructure in your data-center then be sure to fill out the annual Ubuntu Server and Cloud Survey to provide additional feedback.

It was decided not to send an alpha-2 call for testing, but to wait for beta instead. Daviey mentioned that matsurba has kindly offered to help with dep-8 tests.

BLUEPRINTS

Daviey thinks we look a little further behind than we actually are, and asks that everyone take a look to make sure their blueprints are uptodate. If you’d like to mark some items postponed, please first talk to Daviey, jamespage or smoser.

QA

plars will be taking hggdh’s place representing QA.

plars noted that conffile failures no longer raise individual bugs, but rather are reported at https://jenkins.qa.ubuntu.com/view/Raring/view/Smoke%20Testing/job/raring-upgrade-quantal-server/ARCH=amd64,LTS=non-lts,PROFILE=server-tasks,label=upgrade-test/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/results/obsolete_conffiles.log

KERNEL

smb re-advertised http://people.canonical.com/~smb/lucid-ec2-ng/

ACTIONS:

* jamespage to milesone documentation updates [carryover]
* serge to update server meeting docs to reflect palrs representing qa
* serge to consider putting the obsolete_conffiles.log url in weekly triaging knowledgebase section

It was decided not to send an alpha-2 call for testing, but to wait for beta instead. Daviey mentioned that matsurba has kindly offered to help with dep-8 tests.

BLUEPRINTS

Daviey thinks we look a little further behind than we actually are, and asks that everyone take a look to make sure their blueprints are uptodate. If you’d like to mark some items postponed, please first talk to Daviey, jamespage or smoser.

QA

plars will be taking hggdh’s place representing QA.

plars noted that conffile failures no longer raise individual bugs, but rather are reported at https://jenkins.qa.ubuntu.com/view/Raring/view/Smoke%20Testing/job/raring-upgrade-quantal-server/ARCH=amd64,LTS=non-lts,PROFILE=server-tasks,label=upgrade-test/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/results/obsolete_conffiles.log

KERNEL

smb re-advertised http://people.canonical.com/~smb/lucid-ec2-ng/

ACTIONS:

* jamespage to milesone documentation updates [carryover]
* serge to update server meeting docs to reflect palrs representing qa
* serge to consider putting the obsolete_conffiles.log url in weekly triaging knowledgebase section

Here are the minutes of the meeting. They can also be found online
with the irc logs here.

• Meeting Actions
  • Daviey to fix the release bugs report
  • everyone look through http://reqorts.qa.ubuntu.com/reports/rls-mgr/rls-r-tracking-bug-tasks.html#server
  • apw, smb and Daviey to talk about a dependency break for xen-hypervisor-4.1- for some nova packages
• Raring Development
  • jamespage, smoser, and Daviey were looking through blueprint specs last week. Most looked good, comments were made where additional detail was needed. They haven’t finished going through all specs yet.
• Ubuntu Server Team Events
  • jcastro, m_3, smoser, and utlemming will be at AWS reinvent next week.
• Weekly Updates & Questions for the Kernel Team (smb)
  • smb and apw reviewed of Xen re-adding qemu-dm. Could be ready to be uploaded soon, though the previous upload still in r-proposed may need to be dropped.
  • apw, smb and Daviey need to talk about a dependency break for xen-hypervisor-4.1- for some nova packages
  • bug 1078926 “raring instance failed to find EC2 datasource” has an upstream fix, but it may not yet be final.
• Agree on next meeting date and time
  • Next meeting will be on Tuesday, Nov 27th at 16:00 UTC in #ubuntu-meeting.

Here are the minutes of the meeting. They can also be found online
with the irc logs here.

• Meeting Actions
  • Daviey to fix the release bugs report
  • everyone look through http://reqorts.qa.ubuntu.com/reports/rls-mgr/rls-r-tracking-bug-tasks.html#server
  • apw, smb and Daviey to talk about a dependency break for xen-hypervisor-4.1- for some nova packages
• Raring Development
  • jamespage, smoser, and Daviey were looking through blueprint specs last week. Most looked good, comments were made where additional detail was needed. They haven’t finished going through all specs yet.
• Ubuntu Server Team Events
  • jcastro, m_3, smoser, and utlemming will be at AWS reinvent next week.
• Weekly Updates & Questions for the Kernel Team (smb)
  • smb and apw reviewed of Xen re-adding qemu-dm. Could be ready to be uploaded soon, though the previous upload still in r-proposed may need to be dropped.
  • apw, smb and Daviey need to talk about a dependency break for xen-hypervisor-4.1- for some nova packages
  • bug 1078926 “raring instance failed to find EC2 datasource” has an upstream fix, but it may not yet be final.
• Agree on next meeting date and time
  • Next meeting will be on Tuesday, Nov 27th at 16:00 UTC in #ubuntu-meeting.

Meeting started by hallyn at 16:01:55 UTC
(full logs).

Meeting summary

1. Review ACTION points from previous meeting (hallyn, 16:02:01)
   

There were no actions from the previous meeting.

2. Quantal Development (hallyn, 16:02:13)
   1. http://status.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-quantal/ubuntu-server.html
      (jamespage,
      16:02:39)
   2. https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/servercloud-q-cloud-images
      (jamespage,
      16:03:32)
   3. https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/servercloud-q-awstools
      (jamespage,
      16:03:32)
   4. https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/servercloud-q-cloud-init-utils
      (jamespage,
      16:04:18)
   5. https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/servercloud-q-bug-triage-review
      (jamespage,
      16:06:10)
   6. https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/servercloud-q-juju-charm-unit-tests
      (jamespage,
      16:07:02)
   7. http://reports.qa.ubuntu.com/reports/ubuntu-server/release-bugs.html
      (jamespage,
      16:10:25)

   Feature freeze is on 23 august, about two weeks from this meeting.
   Urshina and jamespage will catch up on new triage reports ursinha has
   been working on. m_3 and jimbaker will discuss juju charm unit tests
   this week. Some of the cloud image work may end up being postponed.

3. 12.04.1 Development (jamespage & smoser) (hallyn, 16:17:27)
   

Target is Thursday, so anything not in by then should be retargeted

4. Ubuntu Server Team Events (hallyn, 16:21:34)
   

Jim Baker will be presenting juju at 3 events in the next 3 months.

5. Weekly Updates & Questions for the Kernel Team (smb) (hallyn, 16:24:08)
   

Bug 1031090 (“kvm_intel not loadable in a quantal guest”) was
discussed. It was decided that since it only deteriorates performance of
kvm inside a nested kvm guest, it was not urgent to push to 12.04.1, but
can rather wait for an update.

6. Weekly Updates & Questions regarding Ubuntu ARM Server (rbasak) (hallyn, 16:29:40)
   

Java 7 for arm was discussed – it is in progress and looking good.

7. Open Discussion (hallyn, 16:34:25)
   

Gema from QA team will attend the next server team meeting to give
an overview of the new testing framework (UTAH) and show how we can get
more involved with test cases.

8. Announce next meeting date and time (hallyn, 16:36:56)

Gema from QA team will attend the next server team meeting to give
an overview of the new testing framework (UTAH) and show how we can get
more involved with test cases.

Meeting ended at 16:37:24 UTC
(full logs).

Meeting started by hallyn at 16:01:55 UTC
(full logs).

Meeting summary

1. Review ACTION points from previous meeting (hallyn, 16:02:01)
   

There were no actions from the previous meeting.

2. Quantal Development (hallyn, 16:02:13)
   1. http://status.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-quantal/ubuntu-server.html
      (jamespage,
      16:02:39)
   2. https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/servercloud-q-cloud-images
      (jamespage,
      16:03:32)
   3. https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/servercloud-q-awstools
      (jamespage,
      16:03:32)
   4. https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/servercloud-q-cloud-init-utils
      (jamespage,
      16:04:18)
   5. https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/servercloud-q-bug-triage-review
      (jamespage,
      16:06:10)
   6. https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/servercloud-q-juju-charm-unit-tests
      (jamespage,
      16:07:02)
   7. http://reports.qa.ubuntu.com/reports/ubuntu-server/release-bugs.html
      (jamespage,
      16:10:25)

   Feature freeze is on 23 august, about two weeks from this meeting.
   Urshina and jamespage will catch up on new triage reports ursinha has
   been working on. m_3 and jimbaker will discuss juju charm unit tests
   this week. Some of the cloud image work may end up being postponed.

3. 12.04.1 Development (jamespage & smoser) (hallyn, 16:17:27)
   

Target is Thursday, so anything not in by then should be retargeted

4. Ubuntu Server Team Events (hallyn, 16:21:34)
   

Jim Baker will be presenting juju at 3 events in the next 3 months.

5. Weekly Updates & Questions for the Kernel Team (smb) (hallyn, 16:24:08)
   

Bug 1031090 (“kvm_intel not loadable in a quantal guest”) was
discussed. It was decided that since it only deteriorates performance of
kvm inside a nested kvm guest, it was not urgent to push to 12.04.1, but
can rather wait for an update.

6. Weekly Updates & Questions regarding Ubuntu ARM Server (rbasak) (hallyn, 16:29:40)
   

Java 7 for arm was discussed – it is in progress and looking good.

7. Open Discussion (hallyn, 16:34:25)
   

Gema from QA team will attend the next server team meeting to give
an overview of the new testing framework (UTAH) and show how we can get
more involved with test cases.

8. Announce next meeting date and time (hallyn, 16:36:56)

Gema from QA team will attend the next server team meeting to give
an overview of the new testing framework (UTAH) and show how we can get
more involved with test cases.

Meeting ended at 16:37:24 UTC
(full logs).

If you are part of those people who are reluctant to upgrade to newer kernels, here is an example of how this can make your life miserable every 209 days.

There is a specific kernel bug in Lucid that will provoke a kernel panic after 208 days, which is regular behavior on a server (and a cloud instance ?). Here is the kernel GIT commit related to this :

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git?p=ubuntu/ubuntu-lucid.git;a=commit;h=595378ac1dd449e5c379bf6caa9cdfab008974c8

This has been fixed in the ubuntu kernel since 2.6.32-38 months ago but if you prefer not to upgrade to earlier kernels on Lucid, you will be hit by this bug.

Meeting started by s3h at 16:01:01 UTC. The full logs are available here.
.

Meeting summary

• Review ACTION points from previous
  • LINK: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-server/+specs?role=drafter (Daviey, 16:04:06)
  • LINK: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/~james-page/+specs?searchtext=servercloud-q&role=assignee (Daviey, 16:04:12)
  • LINK: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/~james-page/+specs?searchtext=servercloud-q&role=assignee (s3h, 16:04:57)
  • LINK: http://people.canonical.com/~davewalker/delta.html (Daviey, 16:06:53)
  • ACTION: zul talk to arosales and jamespage offline about SRU tracker (s3h, 16:07:05)
• Quantal Development

  Specs currently under consideration are at https://blueprints.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-server/+specs?role=drafter. If a spec is missing, let Daviey know.

  Blueprints which $user is responsible for driving to Approved state can be found at https://blueprints.launchpad.net/~$user/+specs?searchtext=servercloud-q&role=assignee. Please set those which require review to Review state.

  Daviey urges now is the time for frantic work on merges. http://people.canonical.com/~davewalker/delta.html shows the delta with sid.

  ACTION: zul to also pull Ursinha into SRU tracker talks (s3h, 16:08:28)

• Ubuntu Server Team Events

  *Weekly Updates & Questions for the Kernel Team (smb)
  LINK: http://people.canonical.com/chucks/libvirt (s3h, 16:29:37)

• Weekly Updates & Questions regarding Ubuntu ARM Server (rbasak)
• Open Discussion
  LINK: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MainInclusionProcess and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMainInclusionRequirements should be reviewed by interested people (jdstrand, 16:37:18)

  There may be interest in having a server team member added to the MIR team. The idea would be for the server team member to review desktop packages, and vice versa. Interested server team members are urged to email arosales and Daviey.

  ACTION: email arosales/Daviey if interested in ubuntu-mir membership (s3h, 16:38:20)
  ACTION: arosales to follow up with Ursinha on best approach for blueprint management this cycle (s3h, 16:46:18)

• Announce next meeting date and time

  Tuesday May 29 at 1600 UTC. right here.

  Meeting ended at 16:51:06 UTC.

Votes

Action items

• zul talk to arosales and jamespage offline about SRU tracker
• zul to also pull Ursinha into SRU tracker talks
• email arosales/Daviey if interested in ubuntu-mir membership
• arosales to follow up with Ursinha on best approach for blueprint management this cycle

Action items, by person

• arosales
  • zul talk to arosales and jamespage offline about SRU tracker
  • email arosales/Daviey if interested in ubuntu-mir membership
  • arosales to follow up with Ursinha on best approach for blueprint management this cycle
• Daviey
  • email arosales/Daviey if interested in ubuntu-mir membership
• jamespage
  • zul talk to arosales and jamespage offline about SRU tracker
• Ursinha
  • zul to also pull Ursinha into SRU tracker talks
  • arosales to follow up with Ursinha on best approach for blueprint management this cycle
• zul
  • zul talk to arosales and jamespage offline about SRU tracker
  • zul to also pull Ursinha into SRU tracker talks

People present (lines said)

• s3h (75)
• SpamapS (56)
• arosales (23)
• zul (22)
• Daviey (19)
• jdstrand (16)
• Ursinha (15)
• rbasak (9)
• jamespage (8)
• smoser (7)
• ubottu (7)
• meetingology (7)
• roaksoax (5)
• smb (4)
• hggdh (4)
• jimbaker` (3)
• m_3 (3)
• lynxman (1)
• utlemming (1)

Meeting started by s3h at 16:01:01 UTC. The full logs are available here.
.

Meeting summary

• Review ACTION points from previous
  • LINK: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-server/+specs?role=drafter (Daviey, 16:04:06)
  • LINK: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/~james-page/+specs?searchtext=servercloud-q&role=assignee (Daviey, 16:04:12)
  • LINK: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/~james-page/+specs?searchtext=servercloud-q&role=assignee (s3h, 16:04:57)
  • LINK: http://people.canonical.com/~davewalker/delta.html (Daviey, 16:06:53)
  • ACTION: zul talk to arosales and jamespage offline about SRU tracker (s3h, 16:07:05)
• Quantal Development

  Specs currently under consideration are at https://blueprints.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-server/+specs?role=drafter. If a spec is missing, let Daviey know.

  Blueprints which $user is responsible for driving to Approved state can be found at https://blueprints.launchpad.net/~$user/+specs?searchtext=servercloud-q&role=assignee. Please set those which require review to Review state.

  Daviey urges now is the time for frantic work on merges. http://people.canonical.com/~davewalker/delta.html shows the delta with sid.

  ACTION: zul to also pull Ursinha into SRU tracker talks (s3h, 16:08:28)

• Ubuntu Server Team Events

  *Weekly Updates & Questions for the Kernel Team (smb)
  LINK: http://people.canonical.com/chucks/libvirt (s3h, 16:29:37)

• Weekly Updates & Questions regarding Ubuntu ARM Server (rbasak)
• Open Discussion
  LINK: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MainInclusionProcess and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMainInclusionRequirements should be reviewed by interested people (jdstrand, 16:37:18)

  There may be interest in having a server team member added to the MIR team. The idea would be for the server team member to review desktop packages, and vice versa. Interested server team members are urged to email arosales and Daviey.

  ACTION: email arosales/Daviey if interested in ubuntu-mir membership (s3h, 16:38:20)
  ACTION: arosales to follow up with Ursinha on best approach for blueprint management this cycle (s3h, 16:46:18)

• Announce next meeting date and time

  Tuesday May 29 at 1600 UTC. right here.

  Meeting ended at 16:51:06 UTC.

Votes

Action items

• zul talk to arosales and jamespage offline about SRU tracker
• zul to also pull Ursinha into SRU tracker talks
• email arosales/Daviey if interested in ubuntu-mir membership
• arosales to follow up with Ursinha on best approach for blueprint management this cycle

Action items, by person

• arosales
  • zul talk to arosales and jamespage offline about SRU tracker
  • email arosales/Daviey if interested in ubuntu-mir membership
  • arosales to follow up with Ursinha on best approach for blueprint management this cycle
• Daviey
  • email arosales/Daviey if interested in ubuntu-mir membership
• jamespage
  • zul talk to arosales and jamespage offline about SRU tracker
• Ursinha
  • zul to also pull Ursinha into SRU tracker talks
  • arosales to follow up with Ursinha on best approach for blueprint management this cycle
• zul
  • zul talk to arosales and jamespage offline about SRU tracker
  • zul to also pull Ursinha into SRU tracker talks

People present (lines said)

• s3h (75)
• SpamapS (56)
• arosales (23)
• zul (22)
• Daviey (19)
• jdstrand (16)
• Ursinha (15)
• rbasak (9)
• jamespage (8)
• smoser (7)
• ubottu (7)
• meetingology (7)
• roaksoax (5)
• smb (4)
• hggdh (4)
• jimbaker` (3)
• m_3 (3)
• lynxman (1)
• utlemming (1)

Today, Canonical and HP announced that Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS is to be certified and supported by HP on its Proliant Systems:

http://www.canonical.com/content/ubuntu-1204-lts-server-be-certified-supported-hp-proliant-systems

This is a huge announcement for us at Canonical. It’s also testament that HP sees real business benefits in offering certified and supported Proliant systems with Ubuntu Server. Arguably, however, the most significant aspect of the announcement is the implication that the next generation of computing requires a different model.

Big data and cloud computing are at the forefront of a move towards hyperscale distributed systems. To meet these new challenges, today’s IT departments need a proven developer-led technology that’s free from licensing restrictions.

Ubuntu Server is that technology. That’s why it is now the platform of choice for Openstack clouds and the only commercially-supported Linux distribution to be increasing its share of the online infrastructure market. Even on Amazon Web Services, Ubuntu Server reigns supreme – thanks to its technological and commercial advantages over other platforms.

HP has been working with Canonical for several years now and in that time, it has grown to understand where we sit in the IT ecosystem. The resulting announcement of support for Ubuntu on Proliant (alongside other Linux platforms) is a signal to organisations of all kinds that the IT landscape is changing.

One year ago, I had done my last day after thirteen years with Digital Equipment Corp which became Compaq, then HP.  After starting on Digital Unix/Tru64, I had evolved to a second level support position in the Linux Global Competency Center.

In a few days, on the 18th, I will have completed my first full year as a Canonical employee. I think it is time to take a few minutes to look back at that year.

Coming from a RHEL/SLES environment with a bit of Debian, my main asset was the fact that I  had been an Ubuntu user since 5.04, using it as my sole operating system on my corporate laptop. The first week in the new job was also a peculiar experience, as it brought me back to my native country and to Montréal, a city that I love and where I lived for three years.  So I was not totally lost in my new environment. I also had the chance of ramping up my knowledge of Ubuntu Server, which was an easy task.  What was more surprizing and became one of the most exciting part of the new job is to work in a completely dedicated opensource environment from day one.

Rapidly I became aware of the fact that, participating in the Ubuntu community was not only possible, but it was expected.  That if I were to find a bug, I needed to report it and, if possible find ways to fix it.  In my previous job I was looking for existing solutions, or bringing in enough elements to my L3 counterpart that they would be able to request a fix to Red Hat or Novell.  Here if I was able to identify the problem and suggest a solution, I was encouraged to propose it as the final fix.  I also rapidly found out that the developpers were no longer the remote engineers in some changelog file, but IRC nicks that I could chat with and eventually meet.

Then came about Openstack in the summer : a full week of work with colleagues aimed at getting to know the technology, trying to master concepts that were very vague back then and making things work.  Getting Swift Object Store up and running and trying to figure out how best this could be used.  Here I was asked to do one of the think I like best : learning by getting things to work. This lead to a better understanding of what a cloud architecture was all about and really made me understand how useful and interesting a cloud infrastructure can be. Oh, and I did get to build my first openstack cloud.

This was another of this past year’s great experience : UDS-P. I had heard of UDS-O when I joined but it was too early for me to attend.  But after six months around it was time for UDS-P and, this time, I would be there.  Not only I had time to meet a good chunk of developpers, but I also got a lot of work done.  Like helping Michael Terry fix a bug on Deja-Dup that would only appear on localized systems, get advices on fixing kdump with the kernel team and some of the foundation engineers and a whole lot more.

Then came back the normal work for our customers, fixing their issues, trying to help improve their support experience and get better at what we do. And also seeing some of my fixes make it into our upcoming distribution and also back to the existing ones.  This was a great thrill and an objective that I did not think would come by so fast.

Being part of the Ubuntu community has been a great addition to my career. This makes me want to do even more and get the best out of our collective efforts.

This was a great year. Sure hope that the next one will be even better.