[ogb-discuss] Proposal for HA Clusters Community

[Nicholas Solter]

Hi Keith,

Keith M Wesolowski wrote:
> 
> My concerns here stem more from the fact that SunCluster is not a part
> of OpenSolaris, nor of Solaris.

Well, that depends on your definition of being part of Solaris. It's 
true that Sun Cluster is not part of the ON consolidation. However, 
about half of the Sun Cluster code is Solaris kernel code, including the 
heartbeats, file system, networking, etc. So I would argue that it is 
really a part of the broader Solaris technology, and thus belongs on 
OpenSolaris.


   If the intent is to integrate support
> for HA clustering into OpenSolaris proper through a series of projects
> aimed at incorporating the needed support into ON and other
> consolidations, then improving that work over time, a Community Group
> definitely sounds like the correct abstraction.  If the intent is just
> to capitalise on OpenSolaris as another venue for marketing a Sun
> product (open source or not) and "capturing developers", then I don't
> really feel it's appropriate at all.  But in the latter case, a
> project would be no more appropriate, whether in some Incubator
> Community Group or any other.  And while a project usually has code
> (or, more generally, artifacts) it produces for aggregation and
> integration by distributors, a Community Group does not.  So it's fine
> for this Group to have no code initially; it will presumably sponsor
> projects which do.
> 
> I suppose the core of my question, then, is this: would it be this
> Community Group's intent to enhance and improve support, via projects,
> for HA clustering in OpenSolaris?  Or would its intent be to itself
> manage and distribute additional source (perhaps as an additional
> consolidation, perhaps in some other as yet undefined structure)
> providing that support?

To start, at least, we intend to manage and distribute the source as a 
separate consolidation. I wouldn't rule out putting some HA cluster 
functionality into ON (and in fact personally think that would be a good 
path to follow), but I don't think that should be a requirement for 
participation on OpenSolaris. It seems to me that the specific 
consolidation in which the code lives is an architectural discussion 
that should take place in the community, not as a prerequisite for 
creating the community.

Thanks,
Nick