On Mon, May 03, 2021 at 09:14:11PM +0000, Dave Dykstra wrote:
> Here's a presentation at HEPiX'21 from CERN that's publicly available:
>     https://indico.cern.ch/event/995485/contributions/4256466/

Thank you for the link, I was not aware of this presentation.

For further reading, it contains a link to the March meeting of the linux
future committee: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1019875/

All materials are publically available, the zoom chat transcript requires
a CERN login (which I have), I am reading through the stuff now.


First impressions from the HEPIX presentation:

- there is no explanation how CentOS Stream is a technically acceptable replacement
for CentOS Linux. There is many questions here, none answered.

- there is no suggestion of reviving the CERN+FermiLab collaboration
(named SL or otherwise). This is surprising, if Princeton can roll out
a "new centos", CERN+Fermilab have even more resources to do same.

- there is no suggestion of CERN providing extended support for CentOS-8. To me, this would be the obvious path forward.

- first slide of "distribution landscape" is nonsense, with everybody stuck with el7 for another 3 years and bye, bye, c++14, c++17, c++20.

- second slide of "distribution landscape" has LHC experiments changing horses in the middle of Run 3. Good luck with that.

- no discussion of "red hat takedown/takeover of centos, 2.0" scenario for Rocky Linux & co.


First impressions from the "linux future" meeting in March:

- 30 minutes of our Troy Dawson leading Red Hat's video presentation: https://videos.cern.ch/record/2756480 (where they say "rail", they mean RHEL, took me a while to catch this)

- "CC7 is not an option to use for RUN3 at CMS", page 4, https://indico.cern.ch/event/1019875/attachments/2214410/3751654/lfc002.pdf

- support for 64-bit ARM is a requirement (good, but what about existing 32-bit ARM and 32-bit x86 machines?)

- page 5, key take away, "Most likely moving to CS8 is your best option, as this allows for a trivial upgrade path to EL8 at a later date".

(Is this true? Can somebody point me to the instructions for upgrading Centos Stream 8 to RHEL 8? A quick google search finds nothing)

- Linux BOF slides https://indico.cern.ch/event/995485/sessions/386343/attachments/2209929/3739897/hepixLinuxBoFMarch16th2021.pdf
- Linux BOF 82 min video https://videos.cern.ch/record/2756412

- Ben Maurice slides https://codimd.web.cern.ch/p/Zcc5CqncC#/1

- zoom chat (requires cern login) - all questions raised are reflected in Ben Maurice slides.


Bottom line.

All arrows point at CentOS Stream, but there is no review/evaluation of it's technical suitability
for HEP specific needs. Good/bad/etc compared to el7 and compared to non-RPM alternatives (ubuntu,
etc). And there is many questions, none answered.

It looks like everybody will have to do their own evaluation and decide for themselves.

P.S.

Do watch Troy's video!


-- 
Konstantin Olchanski
Data Acquisition Systems: The Bytes Must Flow!
Email: olchansk-at-triumf-dot-ca
Snail mail: 4004 Wesbrook Mall, TRIUMF, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 2A3, Canada