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At 09:16 PM 1/30/2008, Chet Mehta wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""><font size=2>Robert,
</font><br><br>
<font size=2>In response to your question......</font> <br>
<tt><font face="Lucida Console" size=2>> A more general question I
would like to ask the group is how many people use OFED from the RH or
SUSE distros as</font></tt> <br>
<tt><font face="Lucida Console" size=2>> is, as compared with using
OFED releases from other sources like the IB vendors, or building their
own from </font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Lucida Console" size=2>> openfabrics.org? We use
RH distros, but to this point, the OFED support provided in RH distros
has lagged </font></tt> <br>
<tt><font face="Lucida Console" size=2>> behind the latest releases
available from openfabrics.org. This is not to fault Red Hat, but
OFED is still </font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Lucida Console" size=2>> changing too rapidly, with
minor point releases and bug fixes, for a distro to keep up. I
think many of us hope</font></tt> <br>
<tt><font face="Lucida Console" size=2>> that someday that will not be
the case, but appears to be true for the foreseeable future. Right
now, our mode </font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Lucida Console" size=2>> of operation is to remove
whatever IB support comes in the distro and replace it, so it does not
help us to </font></tt><br>
<tt><font face="Lucida Console" size=2>> delay OFED 1.3 to get a
particular bug fix in a distro.</font></tt> </blockquote><br><br>
We have found that there are some vendors who dictate that they will only
support a Distro EX: RHXXX. Then if you layer the latest OFED
on top, then the support is nullified. Or to get any bug fixes or support
you have to uninstall the what you did and repeat the bug/error. SO I
think it is very important to keep the Distros very close the latest OFED
stack.<br><br>
<br><br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""><font size=2>I believe the
question that should be asked is "'How many IB customers would like
to use the OFED distribution if provided by the distro?" The
answer at least for the customer set we deal with is pretty much
unanimous. The fact is that customers are already dealing with a distro
for their base OS so obtaining the interconnect code & support from
the same sources is highly desirable. When OpenIB was new (in 2004/5) and
"common" IB code was still in its infancy, the customer set was
tolerant of 'build your own' or vendor provided distribution mechanism.
However if IB is to become a ubiquitous interconnect, we in OFA have to
strive to tailor our deliverables to meet distro requirements. Until we
do that, IB will have difficultly gaining broader market
acceptance.</font> <br><br>
<font size=2>Just my perspective.</font> <br><br>
<font size=2>:Chet.</font> <br>
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