[openfabrics-ewg] IBED Positioning Statement: Draft 2

Mon Apr 10 18:43:30 PDT 2006

Looks good, here's my feedback

Maybe "modules that are not part of the kernel" should be "modules that
are not yet part of kernel.org"?

You are inconsistent about "OSU MPI" vs "MVAPICH", maybe call it "OSU
MVAPICH MPI" everywhere?

Scott

________________________________

	From: openfabrics-ewg-bounces at openib.org
[mailto:openfabrics-ewg-bounces at openib.org] On Behalf Of Shawn Hansen
(shahanse)
	Sent: Monday, April 10, 2006 5:57 PM
	To: Openfabrics-ewg at openib.org
	Subject: [openfabrics-ewg] IBED Positioning Statement: Draft 2

	All,

	I've attached a second draft to the IBED positioning statement.

	We will discuss this in tomorrow's EWG conference call.

	-----------------------------------------

	All,

	We are pleased to announce the creation of the InfiniBand
Enterprise Distribution (IBED), under the direction of the OpenFabrics
Enterprise Working Group.

	IBED is a distribution of InfiniBand software that includes the
OpenFabrics 1.0 release, along with other additional software outside of
the scope of the release, such as MPI.

	Frequently Asked Questions
	--------------------------

	Q: What is the Enterprise Working Group?

	The EWG is a group of hardware vendors that will sell products
based on OpenFabrics.  The purpose of this group is to coordinate how to
provide a single commercially supportable distribution of OpenFabrics
software to their customers that guarantees cross-vendor
interoperability.

	Q: Why is IBED required?

	- Enterprise customers will have solution-level requirements
that are outside the scope of the 1.0 release, such as the distribution
of MPI stacks, support for pre-2.6.16 kernels, etc.  The goal of IBED is
to address this need.  Without IBED, each InfiniBand vendor would create
their own distribution of OpenFabrics to accomplish this goal, and may
not be interoperable.

	Q: Does IBED compete with the OpenFabrics release?

	- No, there is only one OpenFabrics release.  IBED is a
distribution that includes the OpenFabrics 1.0 release. The OpenFabrics
1.0 release and IBED share the same user-level code (libraries,
management utilities, etc.)  The code for both is taken from the 1.0
branch. 

	Q: Is IBED development happening in the open?

	- Yes, IBED uses the OpenFabrics bugzilla for bug reporting, and
all discussions can be viewed on the Enterprise Working Group mailing
list. All IBED development is done on the 1.0 branch under the ibed
directory.  Anyone can access release candidates, test them, observe
bugs and discussions, report bugs, and comment.

	Q: How does IBED differ from the OpenFabrics release?

	- The OpenFabrics release contains only user-level code, while
the IBED distribution also adds InfiniBand kernel modules that are under
OpenFabrics development, including modules that are not part of the
kernel (like iSER, RDS, and SDP).

	- IBED will include two MPI packages that are not part of Open
Fabrics: OSU MPI and Open MPI.

	- IBED is packaged for end-user installation.

	- IBED supports distribution with older kernels (e.g. Redhat EL4
up2)

	Q: What is the software release process for IBED and how does it
relate to the OpenFabrics release?

	The release build is done using the following method:

	1.      Any module that is already in the kernel will be taken
from the git tree that is targeted for next kernel release

	2.      Kernel modules that are not in Linux kernel will be
taken from openFabrics SVN trunk or in extraordinary cases, from SVN
contrib. 

	3.      All user space code is taken from the 1.0 branch. IBED
group will make sure the right patches from the trunk are updated to the
branch.

	4.      MPI:
	Open MPI - Provided by OpenMPI developers.
	MVAPICH - Based on OSU release.
	Both tarballs are placed in OpenFabrics web site.

	5.      IBED build & install scripts: all relevant scripts are
placed under a specific directory for IBED release under the 1.0 branch.

	6.      Back port patches: patches directory will be also under
the IBED directory in the 1.0 branch. 

	The release process:

	The release coordinator will build the release candidate
(IBED-rcX) and publish it on OpenFabrics (approximately every 2 weeks).

	Each IBED vendor is responsible to test the components under his
ownership. Bugs are reported through bugzilla and fixes are provided to
the general list.

	Q: What is the anticipated release schedule?

	Mid-May

	Q: What components will be included in IBED and how is this
decided?

	- Components will include:

	 - HCA driver - mthca
	 - HCA driver - ipath
	 - Core
	 - IPoIB
	 - SDP
	 - RDS 
	 - SRP initiator
	 - iSER initiator
	 - OSU MPI
	 - Open MPI
	 - uDAPL
	 - OpenSM 
	 - Diagnostic tools
	 - Performance tests

	The decision to include components is based on customer demand
and level of robustness and stability. Some of the components will be
released as a "technology preview." <<define>>

	Q: When bugs are found, how will they be fixed?

	-         Fixes to release candidates are coordinated by the
IBED release coordinator and maintainers in a controlled fashion. Each
bug found is first fixed on the trunk, and then merged into the release
branch.

	-         Patches will be made available as RC updates, and fed
back to OpenFabrics SVN continuously.

	-         Availability of patches will not be gated by
acceptance of patches into OpenFabrics SVN.

	-         Urgent bug fixes can be directly delivered to
customers by the distros or vendors, but are rolled into a standard
release as quickly as possible.  The goal is to ensure that fixes are
standardized and make it to the next general release.

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