[ofiwg] OFIWG Meeting Minutes 10/06/2026

[Xiong, Jianxin]

Participants
Alexander Oganezov (HPE)
Fnu Harishjitu Saseendran (Intel)
Jerome Soumagne (HPE)
Jianxin Xiong (Working Group Chair) (Intel)
Ken Raffenetti (Cornelis)
Naveen Ravi (HPE)
Naveen Ravi (HPE)
Rajalaxmi (Intel)
Ryan Menhusen (HPE)
Shi Jin (AWS)
Stephen Oost (Intel)
Zach Dworkin (Intel)

Overview
Key participants: the Working Group Chair leads the discussion; Ken Raffenetti (Cornelis) and rajalaxmi (Intel) contribute key points; Shi Jin (AWS) and others provide brief input. The meeting centers on migrating community infrastructure because the Open Fabric Alliance (OFA) is winding down services by year-end, which will terminate the OFA calendar, Webex hosting, and primary mailing lists. The Chair reports OFA plans a web archive to preserve historical workshops and materials, but the Working Group must secure new hosting and communication services to avoid losing operational capabilities.

After discussing options, the group identifies the High Performance Software Foundation (HPSF) - a Linux Foundation sub-organization - as the leading candidate for migration. The Chair notes HPSF already hosts related projects (Flux, Open MPI, MPICH), provides enterprise calendar and Zoom hosting, and can offer an enterprise Slack instance that retains history. Membership in HPSF does not require all contributing companies to be HPSF members, and the Chair reports one technical sponsor is available while HPSF representatives have agreed to help find a second sponsor.
The group reviews onboarding requirements for creating a new HPSF project: a project proposal, license information, a code of conduct, and governance practices. The Chair will draft and submit two core files (code of conduct and governance) as pull requests, drawing from existing templates used by MPICH and Flux. Ken requests that governance include a documented security incident response procedure; the Chair agrees to add mechanisms for security review and issue resolution. Rajalaxmi confirms OFA will provide onboarding and legal support, including handling trademark transitions if needed.

Decisions and commitments: the Working Group agrees to pursue HPSF onboarding, the Chair commits to drafting and opening pull requests for the code of conduct and governance files for community review, and the group will start the process promptly since the application may take a month or longer. The HPSF annual conference is noted by Ken Raffenetti as a possible venue for future project meetings. Remaining concerns to address include finalizing governance details (roles, contribution workflows, conflict resolution), explicitly documenting security response procedures, and ensuring successful sponsorship for HPSF application.

Detailed Summary
OFA service winding down
The group discusses the Open Fabric Alliance (OFA) winding down its services by the end of the year, which will discontinue the OFA calendar, Webex meeting hosting, and main mailing lists. This matters because the Working Group needs to ensure continuity of historical materials (workshop/seminar archives) and operational infrastructure for meetings and communication. The current state is that OFA plans to provide a web archive for past content, but the group must identify new hosting and communication arrangements before services end.

  *   Working Group Chair states that OFA is winding down services by year-end and that calendar, Webex hosting, and the main mailing list will be lost.

  *   Working Group Chair notes OFA plans to publish a web archive containing past workshops, seminars, presentations, and maintenance archives to preserve historical information.

  *   Working Group Chair emphasizes the need to find an organization to provide calendar, meeting, and mailing-list infrastructure before OFA services go offline.

HPSF as migration option
The group evaluates joining the High Performance Software Foundation (HPSF) - a Linux Foundation sub-organization - as the preferred migration destination for project hosting and community infrastructure. This option matters because HPSF already hosts related projects and offers enterprise calendar/meeting hosting, Slack history retention, and GitHub organization support. The current state is preliminary: discussions with HPSF representatives occurred and the Working Group Chair proposes initiating a project within HPSF and preparing required project files.

  *   Working Group Chair reports that HPSF is the leading candidate and that several related projects (Flux, Open MPI, MPICH) already participate.

  *   Working Group Chair says joining HPSF provides access to enterprise calendar, enterprise Zoom meeting hosting, and an enterprise Slack instance that can retain history.

  *   Working Group Chair notes HPSF membership does not require every company in the project to be an HPSF member, but two technical sponsor members are needed and one sponsor has agreed to help secure the other.

Project onboarding requirements
The group reviews the required materials and processes to create a new project under HPSF, including a project proposal template, license info, code of conduct, and governance practices. These requirements matter because they define how the project governs contributions, role definitions, decision-making, and conflict resolution under the HPSF umbrella. The current state is that templates exist on HPSF/GitHub and the Working Group Chair plans to draft two core files (code of conduct and governance) and submit pull requests for review.

  *   Working Group Chair explains HPSF provides a project proposal template that includes license, code of conduct, and governance practice requirements.

  *   Working Group Chair says many elements are straightforward and can be adapted from existing projects' templates on the HPSF GitHub organization.

  *   Working Group Chair plans to create the code of conduct and governance documents, open pull requests, and ask the community to review and merge them into the repository for the HPSF application.

Code of conduct adoption
The group examines adopting an existing common code of conduct rather than drafting a new one from scratch. This matters to ensure community standards and contributor expectations are clearly stated to meet HPSF requirements. The current state is that a common contributor code of conduct is identified and the Chair suggests reusing it with minor or no changes, consistent with what other projects have done.

  *   Working Group Chair points to an existing contributor code of conduct used by other projects and suggests reusing it with minimal changes.

  *   Working Group Chair observes that many projects copy the same baseline code of conduct, noting MPICH as an example.

Governance practice drafting
The group discusses drafting a governance practice document outlining team structure, repo administration, contribution workflows, review and merge requirements, and conflict resolution. This matters because formal governance clarifies roles, contribution standards, and decision processes for a healthy project under HPSF. The current state is that the Chair and group plan to borrow patterns from projects like MPICH and Flux and produce a governance file describing roles (administrators, contributors), review rules, and leadership definition.

  *   Working Group Chair outlines governance topics to include team definition, administrator roles, contribution and pull-request processes, and conflict resolution procedures.

  *   Working Group Chair suggests taking guidance from existing projects like MPT and Flux to create a governance practice that fits the group's needs.

  *   Working Group Chair emphasizes the need to define leadership roles and how project membership and responsibilities are assigned.

Security incident response
A member raises the need to include a security incident response section in governance documentation to address code-flagged vulnerabilities or security reports. This matters because having a documented procedure for security issues increases trust and prepares the project to respond to vulnerabilities and external disclosures. The current state is that the group acknowledges the need and plans to add a security review/incident response mechanism to the governance materials.

  *   Ken Raffenetti requests a documented procedure in the governance for responding to security findings or flagged vulnerabilities.

  *   Working Group Chair agrees and notes the project already performs routine quality testing and will include a mechanism for security reviews and issue resolution in governance.

HPSF conference opportunity
The group considers HPSF's annual conference as a potential venue for project meetings or an annual gathering in the absence of OFA workshops. This matters because it offers an established event and physical venue for community engagement and coordination. The current state is that Ken highlights the conference (next in April in Montreal) and the Chair acknowledges it as a promising option to host project meetings.

  *   Ken Raffenetti suggests using the HPSF yearly conference as an alternative venue for an annual project meeting and notes they provide application-based space within the conference.

  *   Ken Raffenetti informs the group that the next HPSF conference is in April in Montreal and that he has attended previously and found it valuable.

Legal and trademark transitions
The group touches on legal aspects, especially trademarks for 'libfabric' and OFI, which may need transfer or re-ownership during migration to HPSF. This matters to ensure continuity of project branding and to handle IP/trademark transitions correctly. The current state is that OFA will assist with onboarding and legal support, and trademark transfers would be handled by OFA as part of the migration process.

  *   rajalaxmi (Intel) states that OFA board will assist with onboarding and any required legal support.

  *   Working Group Chair notes potential trademark issues (e.g., fabric name and OFA identifiers) and expects OFA to handle trademark ownership transitions as part of the process.

Next steps and timeline
The group agrees to start the onboarding process proactively, preparing required files and submitting them to HPSF well before OFA fully ceases services; the application process may take at least a month or longer. This matters to avoid service gaps and ensure continuity of meetings, mail lists, and archives. The current state is consensus to proceed, the Chair will create the code of conduct and governance pull requests, and community review is requested.

  *   Working Group Chair says the onboarding process takes time (at least one month) and they prefer to start before OFA stops all activities.

  *   Working Group Chair commits to creating and submitting the code of conduct and governance files as pull requests for community review.
Working Group Chair requests objections and, receiving none, notes the group agrees to pursue HPSF onboarding.

Jianxin Xiong
Fabric Software
Intel Corporation
Jianxin.xiong at intel.com

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