Markdown Version | Session Recording

Session Date/Time: 12 Dec 2023 19:00

TOOLS

Summary

The TOOLS working group discussed the significant ongoing infrastructure transition to AWS and updates on various service migrations, including the Mailman 3 and Yang Catalog. Key data tracker deployments for Feed RFC and model refactoring are imminent. Improvements to Post-Confirm are rolling out, and a specific issue with messages being lost after multiple Post-Confirm iterations has been resolved. The IAB website transition to Wagtail and Wiki.js is progressing, targeting completion in January. A lengthy discussion occurred regarding the presentation of Internet Drafts on the data tracker, with a general sense favoring an incremental improvement to display HTML-formatted views. Finally, a proposal to leverage Gravatar for user profile photos to streamline management and reduce PII storage was discussed, finding general agreement on the principle.

Key Discussion Points

• Infrastructure Transition:

  • Work is underway with Sirius and Painless Security for defining and building new infrastructure, primarily in AWS. Digital Ocean will continue to be used for specific services, such as the HashiCorp Vault for secret storage.
  • Initial services like Analytics and Author Tools, which require minimal changes, are slated for early transition.
  • The Yang Catalog transition is non-trivial due to its current Pantheon deployment arrangement, which expires at year-end. This is a priority.
  • Mailman 3 is planned for an in-place transition on the existing IETF infrastructure before the entire mail chain moves, expected late December/early January. A community notification will precede this change.
  • Some services will require significant structural refactoring during their migration. A slide deck overview of the infrastructure structure is available.

• Data Tracker Updates:

  • Feed RFC Deployment: Scheduled for a short (approx. 15 minutes) planned downtime immediately following this call.
  • Model Refactoring: Another major deployment is expected soon (potentially next week) to replace direct Django user table references with data tracker person table references. This change may affect users of the V1 API, though the models are considered obscure enough to limit widespread disruption.
  • Velocity: Noted a massive increase in data tracker development velocity over the past 12 months.

• Post-Confirm Improvements:

  • A PR from John LaVine addressing DMARC rejections and tweaking envelope 'from' addresses will be deployed later this week or early next week, tested on live infrastructure.
  • Post-Confirm is being reimplemented in the new email infrastructure, splitting its rewriting and challenging functions.
  • Instrumentation of the current Post-Confirm reveals it handles approximately 4,000 spam messages daily.
  • An issue where messages traversing Post-Confirm multiple times (e.g., via lists subscribed to other lists or aliases) were lost, was corrected shortly after IETF 118, and affected lists have been remediated.

• IAB Website Transition:

  • The IAB has signed off on the new Wagtail-based website.
  • A temporary workaround is in place for a sidebar menu issue, allowing manual entry of child pages until a permanent fix.
  • A list of necessary page redirects is being compiled.
  • The public IAB MediaWiki has been migrated to Wiki.js, completed last week, and is pending final sign-off.
  • The full transition is anticipated to be completed in January.

• Internet Draft Document Views:

  • A discussion was held regarding consolidating or improving the various ways Internet Drafts are presented (Doc Page, text pages, doc HTML pages).
  • Lars proposed replacing the plain text view at the bottom of the data tracker's Doc Page with an HTML-formatted view (using ID to HTML), which offers links and improved readability.
  • Questions were posed about whether to accept this change, remove the embedded view entirely, refactor the existing HTML page, or wait for a UX expert.
  • A sense of those present indicated support for accepting Lars's change as an incremental improvement, recognizing that a more comprehensive UX redesign might be needed later. Some participants expressed a preference for the existing text view's simplicity or layout.

• Internet Draft Banner:

  • Discussions within the ISG and with Stream Managers about adding a banner to unadopted Internet Drafts and non-stream RFCs to clarify their standing appear to have concluded. Awaiting an artifact from Roman to proceed with the associated PR.

• March TOOLS Call Rescheduling:

  • A proposal was made to shift the March TOOLS call forward by one week due to anticipated travel conflicts for many participants. No objections were raised.

• Gravatar Usage:

  • Lars proposed adding a data tracker preference (defaulting to on) to use Gravatar for user profile photos, allowing users to disable it if concerned about the service, in which case they would not have a profile photo.
  • It was noted that Meico already checks data tracker then Gravatar, and Zulip directly uses Gravatar.
  • Discussion points included the implications for OIDC, the potential for users to have different Gravatar images for different email contexts, and the strategic benefit of getting out of the business of manually managing user photos (reducing PII storage and administrative overhead).
  • General agreement was reached on the principle of using external services like Gravatar for profile photos. The existence of federated open-source alternatives like Avvatar was also mentioned.

• FYI Sections: Additional FYI sections and development project reports were presented and taken as read.

Decisions and Action Items

• Decisions:

  • Accepted the change to replace the plain text view of Internet Drafts on the Doc Page with an HTML-formatted version (htmlz), as an incremental improvement. A broader UX redesign will be considered at a later date.
  • The March TOOLS call will be shifted forward by one week.
  • Agreed in principle to transition away from storing user profile photos directly in IETF services, opting instead to leverage external services like Gravatar.

• Action Items:

  • Robert: Send a note to the community regarding the Mailman 3 transition timeline.
  • Robert: Follow up with Roman concerning the artifact for the Internet Draft banner deployment.
  • Robert: Send a note to the TOOLS list confirming the reschedule of the March call.
  • Cindy: Compile the list of page redirects required for the IAB website transition.
  • Cindy: Coordinate with Maria on additional content updates for the IAB website.

Next Steps

• Deploy Feed RFC with planned short downtime.
• Deploy Data Tracker model refactoring (target: next week).
• Deploy Post-Confirm improvements (target: late this week / early next week).
• Continue with the infrastructure transition, prioritizing Analytics, Author Tools, and Yang Catalog.
• Execute the in-place transition of Mailman 3.
• Complete the IAB website transition to Wagtail and Wiki.js by January.
• Further explore and implement the use of Gravatar for user profile photos.
• Plan for a future comprehensive UX redesign of Internet Draft document views.