Session Date/Time: 13 Feb 2024 19:00

TOOLS

Summary

The TOOLS working group discussed the ongoing IETF infrastructure transition, including the shift to sprint-based development and the status of application migrations. Key challenges with Mailman 3 migration, a new IESG website, and issues with document banners (feat Clarity) were covered. Updates on RFC email aliases, Yang Catalog, DataTracker, and the RPC editor were also provided, highlighting a reduced velocity for new features and bug fixes due to the infrastructure work.

Key Discussion Points

IETF Infrastructure Transition:
- Work is fervently ongoing, with a shift to Sprint-based development.
- Author Tools and the three major Wikis are now in production on the new infrastructure, receiving positive feedback.
- Challenges remain in providing a completion roadmap due to unpredictability, but periodic updates will continue via tools-discuss and meetings.
- Focus is on getting databases and persistent storage in place for most applications.
- Difficult applications like the DataTracker and the primary IETF web server are not yet in staging for load testing, but progress is being made.
- A necessary architecture change (moving away from Fargate for Kubernetes backing) in December/January added time but was crucial for stability.
- Changes to systems like the DataTracker will be avoided as IETF 119 approaches to prevent disruption; production deployments may be deferred until after the meeting.
Mailman 3 Migration:
- Deployment planned for the previous weekend was deferred due to uncovered issues during testing.
- A critical issue identified is the non-functional "global whitelist mechanic" in Mailman 3, which allows DataTracker account holders (e.g., ID posters) to post to any list. A developer is building necessary extensions to Mailman 3.
- Other issues include ensuring correct plumbing through Postfix and Post-confirm, and completing end-to-end message flow tests.
- The next deployment attempt is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday morning (US time), as the original Monday target is a US holiday.
- Current focus is on functionality; performance tuning is expected post-migration.
- The current mail processing system handles nearly 5 million messages per month.
New IESG Website:
- A new IESG website was put into production yesterday.
- A bug was identified where ietf.org does not redirect to www.ietf.org.
Feat Clarity (Document Banners):
- The "feat Clarity" project (adding banners to Internet-Drafts and RFCs in the DataTracker) appears to be stalled with the IESG.
- The specific blocking point is an outstanding question about a normative-looking reference to Warren's draft.
RFC Email Aliases:
- An unintentional bug in last month's "feat RFC" release caused RFC pages to display email links like RFCXXXX@ietf.org.
- A fix is in progress to point these links to the last draft alias if one exists, or remove the link if the RFC did not originate from a draft.
- An extended discussion on the existence and domain of these aliases is ongoing on tools-discuss.
Post-confirm Change:
- A change to Post-confirm in late January to modify the envelope-from for aliases has made draft and group aliases much more useful, with improved delivery to major mail silos.
Author Tools Analytics:
- This PHP application's self-maintaining code leaves artifacts, making "deploy as code" challenging. It was initially deployed once. The team plans to capture necessary artifacts for future "as code" deployment.
Yang Catalog:
- The Yang Catalog instance is deployed in DigitalOcean, but issues persist with redeploying configuration as code from Pantheon.
- Environment variables are suspected to be causing problems with the tree display.
- Development on Yang Catalog has low priority due to the infrastructure transition, and community help is welcomed.
DataTracker Updates:
- Velocity for bug fixes and new features is currently reduced due to the infrastructure transition work.
- Periodic tasks (e.g., draft expiration) are being migrated from cron jobs to Celery tasks in preparation for a cloud environment.
- Scheduled task times are being adjusted, with an eventual goal of universal UTC time for all services in production (presentation layer will still show local time zones).
RPC Editor:
- The RPC tools modernization project is developing an editor primarily for the RFC Production Center (RPC) editors.
- It is intended to eventually be useful for community members, but the current focus is on RPC use cases.
XML2RFC Subseries References (Issue 1100):
- Discussion continues regarding the format of subseries references in RFCs.
- Concerns from the RPC Editor relate to the appearance of subseries with only one comprising RFC (e.g., BCPs, STDs) versus those with multiple.
- The RPC Editor is currently developing requirements for these different cases, impacting the XML2RFC work. The interplay between XML2RFC and RPC Editor work is noted as slow.

Decisions and Action Items

Infrastructure: Continue sending periodic updates to tools-discuss and reporting in venues like this.
Mailman 3: The next deployment attempt is nudged to Tuesday morning (US time) due to a US holiday on Monday.
IESG Website: Casara to investigate and address the ietf.org not redirecting to www.ietf.org bug.
Feat Clarity: Greg to send an email to Roman to clarify the outstanding normative reference issue. Worst case, this will be discussed at the IESG Formal meeting on Thursday.
Yang Catalog: Robert to liaise with Joe Clark to further address Yang Catalog issues and consider involving other informed community members.

Next Steps

Infrastructure Transition: Continue moving applications to the new infrastructure, with an awareness of IETF 119 deadlines.
Mailman 3: Proceed with the planned deployment attempt on Tuesday morning (US time).
Feat Clarity: Resolve the normative reference issue with the IESG.
RFC Email Aliases: Allow community discussion on tools-discuss to play out regarding the long-term approach for these aliases.
Development Velocity: Expect an increase in velocity for bug fixes and new features for DataTracker and other services once the IT infrastructure transition work is complete.
Next TOOLS Call: The upcoming TOOLS call (after IETF 119) may be canceled due to travel and the code sprint, but notice will be given.