GridPP Testbed Rollout Procedure
[Rollout Document (doc)] [Rollout Document (pdf)]
This document briefly proposes how new releases of EDG software will be rolled-out across GridPP sites. Minor updates will be done in a less formal way, with site admins notified by EDG-level WP6 procedures (eg security patches publicised on the site admins list.)
New releases will initially be installed by UK WP6 people (ie at Bristol, Imperial, Manchester and RAL.) Other sites are welcome to install the release at this point but should not expect support effort for it to be available yet.
Ideally, problem solving at this stage will be discussed on the tb-support@jiscmail.ac.uk mailing list, which anyone can join and is archived for future reference.
Once the WP6 sites are up and a procedure that should work for any site is available, then more sites will be invited to test the installation procedure, documentation etc with "fresh eyes." There are still likely to be bugs in the installation procedure at this point, and sites volunteering for this stage will need to devote some effort to identifying symptoms and trying suggested solutions.
Once this has stabilised, all interested sites will be invited to install the release: by this point, installation instructions should be clear and not require previous grid experience, undocumented, ad-hoc fixes etc. (If necessary, GridPP will write notes to fill in gaps in the EDG installation documentation.)
Support will then be provided by tb-support mailing list on a best-effort basis and the Grid Support Centre with a formal ticket-based system.
(It is likely that the mailing list will often be the best source of quick answers; but that the GSC will provide a guaranteed response but is dependent on the workloads of the experts nominated in each area.)
A test suite will be published which sites can use to validate their installation. (This will be based on / be the WP6 test suite if possible.)
Sites ready to join the Testbed will first be tested using GridPP central resources (the Resource Broker at IC, GridPP VO etc) and once their functionality has been validated by WP6-UK, they will then be proposed to the EDG Testbed management.
So that the Testbed provides a genuinely useful resource for application developers and for the increasing number of public demonstrations, some frequent and automated validation of site functionality will be carried out.
In principle, we will need to repeat the whole rollout exercise every 2 months for EDG releases, although not all sites may have commitments (eg from experiments) to do this, and some releases will be marked as "development only" and not suited to widespread deployment.
Last modified Mon 21 April 2008 . View page history
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