Hi Atin, On 31/01/17 05:45, Atin Mukherjee wrote:
On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 9:02 PM, Xavier Hernandez <xhernandez@xxxxxxxxxx <mailto:xhernandez@xxxxxxxxxx>> wrote: Hi Atin, On 30/01/17 15:25, Atin Mukherjee wrote: On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 7:30 PM, Xavier Hernandez <xhernandez@xxxxxxxxxx <mailto:xhernandez@xxxxxxxxxx> <mailto:xhernandez@xxxxxxxxxx <mailto:xhernandez@xxxxxxxxxx>>> wrote: Hi, I'm wondering how a new option needs to be created to be available to different versions of gluster. When a new option is created for 3.7 for example, it needs to have a GD_OP_VERSION referencing the next 3.7 release. This ensures that there won't be any problem with previous versions. However what happens with 3.8 ? 3.8.0 is greater than any 3.7.x, however the new option won't be available until the next 3.8 release. How this needs to be handled ? I'd discourage to backport any new volume options from mainline to the stable releases branches like 3.7 & 3.8. This creates a lot of backward compatibility issues w.r.t clients. Any new option is actually an RFE and supposed to be slated for only upcoming releases. Even if it's needed to solve an issue in all versions ? For example, a hardcoded timeout is seen to be insufficient in some configurations, so it needs to be increased, but increasing it will be too much for many of the environments where the current timeout has worked fine. It could even be not enough for other environments still not tried, needed a future increase. With a new option, this can be solved case by case and only when needed. How can this be solved ? Hi Xavi, Let me try to explain this a bit in detail. A new option with an op-version say 30721 (considering 3.7.21 is the next update of 3.7 which is the oldest active branch) is introduced in mainline and then the same is backported to 3.7 (slated for 3.7.21) & 3.8 branch (slated for 3.8.9). Now say if an user forms a cluster of three nodes with gluster versions as 3.7.21, 3.8.9 & 3.8.8 respectively and tries to set this option, volume set would always fail as in 3.8.8 this option is not defined. Also any client running with 3.8 version would see a compatibility issue here. Also the op-version number of the new option has to be same across different release branches.
Thanks for the explanation. This confirms what I already thought. So the question is: now that 3.10 has already been branched, does it mean that any new option won't be available for LTS users until 3.12 is released ? I think this is not acceptable, specially for changes intended to fix an issue, not introducing new features.
With the current form of op-version management, I don't think this can be solved, the only way is to ask users to upgrade to the latest.
As I said, someone using 3.10 LTS won't be able to upgrade until 3.12 is released. What would we say to them when we add a new option to 3.11 ?
Maybe we should add a new kind of option that causes no failure if not recognized. They are simply ignored. Many options do not cause any visible functional change, so they could be defined even if some nodes of the cluster don't recognize them (for example performance improvement options or some timeout values).
Anyway, with the introduction of brick multiplexing, I think we should reconsider how options are negotiated. I think that the op-version infrastructure is not enough to handle multiplexed bricks because we won't be able to upgrade a single volume that needs some new feature. We would need to upgrade all volumes, including the clients, even if they do not need anything new.
What do you think ? Xavi
Kaushal - if you have any other ideas, please suggest. Thanks, Xavi Thanks, Xavi _______________________________________________ Gluster-devel mailing list Gluster-devel@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:Gluster-devel@xxxxxxxxxxx> <mailto:Gluster-devel@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:Gluster-devel@xxxxxxxxxxx>> http://lists.gluster.org/mailman/listinfo/gluster-devel <http://lists.gluster.org/mailman/listinfo/gluster-devel> <http://lists.gluster.org/mailman/listinfo/gluster-devel <http://lists.gluster.org/mailman/listinfo/gluster-devel>> -- ~ Atin (atinm) -- ~ Atin (atinm)
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