Micro Release Exception for OpenvSwitch SRU's

[James Page]

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Hi Technical Board

I'd like to apply for a MRE for the openvswitch package for 12.04 and
above.

Background
- ----------

Quote (from upstream website - see [0]):

"OpenvSwitch is a production quality, multilayer virtual switch. It is
designed to enable massive network automation through programmatic
extension, while still supporting standard management interfaces and
protocols (e.g. NetFlow, sFlow, SPAN, RSPAN, CLI, LACP, 802.1ag). In
addition, it is designed to support distribution across multiple
physical servers."

OpenvSwitch is a core technology in OpenStack deployments that use
Neutron based networking; ensuring that we are up-to-date with the
latest bug-fixes for a given series is important to ensure the quality
of this package in Ubuntu.

Upstream Management
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Upstream (VMware/Nicira) actively maintain the branches associated
with the three releases we have right now between 12.04 and 13.10:

  12.04: 1.4.x
  12.10: 1.4.x
  13.04: 1.9.x
  13.10: 1.10.x

these branches get predominately bug-fix only updates so they would
appear to fit with the requirements for a MRE for this package (see
[1] for details).

It also worth noting that these versions of OpenvSwitch form part of
Nicira's commercial Network Virtualization Platform offering, so the
upstream focus on quality is high.

Ubuntu Testing
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The package build runs an extensive set of unit tests on the userspace
daemons and we have DEP-8 tests (see [2]) that exercise the DKMS
kernel modules and integration with the userspace tooling post build.

As OpenvSwitch is a core component for OpenStack, the Ubuntu Server
Team would also smoke test the proposed minor release updates as part
of the automated testing activity that we undertake for OpenStack itself.

I hope this information gives the technical board sufficient
confidence that OpenvSwitch is worthy of a minor release exception for
SRU activity.

Thanks

James

[0] http://www.openvswitch.org
[1] http://git.openvswitch.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=openvswitch;a=summary
[2]
https://jenkins.qa.ubuntu.com/view/Saucy/view/AutoPkgTest/job/saucy-adt-openvswitch/
- -- 
James Page
Ubuntu and Debian Developer
james.page at ubuntu.com
jamespage at debian.org
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