[Bug 1919451] Re: Update (python-)zhmcclient to latest release

[Łukasz Zemczak]

Thank you Robie, Lukas and Frank for working on this SRU. I think with
proper analysis performed in #12 and additional context in #11, I am
happy to get this accepted for both hirsute and focal. Please be sure to
perform proper verification.

** Changed in: zhmcclient (Ubuntu Hirsute)
       Status: In Progress => Fix Committed

** Tags added: verification-needed verification-needed-hirsute

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Title:
  Update (python-)zhmcclient to latest release

Status in Ubuntu on IBM z Systems:
  Fix Committed
Status in zhmcclient package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in zhmcclient source package in Focal:
  Fix Committed
Status in zhmcclient source package in Hirsute:
  Fix Committed

Bug description:
  [Impact]

  In order to remotely power-cycle IBM z14 GA2 (or newer) or IBM
  LinuxONE III (or newer) machines/LPARs from within a MAAS controller,
  the python3-zhmcclient libraray (>= v0.29) is needed, to provide all
  the functions required for controlling the HMC.

  [Test Plan]
   * setup a MAAS controller inside a LPAR
   * use that controller to deploy a new Ubuntu Server instance in an additional LPAR
   * use that controller to deploy a new Ubuntu Server instance inside a KVM host (inside another LPAR)
   * Power-cycle the LPAR instance
   * Power-cycle the KVM instance
   * on top and for regression testing the example (as shipped by the zhmcclient) can be ran as well (as far as possible on a non-DPM HMC setup):
  https://github.com/zhmcclient/python-zhmcclient/tree/master/examples

  Also get confirmation from the MAAS team that things are working as
  expected.

  [Where problems could occur]

  This library is s390x only and zhmcclient isn’t widely used yet, it has very limited exposure within the s390 environment. If we would be hit by a regression, we would not be able to power-cycle or deploy any LPAR (or KVM host inside LPAR) machine, using a Focal-based MAAS controller.
  This is basically also the status quo, as the current version in Focal (v0.22) does not allow for that functionality either.

  Reviewing the changes/commits starting from 0.28 to 0.31 (68 + 37 + 27
  + 15 commits) let me think that these are largely unintrusive, just a
  few new features were added (like DPM Capacity Groups), the docs,
  examples and lots of meta updated, error and exception handling
  refined <important>, and last but not least several important bugs
  fixed (for installation, .find for objects <again important>,
  certificates, missing argument in method) - some of them were
  identified during the development of DPM/LPAR support in MAAS earlier
  this year (for example LP#1916475).

  Therefore, and because the zhmcclient is not wide-spread yet (since
  MAAS v3.0 is the first version that can make use of it and was just
  made available on June the 22nd), it's for accessing and managing Z
  systems only via the HMC API, which not many organizations allow (in
  general - for security reasons) and because v0.31 was the version that
  was already used for development _nd final product testing (these days
  as a git clone), makes me rating the regression risk as low.

  [Other Info]
  * https://maas.io/docs/snap/3.0/ui/power-management#heading--configure-use-ibm-z
  * As this is only used on MAAS controllers, running LTS releases, the backport is not needed for Hirsute 21.04
  * The new package dependencies are fulfilled in Focal:
    - python3-requests >= 2.20.1 (focal contains 2.22.0-2ubuntu1 in main)
    - python3-decorator >= 4.0.11 (focal contains 4.4.2-0ubuntu1 in main)

  === Original description ===

  While working on MAAS DPM/LPAR it turned out that a newer python-
  zhmcclient (package zhmcclient) is needed to get certain functions
  work, like especially storage group support.

  The latest is package is v0.27 on hirsute and v0.22 on focal.

  v0.28 is currently the latest release, but 0.29 is coming shortly.
  https://github.com/zhmcclient/python-zhmcclient/issues/731

  Hence an updated package (ideally to 0.29) is needed for focal (knowing that this will require a good justification: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates).
  Please notice that MAAS was the only reason why the zhmcclient package was created at all.

  The updated package is especially needed for focal, since focal is the
  recommended base distro for MAAS DPM/LPAR, hence this would require a
  special SRU (for this package version bump).

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