[ovirt-devel] Container-based CI backend for oVirt

*What are we talking about exactly?* The CI team had been doing work over the last few weeks to create and enable a container-based CI backend that is usable as an alternative for the legacy VM-and-chroot backend we've been using so far. *Why?* 1. *You asked for it: *We've been approached by several developer teams asking for this kind of functionality 2. *Faster:* The new backend requires far less setup overhead then the legacy one, and therefore would allow jobs to start and finish faster 3. *More flexible: *The old backend allowed specifying build/test dependencies in terms of RPM packages, the container based one uses container images for this which are far more flexible 4. *More versatile:* There were some limits to what could be done reliably with chroots. The greater isolation provided by containers would provide better testing capabilities 5. *Less maintenance:* With the legacy backend, the CI team had to take the time and provide support for every new release of a target distribution, the new backend is designed to allow using upstream container images directly therefore letting developers use them as soon as they are released instead of having to wait for the CI team to provide support. *Tell me more!* A pending documentation update describing the new features and how to use them can be found here: - 104660 <https://gerrit.ovirt.org/104660>;: Document the new STDCI containers syntax *Great! so can I use this now?* Unfortunately this is not yet enabled in production, while most of the functionality had already been developed and tested, code review efforts are still ongoing. If you'd like to help us move this along, please take the time and help reviewing the following patches: - 103937 <https://gerrit.ovirt.org/103937>;: Adda an STDCI DSL option for using containers - 104066 <https://gerrit.ovirt.org/104066>;: Add STDCI DSL `podspecs` pseudo option - 104164 <https://gerrit.ovirt.org/104164>;: stdci_runner: Support container-based threads I'd like to thank @Marcin Sobczyk <msobczyk(a)redhat.com&gt; and @Miguel Duarte de Mora Barroso <mdbarroso(a)redhat.com&gt; for helping with the review effort so far, further work is needed as changes had been made following the reviews. *Hey, it's nice and all, but I think you forgot to make it do X* Hold on! we are not done yet! While we want to put an initial set of features in the hands of developers as soon as possible, work is already under way to provide more functionality. To check out what is coming down the line (And perhaps help it along), please have a look at the following patches: - 104668 <https://gerrit.ovirt.org/104668>;: Document source cloning extension for containers - 104213 <https://gerrit.ovirt.org/104213>;: Implement STDCI DSL support for initContainers - 104590 <https://gerrit.ovirt.org/104590>;: STDCI DSL: Add the `decorate` option - 104273 <https://gerrit.ovirt.org/104273>;: STDCI PODS: Unique UID for each job build's POD -- Barak Korren RHV DevOps team , RHCE, RHCi Red Hat EMEA redhat.com | TRIED. TESTED. TRUSTED. | redhat.com/trusted