[systemd-devel] Extending machine-info to include machine roles

[Tollef Fog Heen]

]] Lennart Poettering 

> On Wed, 09.07.14 12:58, Tollef Fog Heen (tfheen at err.no) wrote:
> 
> > ]] "Jóhann B. Guðmundsson" 
> > 
> > > On 07/09/2014 08:33 AM, Tollef Fog Heen wrote:
> > > > ]] "Jóhann B. Guðmundsson"
> > > >
> > > >> If we manage to do that, introduce "rolefulfilment=" in units which we
> > > >> would define those standardized predefined set of roles as in for
> > > >> httpd.service we might have rolefulfilment=web server, for postgresql,
> > > >> rolefulfilment=database server etc.  so you could list/query etc the
> > > >> machine primary role and at the same time list the daemon/service who
> > > >> fulfills that role
> > > > It's not useful to know that a machine is a database server.  It's
> > > > useful to know if it's a postgres server or a mysql server or an oracle
> > > > server, be it for monitoring or for connecting to it.
> > > 
> > > Yes it is and if you dont see the benefits of knowing the roles of
> > > your machine or containers and using roles in your infrastructure I
> > > cannot help you.
> > 
> > I know and use roles in my infrastructure, so that's not my question.
> > I'm objecting to the use of a predefined list of roles, since that will
> > not match my infrastructure, and I'm wondering what the use case for a
> > very restricted list like that is.
> 
> I think it would be wise to neither try to enforce normalization for the
> "deployment" field, nor for the "role" field. I think the most commonly
> used subset of the vocabulary should be documented in machine-info(5),
> in all clarity, but if setups have different workflows or a different
> scheme of assigning roles then that's totally fine.

Sure, having a list of suggested roles is fine.

> This is quite different from, let's say the chassis field, where we
> actually do have a good idea of the various form factors systems are
> built in, and where new form factors don't appear every day.

I see the form factor «matchbox» is missing, though.  (Think rPI/BBB
cases).  There's likely to be a ton more too, say, TV, microwave, stove,
lightbulb, cable and so on, but I guess those can wait until people
start building them.

-- 
Tollef Fog Heen
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are