[CentOS-devel] Documenting the CentOS Linux 8 EOL process

Fri Jul 9 20:14:20 UTC 2021
Manuel Wolfshant <wolfy at nobugconsulting.ro>

On 7/9/21 7:32 PM, Patrick Riehecky wrote:
> I'm really torn on these ideas.
>
> I guess I'm trying to sort out who we'd be helping most and who we'd be
> harming least with each of these ideas.
>
> Is there a CentOS user community of folks who apply nightly updates but
> don't respond to errors during that process?

yes, there is. I know of installations ( not mine :)  ) which have a 
"yum -y update " run from cron.daily




> Since we don't enable
> automatic updates by default (sad face), I'm trying to figure out which
> workflows would be impacted by each approach and what options are the
> most transparent and predictable for each one.
>
> Pat
>
> On Thu, 2021-07-08 at 14:39 -0500, Carl George wrote:
>> One idea I've been noodling on is whether or not at some point after
>> the EOL we should have mirrorlist.centos.org respond to requests for 8
>> repos with 8-stream repos, which effectively converts any remaining
>> CentOS Linux 8 systems to CentOS Stream 8.  I see this as a natural
>> extension of how CentOS has never supported (to the extent CentOS
>> "supports" anything) staying on old previous minor releases of a major
>> release.  CentOS Stream is still CentOS.  8-stream isn't that
>> different from 8.  CentOS Stream 8 is the latest CentOS 8.  (Note:
>> These are facts that I'm not interested in arguing with people about.
>> If you feel the need to reply to those particular points, don't expect
>> a reply from me.)
>>
>> I can envision three possible scenarios.
>>
>> 1. Change mirrorlist to respond to 8 repo requests with 8-stream repos
>> at the EOL date.  This ensures that CentOS Linux 8 systems continue to
>> get security updates by way of converting them to CentOS Stream 8.  It
>> also reinforces that CentOS Stream 8 is the latest CentOS 8.
>> Obviously people who are not fans of the new project direction will
>> view this negatively and lash out about Red Hat for supposedly forcing
>> them to use CentOS Stream 8.
>>
>> 2. Same as 1, but wait some period of time after the EOL date, such as
>> 1-3 months.  Waiting much longer than that would result in effectively
>> updating from 8.5 directly to 8.7, which is less appealing.
>>
>> 3. Don't change mirrorlist to respond to 8 repo requests with 8-stream
>> repos, ever.  This approach gives users the maximum amount of choice
>> to migrate to either CentOS Stream 8, RHEL 8, or another RHEL 8
>> rebuild, when and only when they are ready.  The downside is that many
>> systems will be left without security updates for long periods of
>> time, until users decide to take action.  CentOS Linux 8 hits to EPEL
>> are still growing [0], which makes me believe that many people still
>> are unaware of the EOL change.
>>
>> [0]
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__twitter.com_mattdm_status_1411012254812852225&d=DwICAg&c=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA&r=OAMtP0DWou0nlXG7Kmxo2enjXJfwb1DXS9fwcaESuTE&m=oixumVmD1GoeJq4OZKbBufa-OWf9TUhj4cANWnM1w-I&s=GtEd9JBFEf3Xns8RX87R4HtITBOi4kKspsCkTErIxNM&e=
>>   
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 8, 2021 at 12:10 PM Rich Bowen <rbowen at redhat.com> wrote:
>>> As we get closer to the CentOS Linux 8 EOL, we're getting more and
>>> more
>>> questions about how the EOL is actually going to work. While there
>>> tends
>>> to be a great deal of "everybody just knows how it works" among the
>>> people actually on this list, we're getting attention from a much
>>> larger
>>> audience now, and they don't know.
>>>
>>> To that end, I want to make sure we have clear documentation,
>>> prominently displayed, that sets expectations as we get closer to
>>> that
>>> December 31 date,
>>>
>>> So ... as I understand, our process is basically:
>>>
>>>
>>> 1. Copy old data to vault.centos.org
>>> 2. Update web pages and links to say it is now on vault.centos.org
>>> 3. Turn off mirrorlist to that release name (aka all requests to
>>> CentOS-8 will 404)
>>> 4. Remove the data from the main mirrors with a file saying look at
>>> vault.centos.org
>>> 5. Mirrors pick all that up in 4-8 hours.
>>>
>>>
>>> Is there more to it than this? Will we do anything different this
>>> time
>>> because CL8 is a special case? Am I missing any steps, or have I
>>> misunderstood any of the steps? Is this already documented somewhere
>>> that I simply haven't found yet?
>>>
>>> Are there any changes to this process that we *want* to advocate for,
>>> given the special nature of this particular EOL? (No, I absolutely
>>> cannot promise anything, but I can ask.)
>>>