Daniel Hilst
e57d7ae0b1
Measured against spec.md, the wire cases asserted one boot file, for one architecture, on one backend. Seven of the eleven shipped .conf files were executed by nothing at all -- only parsed by `dhcptest validate` -- and the CI run pins the backend to isc, which skipped the one discovery assertion as well. A green run therefore said very little about whether a node can boot. What the fixture now drives: - One DISCOVER per client architecture (option 93), asserting the loader each is handed. This is where the plugin branches most and where a mistake is most expensive. The backends genuinely differ in which architectures they will answer for at all -- Kea emits no UEFI or HTTP-boot class unless the loader is present -- so arch_loader holds that policy in one place and the run skips by name rather than asserting a filename nothing configured. - Both encodings of the user class, against the fix in the previous commit. - The lease itself: the four-way handshake, renewal, rebinding, and a DHCPNAK for an address off this network. A node moved between racks comes back asking for the address it still holds; a server that stays silent leaves it retrying forever, which looks exactly like a node that will not boot. - Discovery end to end: a machine nobody has heard of takes a pool address, is defined, and from the next DISCOVER is served its own address -- with the daemon's pid asserted unchanged across the adoption. xCAT injects ISC reservations over OMAPI precisely so adopting one node does not drop every other node part-way through discovery, and a regression to rewriting dhcpd.conf and restarting would pass every config-level test in this tree. - The options a deployment actually needs: gateway, resolver, domain, MTU, log server and lease time. An address on its own does not install an operating system; it fails later and less obviously. The fixture's network now sets an MTU so there is something to assert. - The hierarchy case, which was mn_only, now runs in CI too. Option 12 is deliberately not asserted: ISC emits `send host-name` through OMAPI and only rewrites it to `option host-name` on the static host fallback path, so it is not reliably on the wire. spec.md records that, along with what this specification does not cover -- DHCPv6, relay agents -- so a green run is not read as more than it is.
xCAT
xCAT is a toolkit for deployment and administration of clusters of all sizes.
The xCAT sunset was only a quick eclipse
Dear xCAT Community,
The xCAT sunset has changed course. VersatusHPC has been invited to join the xCAT Consortium, and future development will move toward direct upstream contributions coordinated with the Consortium and its existing member companies.
That matters most for Enterprise Linux 10 (EL10). EL10 support is coming to xCAT, restoring a future operating-system path for sites that still rely on xCAT. This is an important change from the previous sunset guidance, where the lack of an EL10 path was one of the strongest reasons to move away from xCAT.
The xCAT Consortium continues to recommend Confluent as the long-term successor to xCAT, and that remains the Consortium position. Users planning new cluster-management deployments should evaluate Confluent and its xCAT comparison documentation.
At the same time, xCAT is no longer sunsetted. The Consortium and participating companies will continue updating xCAT while there is community and user demand for it.
In summary:
- xCAT development is continuing upstream through the Consortium and participating companies.
- Enterprise Linux 10 support is coming.
- Confluent remains the Consortium-recommended successor and migration path.
- xCAT updates will continue while there is community and user demand.
We want to thank the xCAT Consortium and community for keeping this project moving. The sun went behind the moon for a moment, but xCAT is still here.
For more information on Confluent and how to get started, please visit the Confluent: Project Page, Documentation or Confluent vs xCAT comparison.
With thanks,
The xCAT Consortium
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