I am busy changing the world

Last night, in a cozy conference room in Seoul, South Korea, I had had a very friendly meetup with the OpenStack Korea User Group with around ten or so people. I and Sa Pham, the Vietnam OpenInfra User Group representatives, were there to share our experiences on OpenStack and networking with others. This is not my first time with the Korea User Group but meeting people working on open source projects or want to learn about OpenInfra technologies made me super excited. Like last time, I had a brief presentation about OpenStack Searchlight showing folks what was going on and my plan for the Ussuri development cycle. And, that is why the title of my talk is "Searchlight for U". Even though in Train, I had not put much effort into Searchlight but while presenting people the progress, I was amazed how far we have gone. I had been Searchlight's PTL for two cycles and now one more time. Hopefully, I could move the project forward with some real-world adaptation, use case...

In the last summit (Denver, CO), the Searchlight team had an opportunity to introduce its cool stuff to everyone. Due to the visa issues, there only one out of three members can come to the US. Thuy Dang, one of the core tea,, delivered the presentation and had a great conversation with the other community members. The key points you can take out from the Project Update [1] and Project Onboarding [2] sessions are: Review of Searchlight current status: 3 active contributors Features introduced in Stein: support ES 5.x, bug fixes, multi-cloud vision Features for Train: multi-cloud support, new resource indexed (e.g., Tacker, Octavia, etc.) Introduce different ways you can contribute to Searchlight. Hopefully, after the summit, there will be more contributors interested in Searchlight. You can check out the slides for Project Update [4] and Project Onboarding [5]. Even though there were not many people attend the sessions, Thuy had had a great chance talking to some of...

(source:  https://superuser.openstack.org/articles/newsletter-3-28/ ) As we are reaching the final weeks of the Stein cycle, I would like to discuss a little bit about what we've done in Stein and planning for the Train cycle. Stein cycle highlights as putting in [1]: Searchlight now works with Elasticsearch 5.x We have released a new vision to make Searchlight a multi-cloud application [2]. Moreover, we did a comparison of our vision and the OpenStack clouds vision Functional test setup has been improved Searchlight now can work and be tested with Python 3.7 And for the Train cycle, we would like to accomplish these main goals to fulfill the vision: Make searchlight work with multiple cloud platforms including multiple OpenStack clouds [6], Azure [9], Google Cloud [10], AWS [11].  Add support for other OpenStack resources: Tacker [7], Octavia [8] Deprecate support for Elasticsearch 2.x [5] There is a lot of work to be done so I would continue putting effor...

Yahooo!!! We just released Searchlight Stein RC1 last week [1][2]. The stable/stein branch has been created for all of the projects. Here are the versions: - searchlight: 6.0.0.0rc1 - searchlight-ui: 6.0.0.0rc1 - python-searchlightclient: 1.5.0 Moreover, we also added some highlights for Searchlight in this Stein cycle  [3]. There will be not much going on for the rest of the cycle, only minor changes. And, since we're busy preparing for the next term with more features to fulfill the Searchlight's vision [4], we will focus on designing the architecture and make Searchlight more stable. BTW, I will continue serving as Searchlight's PTL for Train :) So, let's rock it!!! References: [1]  https://review.openstack.org/#/c/644359/ [2] https://review.openstack.org/#/c/644358/ [3] https://releases.openstack.org/stein/highlights.html#searchlight-search-service [4]  https://docs.openstack.org/searchlight/latest/contributor/searchlight-vision.html

Yahoo!!! We reached the Stein-3 (Stein R-5) [13] which is a very important milestone [11]. During this week, there are a couple of events (Searchlight related) will happen including: Feature freeze : we have some features are being developed and expected to release them at Stein R-1. Final release for client libraries : at this point, I can tell there would be no more major changes of the python-searchlightclient Stein community goals completed : Searchlight runs tests under Python 3 by default and has a basic framework for pre-upgrade checks. Train PTL self-nomination : I would say that I will run for another term as Searchlight PTL in order to build a foundation for the multi-cloud vision of Searchlight. Following are the major changes we made at Stein-3: TC vision reflection [1]: this is a good practice to compare Searchlight vision with the TC vision [12] to make sure the team is going in the right direction which designed by the OpenStack community. Replace httpli...

For the last four weeks, we're working on hardening our multi-vision and preparing for the Open Infrastructure Summit in Denver this April [1]. The team had submitted one session to discuss and showcase our progress on implementing the multi-cloud features [2] and waiting for voting results. For the Denver summit, we decided to give a demonstration of Searchlight that has: Search resources across multiple OpenStack Clouds [3] Frontend UI that adds the views for multi-cloud search [4] So, from now to before the summit, we will focus on developing the [3] and [4] features for Searchlight. For more details about our multi-cloud vision for Searchlight, please have a look at [5]. Btw, It's the Lunar New Year now in Viet Nam. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! References: [1] https://www.openstack.org/summit/denver-2019/ [2]  https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/searchlight-denver-2019 [3] https://storyboard.openstack.org/#!/story/2004840 [4] https://storyboard.openstack.org/#!/story...

Finally, we have reached the Stein-2 milestone. Over the past three months, we have been working on clarifying the use cases of Searchlight as well as envisioning a sustainable future for Searchlight. We decided to make the project a multi-cloud application that can provide search capacity across multiple cloud orchestration platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, K8S, etc.). The effort was made possible by the contribution of Thuy Dang (our newest core member) and Sa Pham [3]. You can check out the documents at [4]. The projects are versioned as following: searchlight: 6.0.0.0b2 searchlight-ui: 6.0.0.0b2 python-searchlightclient wasn't released in this milestone because there were no big changes. Here are the major changes included in this release: Searchlight use cases and vision [1] Fix bug [2] Let's searching!!! References: [1] https://review.openstack.org/#/c/629104/ [2] https://review.openstack.org/#/c/621996/ [3]  https://review.openstack.org/#/c/629471/ [4]...

Last Saturday, in an effort to advocate for the open infrastructure initiative, I went back to Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam, to organize the 20th meetup of the VietOpenInfra group. Usually, the event took place in Ha Noi where most of the Vietnamese OpenStackers are. But this time, we would want to expand the community to the South because we know there are a lot of open infrastructure enthusiasts here and this could be a great chance for us to strengthen the community across the country. There were about 15 people sitting in a nice conference room of a coffee shop sharing what they are working on. We had one member of the VietOpenInfra board traveled here to discuss what the group achieved last year (2018). I also had a talk about my plan for OpenStack Searchlight and what it means to build a universal search interface for the cloud. The disaster recovery and k8s topics also got huge attention from the audience when the speakers sharing some interesting real-life experience. ...

I'd been focusing on the community work for the last two weeks. On 29th December, I went to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to organize the meetup with the VietOpenInfra group [1]. The event went great and I had a chance to discuss with people there about the future of Searchlight [2]. A roadmap for Searchlight was also drafted when I was at the meetup that said making Searchlight a universal search service for the cloud. My initial idea is to make Searchlight work with K8S, AWS, and Azure. With the new plan, I can also start writing the use cases for Searchlight and finish the Stein-2 milestone [3] the following week. Reference: [1] https://www.meetup.com/VietOpenStack/events/257277889/ [2]  http://bit.ly/2SwWXzz [3]  https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/searchlight-stein-ptg

I finished the tasks at work earlier this week so I can have free time to write this week report for Searchlight. The main focus of this week is to help Searchlight pass functional tests. After several attempts, I figured out that the functional tests fail because for some reasons ElasticSearch needs more time to start. So what I did is to tell the test set to wait 10 seconds before ElasticSearch to fully up and running [1]. I also updated some packages and simplified the test-setup.sh script by moving the jdk8 installation logic out to the bindep.txt [2] [3]. Looking deeper into the issue, I can observe that ElasticSearch has some strange behavior in the new test environment which is Ubuntu 18.04. The ElasticSearch installation task in the devstack test also fails [4]. I'm not sure what happened with the packages of Ubuntu but maybe we need to tune the test setup for ElasticSearch to make it work again. Anyway, we can merge new code of Searchlight now!! Yay!!! Reference:...

For the last 2 weeks, Stein R-19 and R-18, We're focusing on fixing a bug that fails most of Searchlight's functional tests. And, it's blocking Searchlight because if the tests are not passed, we can not merge anything new. We can identify the reason that is ElasticSearch instance for the functional tests cannot be started. I'm trying to tune the functional test setup [1] to make it work but seems there is still more work to do. I also work with the people at the OpenStack Infrastructure to see what could be a real problem. Hopefully, we can fix it at the end of this week. [1]  https://review.openstack.org/#/c/622871/

Last week, we focused on investigating the use cases and some possibilities of implementing the plugin for Octavia and K8S. There's only one issue with [1] which fails the tox test for just changing the log texts. But, the tests are executed successfully in my local environment. My first guess is that there are some changes happened on the other upstream projects (projects that we have made plugins for). The plan is to search through other projects repositories for any new big changes that may affect Searchlight. [1]  https://review.openstack.org/#/c/619162/

Everybody was quite busy with the OpenStack Berlin Summit this week so nothing big happened. There're only a few things worth mentioned: Looks like the 2 core reviews lei-zh and Kevin_Zheng don't have time for Searchlight anymore Fortunately, sapd1 agreed to contribute to Searchlight project more frequently, at least for the Stein cycle To welcome new contributors, we changed the meeting time [1]. And we had a meeting today with sapd1 and me [2] We agreed to make a use case for Searchlight with external resources such as K8S [2] sapd1 want to make a plugin for Octavia [2] We also agreed to move the search bar of Searchlight to the top of the Horizon dashboard [3] I'm waiting for a new area of Searchlight!!! \m/\m/\m/ References: [1]  https://review.openstack.org/#/c/618663/ [2]  http://eavesdrop.openstack.org/meetings/openstack_search/2018/openstack_search.2018-11-19-13.51.log.html [3]  https://storyboard.openstack.org/#!/story/2004377

Just one week before the Berlin Summit [1], we could finally review and merge some old patches: Make search settings themeable and simpler [2] Add Favorites ability for search queries [3] Add cover job for searchlight [4] Add Searchlight status upgrade check [5] Remove i18n.enable_lazy() call from searchlight.cmd (this fixes a bug of [5]) [6] Add cover job for python-searchlightclient [7] Fix tox coverage test of python-searchlightclient ([7] depends on this) [8] For the next couple weeks, we will continue working on developing the use cases for Searchlight. Greatness is coming!!!! References: [1]  https://www.openstack.org/summit/berlin-2018/ [2]  https://review.openstack.org/#/c/367555/ [3]  https://review.openstack.org/#/c/367124/ [4]  https://review.openstack.org/#/c/616056/ [5]  https://review.openstack.org/#/c/613789/ [6]  https://review.openstack.org/#/c/615594/ [7]  https://review.openstack.org/#/c/61...

The week after Stein-1 milestone is a little bit quiet. There are only some trivial fix on spec typos, tox version, etc.  The main target of Stein-2 milestone for Searchlight is to develop the use cases so that Searchlight can attract more users as well as contributors. The effort is lead by Thuy Dang [1]. Also, we need to keep up with the community's goal, the upgrade checker. The effort is being processed by the goal's champion [2]. I will review and merge the patch this week if it goes well. References: [1]  https://storyboard.openstack.org/#!/story/2004178 [2]  https://review.openstack.org/#/c/613789/

Last August in Hanoi, I have had a chance to talk to the OpenStack Vietnam User Group (VietStack) about container monitoring as well as welcome contributors to the Searchlight project. The OpenInfa Day [1] was great and I made friends with many awesome OpenStack developers. You can check out the presentation slides here [2]. Reference: [1] https://2018.vietopenstack.org/ [2]  http://bit.ly/openinfra-vn-25aug2018

At the last vPTG [1], the Searchlight team decided to do a release for Searchlight projects at the Stein-1 milestone. Even though a discussion of the release management team has agreed to move the 'cycle-with-milestones' to 'cycle-with-rc' model [5], we still need to release this time to evaluate our effort of reviving Searchlight. And finally, we reached the milestone, and today I was doing a release. The patch is being reviewed on gerrit [2]. The projects are versioned as following: searchlight: 6.0.0.0b1 searchlight-ui: 6.0.0.0b1 python-searchlightclient: 1.4.0 Here are the features and fixes included in this release: ES 5.x support [3] Fix bugs Versioned Nova notifications [4] tox use py3 by default Docs clean up Awesome!!!! References: [1]  https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/searchlight-stein-ptg [2]  https://review.openstack.org/#/c/614066/ [3] https://review.openstack.org/#/c/600287/ [4]  https://review.openstack.org/#/c/453352/ [...

There were a couple activities of the Searchlight team last week which are: Making Searchlight work with the versioned Nova notifications [1]: This feature originated from a Nova feature [4] proposed for the Pike release but could not be done at that time. At the last vPTG [5], the Searchlight team decided to include this feature in the Stein cycle. Change python3.5 job to python3.7 job on Stein+ [2]: because the conversation about this [6] is still going on so we want to wait a little bit. Talk at the OpenStack Korea User Group on 19th Oct. in Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea [3]: I was trying to tell everybody the story of Searchlight and why it needs more contributors. The impression was good. That's it for last week. At the end this week, we have to release searchlight, python-searchlightclient, searchlight-ui for the Stein-1 milestone. It is not required but I would want to do it to evaluate our effort in the new cycle of OpenStack. Beautiful!!! Referenc...

Last Friday, I had an opportunity to tell the story of Searchlight to the OpenStack Korea User Group in Seoul. My ultimate goal is to attract new contributors and to revive Searchlight. In just 30 minutes I worked people through the history of Searchlight, its architecture, and the current situation. Everybody seems to get the idea of why Searchlight needs their help. Even though not all of the attendants could understand my English, with the help of Ian Y. Choi, the organizer, and core of the OpenStack Docs and I18N team, the communication was great. Hopefully, I will have another chance to discuss with everybody more about Searchlight. Check out the slides here: http://bit.ly/2OyN3iP Video:

It's been a busy week so there's not much work has been done this week (Stein R26, Oct 08-12). Here is some news from the community this week that somewhat affects the Searchlight project: Assigning new liaisons to projects : basically, the TC will assign who takes care of which project. That person will update on this  page the project's statuses, important activities etc. Proposed changes for library releases : in short, for each cycle-with-intermediary library deliverable, if it was not released during that milestone timeframe, the release team would automatically generate a release request early in the week of the milestone deadline. Proposed changes for cycle-with-milestones deliverables : to summarize the discussion: No longer be required to request a release for each milestone Beta releases would be optional Release candidates would still require a tag. Need PTL or release liaison's "+1" Requiring a person for each team to add their name t...