I think one important question is WHY we use Fedora.

In my case, I started using Fedora because it had the latest stable drivers for the newest hardware. With today's hardware performances and the widespread use of virtualization, that is no longer an issue (or at least not a big issue).

I still use Fedora because it has the latest stable version of most packages and modern sysadmin tools (i.e. cockpit, dnf, systemd were all "tested" with Fedora).

What I mean by "stable" is that Fedora is not bleeding edge (like Rawhide), but stable enough to put in production and give it a try.

As for roles, I don't think Fedora Server can compete in the hypervisor/hyperconvergence arena against Proxmox or Xen.

Taking all this into account, this is how I view "Fedora Server" goals:

- Provide a minimalistic server install (for instance, NetworkManager is overkill for a server, and in many cases a hindrance).
- Key packages like databases, languages, Web infrastructure must be solid and pre-configured for high loads (things like php-fpm, nginx, Postgres, etc.).
- Provide kernels tuned for large RAM, high storage I/O and high network I/O.
- Provide easy integration into multi-node environments, with tools like Ansible (we may have to favor one such tool, like we favor cockpit).
- We must keep upgrades smooth, as they are now with dnf.
- A "Security Profile" may be suitable. For instance at a minimum a nice Firewalld+Fail2Ban configuration, then go up with Snort, Tripwire, SELinux.

In short, have a distro that can be deployed in 5min in a small VM and start doing something useful half an hour later :-)

Carlos



On Wed, Dec 16, 2020 at 11:02 PM Peter Boy <pboy@uni-bremen.de> wrote:
Today there was an IRC discussion about the next tasks Fedora Server WG has to work on. I would like to give here a short overview in the hope that many may contribute their ideas here. The wording is unimportant, short sketches of ideas are sufficient. A editorial group has been established to edit a proposal for a revised draft. But we need input from the server community!

Our current PRD is here: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Server/Product_Requirements_Document , general considerations on the structure of such a document are here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_requirements_document 


The current PRD is from 2014. Urgently needs to be revised along the following general objectives:

- We want the target audience and server edition goals to keep up to date as the computing world changes
- But there are also big changes in how servers are used and deployed. Fedora should be at the forefront.

This leads to at least 4 questions:
- What are the high level goals?
- What is  our *market*?
- how server relate to curent developments, coreos cloud, etc.?
- merging in the Cloud Base image so it's basically just an alternate deploy of server?


Please, contribute your ideas!



Some detailed opinions were thrown in:

- Server should forcus on mostly headless services - single node deployments, and multi node deployments

- A goal might also be pushing for text-only mechanisms for all relevant administrative functions (cf. the gpg-agent discussion)

- focus on soho rather than enterprise at this point.

- strong container support in "my basement" and in "soho".. including things like openshift

- are server roles still a thing? (The Server Roles in PRD were abandoned?)

- are tools/app included supporting industry change (e.g. IPMI is deprecated, Redfish is the future)



Any inout greatly appreciated.


Peter
(One of those to draft an updated proposal)
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