[ClusterLabs Developers] Proposed changes to the OCF resource agent standard

[Ken Gaillot]

Hello all,

We are starting to get into gear with a long-suggested update to the
OCF resource agent standard. Please get involved to help shape the
future direction of the standard, by commenting on proposed changes or
submitting a pull request to propose more!

The guidelines we're following (which are ad-hoc and open to discussion
themselves) are:

* The definitive location of the standard is the git repository, hosted
at <https://github.com/ClusterLabs/OCF-spec>

* The "ra/" subdirectory contains the resource agent API standard

* "ra/" is divided into "1.0/" for the official current standard,
"1.1/" for proposed changes accepted for 1.1 but not yet adopted, and
"next" for proposed changes for further discussion.

* The 1.1 version is mainly intended to incorporate changes already
widely in use, potentially with a few long-needed, uncontroversial
additions.

* Alternatively, we could save all additions for 1.2 (backward-
compatible) or 2.0 (backward-incompatible, which we should avoid as
much as possible). Most additions are expected to be either hints for
UI tools, or adoption of existing common extensions.

* My current plan is that proposed changes should be submitted under
"next", and will be merged after discussion on the github pull request.
Once we have all the changes in the final form we want, I'll make a big
pull request putting them under "1.1/" and removing the draft status,
and we can have a wider discussion there and on this list. Once we have
a reasonable consensus, we can merge that request, and it will become
the new standard.

To kick things off, here are two pull requests open against "next" that
are worth a look:

1. https://github.com/ClusterLabs/OCF-spec/pull/16

I've made a major update, mainly to clarify the wording. You can see
the individual commits (with explanations in the commit messages) and
the overall diff at that link, or it may be helpful to compare the
current and proposed versions side by side:

https://github.com/ClusterLabs/OCF-spec/blob/master/ra/1.0/resource-age
nt-api.md

https://github.com/kgaillot/OCF-spec/blob/81531027260fe01b194c7f18eec13
df917de17ea/ra/next/resource-agent-api.md


2. https://github.com/ClusterLabs/OCF-spec/pull/15

This is a proposal to add meta-data to indicate replacements for
deprecated parameters. The idea is that UI tools can take an existing
configuration, and recommend improvements. It would also allow UIs to
hide deprecated parameters unless the user selects "advanced" options.
-- 
Ken Gaillot <kgaillot at redhat.com>