[ClusterLabs] Feedback wanted: OCF Resource Agent API 1.1 proposed for adoption

[Ken Gaillot]

Hi all,

After many false starts over the years, we finally have a proposed 1.1
version of the resource agent standard.

Discussion is invited here and/or on the pull request:

 https://github.com/ClusterLabs/OCF-spec/pull/24

One goal is to formalize widespread existing practices that deviate
from the 1.0 standard, such as the notify, promote, and demote actions;
exit statuses 8, 9, 190, and 191; and allowing installers to choose
where agents are installed (officially /usr/ocf/resource.d in 1.0, even
though everyone actually uses /usr/lib/ocf/resource.d).

Another goal is to add optional new meta-data hints that user
interfaces can benefit from, such as whether a parameter is required or
deprecated.

The new standard deprecates the "unique" descriptor for parameters,
which was misused by Pacemaker, and replaces it with two new ones,
"reloadable" (to handle what Pacemaker used it for) and "unique-group"
(to handle its original purpose more flexibly). A new "reload-params"
action updates any "reloadable" parameters.

The last major change is completing the transition away from
master/slave terminology, renaming the roles to promoted/unpromoted.

The changes are designed to be backward-compatible, so for the most
part, agents and software written to either standard can be used with
each other. However for agents that support promote/demote (which were
not part of 1.0), it is recommended to use 1.1 agents only with
software that explicitly supports 1.1. Once the 1.1 standard is
adopted, we intend to update all ClusterLabs software to support it.

The pull request description has a more detailed summary of all the
changes, and the standard itself can be compared with:

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

https://github.com/kgaillot/OCF-spec/blob/ocf1.1/ra/1.1/resource-agent-api.md

My goal is to merge the pull request formally adopting 1.1 by the end
of this month.
-- 
Ken Gaillot <kgaillot at redhat.com>