[TOOLS-DEVELOPMENT] Tools Team Report -- 26 February 2019

[Russ Housley <[e-mail]>]

Tools Team Report -- 26 February 2019

1. Datatracker Projects
   - The merge plan was recently updated.
     -- See http://trac.tools.ietf.org/tools/ietfdb/wiki/MergePlan
     -- One thing to highlight is the upcoming change to the way the
        datatracker sends email so that it will no longer appear to
        be spoofing the From field.
     -- Another thing to highlight is the increased the priority of
        the shift from Python 2 to Python 3. This increased priority
        is because Python 2 is being officially deprecated, and it will
        no longer receive maintenance starting January 2020.

2. Community & Other Projects
   - Turning off MHonArc went very smoothly.  However, it was discovered
     that some private lists use the pipermail archives that are built
     into Mailman.  All the pipermail archives are private; they are
     only searchable by the Secretariat.  The Tools Team is doing further
     research to come up with the best way forward for these archives.
     This is a very low priority since the archives can only be accessed
     by the Secretariat.
   - Torchbox has completed their last major deliverable for the IETF
     website, which uses Wagtail 2.2.2.  The Tools Team plans to shift
     the website-related open source code into our own public code
     repository.
   - The Secretariat is blocked on deploying this latest website
     deliverable.  Currently, the IETF server uses Apache (mod_wsgi) for
     python applications, but that only allows one version of python.
     The Datatracker and and Mail Archive use Python 2.7, but Wagtail
     dropped support for python 2.7 at Wagtail 2.0.  Robert Sparks is
     working with the Secretariat to figure out a reasonable way for
     Python 2 and Python 3 to be used at the same time.  The plan is to
     eventually move everything to Python 3, but it will not happen
     in just a few weeks.
     
3. RFC Services Projects
   - Support for the v3 schema for I-D submission is almost ready.  The
     tools should be in place to allow the new format to be used when
     the I-D repository reopens on 25 March 2019 during the Prague IETF
     meeting.  The IESG needs to make a policy decision about when I-D
     in this format can be submitted to the IESG for publication on the
     IETF stream.
   - The RFC Production Center is testing the tools related to the new
     format.  A few additions are being made to IDnits under warranty.
     Since the RFC Production Center does not use IDnits, this is not
     impacting the test schedule.
   - The Tools Team is working on a Statement of Work for the security
     review of tools used by the RFC Production Center.  The tools used
     for the new format will be reviewed since the ones related to the
     old format are about to be put in mothballs.
   - The Tools Team is working on a Statement of Work for rendering of
     errata in a more useful way.  Some prototype efforts are informing
     this work.

4. Server Infrastructure
   - The custom DMARC-handling software was deployed for all mail lists
     in June 2018, but there is a desire to move away from the custom
     software to ARC.  The ARC software cannot be configured to handle
     just a few of our mail lists.  Requirements were provided to the
     ARC developers, but so far, they have not offered a release date.
     Alexey continues to try to get a response from the ARC developers,
     but so far we are only getting silence.

5. YANG Catalog
   - Planning for the operation of the yangcatalog.org to be transferred
     to the IETF Secretariat is underway.  A few significant things to
     highlight:
     -- The Tools Team developed a Statement of Work for assistance with
        the transition and the addition of the yandvalidator open source
        to the site.  Bids were received, and the Tools Team recommended
        a winner.  The Interim Executive Director is negotiating a
        contract.  The winner is expected to be in Prage and participate
        in the Hackathon.
     -- The yangcatalog.org service will run on different hardware than
        ietf.org.  It will be "in the cloud."  This will allow the Tools
        Team to determine whether this is a useful management model for
        other IETF-related services.
   - The registration for yangcatalog.com needs to be transferred to the
     IETF Trust before the site can move to a Tools-Team-driven
     maintenance model.