[ixpmanager] A fundamental question. Who's actually writing/updating/supporting/enhancing the IXP Manager code?

[Barry O'Donovan]

Hi Martin,

> I would like to make sure that IXP Manager succeeds and for that to
> happen we should have more authors for the codebase and I believe that
> means we collectively need to know how to add code to the codebase vs.
> simply requesting features that just grows the Nick/Barry do-to list.
> I for one (once I get my head around the codebase - which I'm doing)
> would be happy to add code and hence hopefully useful features.
>
> Thoughts?

I would completely agree. And we welcome all contributions. Yes, we 
haven't written how-tos for examples of how to add features (yet). I 
think the first step for anybody in that regard would be to learn / know 
/ be familiar with the basics of Zend Framework (particularly 
controllers and forms) / Doctrine2 / Smarty. That would shed light on 
80% of what's needed and then we're happy to fill in the blanks.


I'm hoping to use the Euro-IX meeting (where I know we'll have Rob from 
LONAP and Thorleif from BCIX for example) to have a proper sit down and 
discuss these kinds of issues. This is only two weeks away now. I'll 
also present an update on IXP Manager for which I'll write up a summary 
for this list, share the slides and - with Euro-IX's / Bijal's 
permission, also share the video of the presentation.


I do have have some reflections on contributions over the last few 
months also. IXP Manager is in the early stages of its open source life. 
Over the last few months we've built considerably on the installation 
documentation, the documentation of a ton of new and existing features 
and a community is starting to form.


Particularly, I've noticed Rowan and Rob giving a lot of support on 
GitHub Issues and here on the list to Thorleif from their own 
experiences - taking pressure off Nick and I. We've closed a lot of pull 
requests from Rowan also. All three of these have been active opening 
issues which helps push the project along and tidy up loose ends.


This is all momentum and it's momentum in the right direction for which 
I personally am grateful for. And through the upcoming Euro-IX, we hope 
to build on that.


I'm not going to divulge anything Nick is working on in the background, 
but there are other tie-ups be discussed that will help also support IXP 
Manager development.


I have no doubt code contributions will come. I'm also aware that not 
everyone mixes PHP dev / sysadmin / devops / neteng on a daily basis in 
the way I might and so that some people are not really in a position to 
contribute code; but I'm sure they will and do help contribute through 
documentation / translations (eventually) / mailing lists / issues / 
etc. As I mentioned above, I feel momentum is gathering.


Also - and this is not a plug - but rather reassurance that other means 
of support are available for IXPs looking at deploying IXP Manager. We 
don't have infinite resources via INEX but, if there are any burning 
feature requests / must haves / requirements for long term support 
contracts / SLAs for an IXP without development skills, there are 
commercial support / development options also available [ 
http://git.io/-XBiRQ ]. LONAP and IIX Peering are examples of 
organisations that have used this route to good effect (I hope Rob would 
agree!).


In my own opinion, I think any IXP starting up / considering a CRM / 
portal / admin system would be nuts to not use IXP Manager. The goal now 
is to make using it as easy as possible - and to make sure they know this :D


-----

Not to preview Euro-IX too much (although most people on this list will 
be aware of most of this) - but, now we're in a position to present a 
much more unified system rather than a database frontend with a lot of 
poorly documented (and, in some cases, missing Perl scripts). The IXP 
Manager application has added, over the last twelve months, fully 
integrated (and skinnable) features such as:

  - reseller support
  - p2p graphs
  - auto-generation / update of route collector configs
  - auto-generation / update of secure route server configs
  - auto-generation of as112 BGP configs
  - also auto-gen of configs for utilities such as Nagios, Smokeping 
including some integration.


A lot of the above is converted Perl scripts (sorry Nick!) with added 
documentation.


I think when we present this at Euro-IX, it should push even more momentum.


Thanks for everyone's contributions to date!

  - Barry