[ixpmanager] IXP Manager v3/v4 update, recommended OS, and more

[Barry O'Donovan]

Hi all (again!),

I thought it was high-time I sent an update on release of v4 and answer
some of the confusion around current versions as this seems to be a FAQ.

So, first - what's the current recommended version?

1. for people with existing installs, it's the v3.7.x line (master branch).

2. for people doing a new install, it's the v3.8.x branch.

This is documented in the installation instructions (to which I will add
a link to this email in the mailing list archives).

v3.8 was only created because third party dependancies passed me out
before v4 was ready. Namely the Doctrine ORM project killed PEAR support
and so we needed to implement composer support in the v3 line.

The second FAQ is the recommended OS. For any of the v3 lines it's
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. Yes, IXP Manager will work fine on most Linux/BSD OS'
but the recommended and supported target OS is Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

Some people have tried to install v3 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS but the issue
here is that MySQL has changed its GROUP BY handling to invalidate some
of the queries. If you want to persevere with 16.04 then MariaDB /may/
work but I have not tested it. Again, the recommended and supported OS
for v3 is Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.


Now, what's the status of v4? It's /nearly/ ready. The finish line is in
sight. I really just need a clean run of 2/3 days to do a bit of a spit
and polish and - importantly - write up the installation and migration
documentation.

v4 doesn't look any different to v3 and mostly introduces some new
underlying frameworks to allow is to to new and better things. One of
the things it does introduce is an entirely new graphing backend called
Grapher. This needs  migration scripts and decent documentation which is
why there's a delay.

Here's what I can commit to: v4 release BEFORE RIPE73. That's four weeks
away. That's a commitment and outside time. I'd like to do it sooner
than that but it won't be before the end of next week due to existing
project deadlines this week.


If you want some more info on v4 and Grapher see the latest
presentations here:

http://www.ixpmanager.org/presentations.php

 - Barry





-- 

Kind regards,
Barry O'Donovan
INEX Operations

https://www.inex.ie/support/
+353 1 531 3339