From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Tony Asleson Subject: Re: [Lsf-pc] [LSF/MM TOPIC] [ATTEND] Storage management (API & Library) Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:21:39 -0600 Message-ID: <4F1D8913.1060709@redhat.com> References: <4F19A981.4080502@redhat.com> <1327157825.2748.5.camel@dabdike.int.hansenpartnership.com> Reply-To: tasleson@redhat.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([209.132.183.28]:64579 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751106Ab2AWQVm (ORCPT ); Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:21:42 -0500 In-Reply-To: <1327157825.2748.5.camel@dabdike.int.hansenpartnership.com> Sender: linux-scsi-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org To: James Bottomley Cc: lsf-pc@lists.linux-foundation.org, linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org On 01/21/2012 08:57 AM, James Bottomley wrote: > It's also a bit insular ... the first thing you usually ask in open > source is what can I steal^Wborrow from other projects and how do I > recruit others to do the work for me. The project site is a little sparse on details about what we have looked at and considered. Ric Wheeler covered some of this during his presentation in Prague, but I will place more information on the project web site. > The first question is probably: is there anything we can liberate > from the Oracle storage API fisasco to help with this. The Oracle storage connect library was evaluated and subsequently rejected for the following reasons: 1. The Oracle storage connect library is dual licensed, GPL and a proprietary Oracle license which allows proprietary use. This allows hardware vendors the ability to write proprietary plug-ins. The design of the library has the library user and plug-in executing in the same address space. Based on the information presented on plug-ins (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLAndPlugins) this design goes against the requirements of GPL license compliance. Proprietary plug-ins could be in compliance if they are implemented to execute in a separate process. 2. At the time the Oracle storage connect library was being evaluated we were unable to obtain a plug-in from a few different vendors. Without plug-ins the value of any library becomes greatly diminished. > The second might be what would it take to get vendors interested in > doing the array plugin glue. By providing: * Permissive license (LGPL) * Easy to use out of process plug-in support to allow proprietary plug-ins (IPC is abstracted) * Language agnostic plug-in support (initial support is C and python) We are hoping we can get hardware vendors interested in providing their own plug-ins. If anyone has additional ideas, we would certainly like to discuss them. Regards, Tony