Support for s390x

[james-crowley]

SUMMARY

I wanted to start a discussion about supporting s390x. I ported a version of AWX a while back to s390x, and it went pretty smooth. There were just a couple small tweaks that needed to be made to get the Docker images to build.

Here are a couple of tweaks that were needed (These are off the top of my head, more might be needed):

• Template out the base image pulls, CentOS to ClefOS
• Point the download for Tini to an updated version, I think v0.16.1 was the first build for s390x
• Some lib C packages might need to be changed
• IUS Repos will need to be changed/modified to alternative repo lists

Would you guys be open to support s390x?

I know a lot of the Dockerfiles are using templating to be dynamic. One possible solution would add a couple more dynamic parameters to allow for the changes that s390x needs. Thus, not changing the Dockerfiles for x86 but still allowing s390x images to be built.

[matburt]

I'll be honest, none of us here have access to s390 systems, so we'd probably be apt to breaking it on a pretty regular basis. We would have no way to validate feature or bugfix branches against those systems.

[james-crowley]

@matburt Well it’s your lucky day! We have a couple ways we can get you access to s390x systems (also ppc64le too, but we can talk more about that later). We have a couple ways to accomplish this, but it depends on how you want it set up.

One of the ways is to utilize Oregon State University's pipeline resources. Here is a link to check out, https://osuosl.org/services/ibm-z/. You can hear more about a dev's experiences from the Dumb-init team, Yelp/dumb-init#188 (comment).

If that does not fit your current build workflow/pipeline, we could set up some servers running on s390x, that you would have full access to, thus allow you to pull them into your build process. This method is a little more flexible but requires a little more setup.

What does your current pipeline/testing look like? Maybe I can help direct you to the best resource if I know a little more about your process.

[james-crowley]

@matburt Were you interested in getting s390x access? No rush, just wanted to get your thoughts on my last comment.

[matburt]

It looks like we have something underway here between RH and IBM, I think we should funnel this through that process.

[james-crowley]

@matburt Do you mind emailing me about this internal process? I just want to make sure were on the same page.

My email is [email protected].

[bendermIBM]

Hey @matburt, @james-crowley and I would love to get involved in this process and help contribute code/doc where we can!