Ubuntu Plans For Consolidated Network Configuration

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Ubuntu Plans For Consolidated Network Configuration

For Ubuntu 16.10, Canonical is planning to make use of a new project to unify and clean-up network configuration across Ubuntu projects from the desktop/server/cloud versions to MaaS and other forms...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Netplan-YAML-Network

[froyo]

netplan translates the YAML config to the backend specific configuration formats on boot, but all these are only written to /run -- i. e. they are ephemeral and not considered primary configuration files in /etc."

Wow, sounds a lot like YaST from the old days....

[starshipeleven]

Wow, sounds a lot like YaST from the old days....

inb4 "ubuntu reinvents the wheel again! flame flame flame!!!!" posts.


That said, if they ported Yast (that is still alive, opensource and working fine in OpenSUSE), wouldn't it be so much easier (as 99% of the work is already done)?

[chilek]

It's not surpise - Debian and Ubuntu are strong known from reinventing many uneeded new wheels. Main difference between Debian and Ubuntu is that first one treats its constitution as the most important thing and latter doesn't treat profitability seriously ;-)

[kiffmet]

Why didn't they opt for uniform interface naming on all platforms and NetworkManager?

[froyo]

inb4 "ubuntu reinvents the wheel again! flame flame flame!!!!" posts.

Far from it!

That said, if they ported Yast (that is still alive, opensource and working fine in OpenSUSE), wouldn't it be so much easier (as 99% of the work is already done)?

The "new" YaST seems to do things right: it is a GUI (...) to edit standard configuration files. The "old" (=ancient) YaST kept the configuration in separate files from which it generated and overwrote (!) the standard configuration files. This was terrible, because it was tricky to apply changes directly in the standard configuration files. I had a flashback reading the article, and sincerely hope that this new ubuntu network configuration does not exhibit the same properties.

[Delgarde]

The "new" YaST seems to do things right: it is a GUI (...) to edit standard configuration files. The "old" (=ancient) YaST kept the configuration in separate files from which it generated and overwrote (!) the standard configuration files. This was terrible, because it was tricky to apply changes directly in the standard configuration files. I had a flashback reading the article, and sincerely hope that this new ubuntu network configuration does not exhibit the same properties.

Yeah, I think you're going to be disappointed. From the mailing list:

netplan translates the YAML config to the backend specific configuration formats on boot, but all these are only written to /run -- i. e. they are ephemeral and not considered primary configuration files in /etc.

So, a generic format not used by anything other than this new netplan tool, which translates it into the config file formats for whatever network management system you prefer to run...

That said, I can see their issue. Lots of different spins - desktop, embedded, cloud, etc - and all taking different approaches to network management. There's definitely a need to bring some order to that mess...

[starshipeleven]

So, a generic format not used by anything other than this new netplan tool, which translates it into the config file formats for whatever network management system you prefer to run...

As usual, they assume that people using Ubuntu are dumbfucks and don't edit files manually, this tool is going to make manual configuration edits harder.

Sure the "don't install it" applies, but as I said above, Yast from OpenSuse does not have this issue and is like this since A LOT of time.

That said, I can see their issue. Lots of different spins - desktop, embedded, cloud, etc - and all taking different approaches to network management. There's definitely a need to bring some order to that mess...

And as usual, Ubuntu does not choose the smart way nor to do a lessons-learned design (where they look at others like Yast and see what they evolved into), but goes full throttle in a full-new design reiterating the same errors made by others in the distant past.

[Scrumlord]

I imagine a newcommer who is looking at this "/e/n/i /e/s-c/n-s/ ifupdown nmcli systemd-networkd brctl ip route ifconfig netcf tunctl etc." pile of tools/projects and having a hard time understanding why would someone invent so many tools for network configuration. Then there are people who have to do additional work on compatibility just because their management said so. You may well dedicate a whole QA team to do all this stuff just to set an IP address using different tools and make sure your management software works as intended.

Not that I do not want to go forward, but maintainability suffers as a result of projects which reinvent the wheel.