maas-import-ephermerals provides no feedback on progress

[James Page]

It would be really nice if maas-import-ephemerals provided *any* feedback on progress and actions. Right now its virtually impossible to tell if its actually doing anything.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10
Package: maas 1.4+bzr1693+dfsg-0ubuntu2.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-15.23-generic 3.11.10
Uname: Linux 3.11.0-15-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.12.5-0ubuntu2.2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Jan 21 09:19:44 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2011-11-16 (796 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111011)
MarkForUpload: True
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=screen-bce
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: maas
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to saucy on 2014-01-10 (11 days ago)

[Julian Edwards (julian-edwards)]

The bug is really in the simplestreams library, it does all the downloading.

[Raphaël Badin (rvb)]

> The bug is really in the simplestreams library, it does all the downloading.

Well, simplestreams does only *part* of the downloading: it downloads all the ephemerals all right but the installer files are still downloaded by MAAS' script (./scripts/maas-import-pxe-files).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[David Britton (dpb)]

Some suggestions (possibly combine them based on what is possible):

1) Log the download and extraction somewhere and point people at that log.

2) Print the total number expected in the GUI in that message.

3) Estimate the total size somewhere so we know how long to wait.

4) Import images as they come in instead of all at the end. This can show things are progressing and not stuck on network access.

5) print location that bootimages are being downloaded to, savy admins who are impatient can use du and find to satisfy their curiosity.

[David Britton (dpb)]

an addendum to my 4) in comment #5:

Perhaps also sneakily prioritizing amd64 as an architecture and trusty as a release, on the basis that once that's done "interesting stuff should work" for most people and demo's can move forward.

[mahmoh (mahmoh)]

Although amd64/trusty is the current priority, downloading based on the current MaaS default series or allowing to specify the priority arch/series as an option would be ideal.

[Raphaël Badin (rvb)]

As of MAAS 1.7, maas-import-ephermerals is gone.

[Scott Moser (smoser)]

marking this invalid. in simplestream.s
if you do want status, simplestreams does provide a callback (see implementation of sstream-mirror --progress).
so if you need this in maas (not actually sure if you still do), then the hooks are there in simplestream.s