[SRU] Backport iscsitarget 1.4.20.3+svn499 into Precise

[Stefan Bader]

Justification:

Impact: We will be using the Trusty kernel for HW enablement in the 12.04.5 images. This will again break the DKMS iscsitarget compilation.

Fix: While looking at the required changes to the DKMS source, the remainder user-space part of the Saucy version of iscsitarget seemed also bugfixes only. So it would make sense to just backport that package completely for Precise.

Testcase:
- Created a VM running Precise
- Installed current version of iscsitarget + iscsitarget-dkms
- Created a file based iscsi target
- Install open-iscsi and used that to connect locally
- Upgraded iscsitarget + iscsitarget-dkms to proposed backport version
- Verified dkms module compiled for Precise kernel
- Rebooted VM and verified that the dkms module can be loaded and iscsi
  disk is accessible.
- Installed linux-generic-lts-trusty kernel
- Verified that dkms module got built and installed
- Rebooted VM in Saucy kernel and verified that iscsi disk is still usable.

[Stefan Bader (smb)]

The debdiff between current and proposed version of iscsitarget.

[Stefan Bader (smb)]

For prepared source packages location ping me on IRC (that was prepared with -v1.4.20.2-5ubuntu3.3).

[Stefan Bader (smb)]

So this might be an exceptional SRU. MRE was overshooting its purpose.

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

Is it possible to backport only the needed fixes, not the whole snapshot? That will be much easier to review.

Also, the description is missing a Regression Potential section.

[Stefan Bader (smb)]

Sigh, the idea here was to minimize unexpected side-effects of partial backports and get all the newer goodness by backporting in total. I'll try to add some summary assesments of the diff.

[Stefan Bader (smb)]

Splitting up the differences a bit there seems to be some changes to the packaging:
- drop and confict iscsitarget source
- recommend iscsitarget-dkms instead of module
- Recommend linux-headers instead of linux-headers-2.6
[Above all look sensible]
- Additional possibility to specify daemon options in default
- Removed some module assistant stuff (guess related to not recommend *-module)
- Using debhelper functions in postinst

Changes to kernel module code look to handle changes for newer kernels mostly (only exception seems to be some code added as persist.c). This has some big impact on the compat patches. Though IMHO the risk here should be low as the dkms code does compile and load at least on Precise and Saucy kernel installs.

Userspace changes look to be conforming to the changes described in the differences in ChangeLog:
 o Fixed iSNS initialization issue, thanks to <email address hidden>
o The NIPQUAD macro has been removed, instead "%pI4" is used
o Converted semaphores to mutexes
o restore SCSI SN behaviour of IET < 1.4.20 (VMWare compatibility)
o byte swap fix in MD5 / SHA1 code
o Updated initd scripts to reflect PID file name change
o Removed stray RPM build dependency on openssl from spec file
o Fixed crypto API error handling (ERR_PTR instead of a NULL)
o Fixed small memory leak in volume args buffer on BSD
o Fixed max_cmd_sn not being set for the session
o Fixed issue where StatSN was being updated when a command was ignored
o Fixed connection accounting in ietd for session reinstatements
o Fixed MaxOutStandingR2T handling
o Stripped zone id off ipv6 addresses in SendTargets
o Time2Retain fixed at 0 since it isn't implemented
o Makefile respects LDFLAGS
o Fixed re-enabling listening after max connections was exceeded
o Fix NULL-pointer dereference due to race in UA handling
o Added variable for depmod
o Don't install kernel module executable
o Don't use bash for initd script

Given that backporting the complete package should be only bugfixes and causes the dkms module and userspace be in sync (whether compiled on 2.6.32 or later kernel) it seemed to be smaller risk than to try to pick only the minimal changes to allow compile. The way things are mixed in the compat patches would make that not simple.

The Time2Retain change affects the config file but by default that had been commented out. And from the comment it does not sound like anything else than the new 0 default never would have worked.

[Iain Lane (laney)]

Hey James, since you've uploaded iscsitarget a lot in the past - could you take a look at this? Thanks!

[James Page (james-page)]

Iain

I'll take a look either later today or tomorrow.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

James, it has been some weeks, any news on that?

[James Page (james-page)]

I'd be happy to support this approach - as Stefan highlights, pretty much the only stuff landing in both packaging and upstream are bugfixes so I think the risk for a straight backport is pretty low.

I did some testing on 12.04, 12.10 and 13.10 - as I think we'll want to backport to all pre 14.04 releases; upgrades from the release/updates packages worked fine and the dkms modules worked with the 3.11 kernel on 12.04.

[James Page (james-page)]

PPA for testing: https://launchpad.net/~james-page/+archive/iscsitarget

[Simon Déziel (sdeziel)]

@James, I tested your PPA on Precise (3.2.0-59) and am very please with those refreshed packages. Thanks !

[Simon Déziel (sdeziel)]

@James, also repeated the test on Precise but this time with Saucy's backported kernel (3.11.0-17). Still working great!

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

Unsubscribing sponsors, as James Page seems to be on it.

[James Page (james-page)]

Having just fixed compatibility with 3.13 in the trusty packages, I'd like to propose we backport those instead; I'll push them to PPA and we can do some testing.

[Simon Déziel (sdeziel)]

James, I tested your last iscsitarget package (1.4.20.3+svn499-0ubuntu2~ubuntu12.04.1~ppa1) on Precise with the following kernels:

* linux-image-3.2.0-60-virtual 3.2.0-60.91
* linux-image-3.11.0-19-generic 3.11.0-19.33~precise1
* linux-image-3.13.8-031308-generic 3.13.8-031308.201403311335

The last kernel is from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.13.8-trusty/

It worked fine on all 3 kernels, thanks!

[James Page (james-page)]

Simon - thanks for the testing - much appreciated.

I think in the interests of not introducing extra risk for Quantal and Saucy (which work fine now) we should just target this update to 12.04.

I'll ping one of the SRU team on how best to proceed next.

[Simon Déziel (sdeziel)]

James, may I ask if some progress was made toward an eventual SRU? Thanks

With Quantal and Saucy now EOL I believe that only targeting Precise makes sense. This is especially true now that the Quantal and Saucy HWE kernels are about to go EOL too.

[James Page (james-page)]

Sorry Simon - somehow this bug dropped off my work list; I'll upload the 14.04 version for the SRU team to review for 12.04.

[Chris Halse Rogers (raof)]

Hello Stefan, or anyone else affected,

Accepted iscsitarget into precise-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/iscsitarget/1.4.20.3+svn499-0ubuntu2~ubuntu12.04.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

[Simon Déziel (sdeziel)]

Thanks James, iscsitarget (and dkms) version 1.4.20.3+svn499-0ubuntu2~ubuntu12.04.1 tested OK on a Precise VM with the following kernels:

* 3.2.0-69.103
* 3.13.0-36.63~precise1

I did not test with Saucy's backported kernel as it is EOL now. The initiator was a Windows 2012 Server R2 64bit.

[Chris J Arges (arges)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for iscsitarget has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package iscsitarget - 1.4.20.3+svn499-0ubuntu2~ubuntu12.04.1

---------------
iscsitarget (1.4.20.3+svn499-0ubuntu2~ubuntu12.04.1) precise; urgency=medium

  * Backport Ubuntu 14.04 version to Ubuntu 12.04 for compatibility with HWE
    kernels up to and including 3.13 (LP: #1262712).
 -- James Page <email address hidden> Mon, 24 Mar 2014 17:11:22 +0000