Host factory reset - version priorities

Host factory reset - version priorities

[Michael Tritz]

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Re: Host factory reset - version priorities

[Andrew Geissler]

On Mon, Dec 4, 2017 at 10:43 PM, Michael Tritz <mtritz@us.ibm.com> wrote:
> What should be happening on a host factory reset?
>
> Suppose we have a machine with two host versions uploaded - one active, one
> not. Currently, the host factory reset will clear the persistence files with
> which we store the priority information for these versions. The next time
> the host software updater is started, both versions are left with priority
> of 255, and one of the two (maybe it's random, maybe it's based on upload
> order) is selected as the active host version.
>
> Is this the desired behavior? Would it be better to instead retain the
> version priority through a reset, or is clearing that setting under the
> scope of "restoring factory settings"?

I do not thing we want to lose the priority on a factory reset.  We
have to ensure we always
use the firmware level that the user last activated, no matter what.
The "spirit" of a factory
reset is to clear any changes done by the user to defaults of the
firmware.  Ensuring we boot with the right
level of firmware is still required after a factory reset.

Andrew

>
> Michael
>

Re: Host factory reset - version priorities

[Stewart Smith]

Andrew Geissler <geissonator@gmail.com> writes:
> On Mon, Dec 4, 2017 at 10:43 PM, Michael Tritz <mtritz@us.ibm.com> wrote:
>> What should be happening on a host factory reset?
>>
>> Suppose we have a machine with two host versions uploaded - one active, one
>> not. Currently, the host factory reset will clear the persistence files with
>> which we store the priority information for these versions. The next time
>> the host software updater is started, both versions are left with priority
>> of 255, and one of the two (maybe it's random, maybe it's based on upload
>> order) is selected as the active host version.
>>
>> Is this the desired behavior? Would it be better to instead retain the
>> version priority through a reset, or is clearing that setting under the
>> scope of "restoring factory settings"?
>
> I do not thing we want to lose the priority on a factory reset.  We
> have to ensure we always
> use the firmware level that the user last activated, no matter what.
> The "spirit" of a factory
> reset is to clear any changes done by the user to defaults of the
> firmware.  Ensuring we boot with the right
> level of firmware is still required after a factory reset.

I'm with Andrew on this one, I would think that it should keep the
current firmware versions and the current priorities of them.

*IF* we had the concept of something like a factory or golden image,
then *maybe* it would make sense to reset to it. But considering we
don't have that (at least currently), I think the behaviour should be to
reset everything as if the machine came out of the factory with the
currently active images loaded (i.e. do *not* reset priorities).

-- 
Stewart Smith
OPAL Architect, IBM.