oxidecomputer / oxidecomputer/omicron

Improve error-handling around partially configured zone

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Debugging Sled Agent
Dominant language
Rust
Stars
572
Forks
97
Avg merge
2d 12h
Merged PRs (30d)
96

Description

After chatting with @bnaecker , it seems like this is a relatively common pattern.

TL;DR: Someone is running Omicron on Helios, but oops, a dependency is missing. Stop, restart, re-run everything... except now there are leftover artifacts from the first time execution started.

In particular, the sled uses local storage for:

  • A ZFS dataset for storing zones
  • A base zone, intended to be cloned for propolis instances
  • Child zones and NICs

We should have more rigor with these objects, in particular:

  • Having some mechanism for verifying them if we observe them on a re-initialization of the sled agent, and
  • Preferring to use static images which are verified where possible (e.g., could we have a hash-verified base zone instead of creating it on the fly? that seems better).

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by tracing sled-agent re-initialization and how local storage creates or discovers the ZFS dataset, base zone, child zones, and NICs. Define how partially configured objects are verified on restart and where static, hash-verified base-zone images could replace creation on the fly; done means restart handling is rigorous for these artifacts.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
infrastructure
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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