Meeting started at 2026-03-04 18:00:23 UTC

The Meeting name is 'fedora-server'

Let's give everyone 5 minutes to get to the meeting and I'll post the agenda

!hello

Emmanuel Seyman (eseyman) - he / him / his

!hi

Jan Kuparinen (copperi)

hello, Jan

!hi

Jocelyn Gould (korora) - she / her / hers

Hi, Jocelyn (she/her) (Server WG: Docs) , glad you could make it

!hi

John Himpel (jwhimpel)

Jocelyn (she/her) (Server WG: Docs): do you want to add forge templates to the agenda?

Yes

 2. F44 release testing

 3. Project "Integrating LocalKDC"

 4. Forge templates

 5. Project "Streamlined backup & restore"

Then, the agenda is:

 1. Follow up actions and announcements

@pboy and I had a discussion about what he wanted me to cover for the "backup & restore" topic

others joined in the discussion as well since that was in our matrix channel

It turns out that Peter feels disaster recovery is part of "backup & restore" whereas I think they're 2 different things

so I'll be testing timeshift and rsnapshot in the near future to see if they are useful to use

In unrelated news, I have compiled a list of Changes planned for F44 that concern us

I will be posting that to the mailing list tonight

Please review it when you see it and see if you can find the time to test these changes before final release

I think that's pretty much it. Does anyone have anything else to add?

I've not gotten any testing on the Beta 1 release done. But it looks like someone did go through and do release validation on a few things.

well, let's move on to the second topic if we're going to talk about testing

So I wasn't able to get any testing done this weekend.

Hopefully, I should find more time this coming weekend

That's probably just as well. We got a 1.2 beta RC on Saturday.

I have been going through our docs and making sure that htey still apply to F44 and have been updating them as I go.

I have not been able to either, and this weekend doens't seem too promising for me either.

This is the current QA summary page: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Results:Fedora_44_Beta_1.2_Summary

Not sure if @pboy or @mowest were able to do their testing

Anyway, let's move on...

not sure if we have someone for this topic

I remember that abbra couldn't make this meeting

and I'm not sure that Andreas is around

okay, let's move on...

Jocelyn (she/her) (Server WG: Docs): the floor is yours

At our last meeting we decided that setting up templates for common ticket types in Forge would be a good idea.

That's all I've got

aggraxis has already given cookies to korora during the F43 timeframe

I believe I am subscribed to that issue. I will think about it

And yes, setting up templates sounds incredibly useful

eseyman gave a cookie to korora. They now have 7 cookies, 3 of which were obtained in the Fedora 43 release cycle

okay, let's move on to the last topic

as already said, we've been discussing this in our own channel

it appears Peter Boy (ServerWG, Docs) and I do not have the same definition of "streamlined"...

although, honestly, I can't see what we can do for backups and restore other than make recommendations for our users

this is one of those things where what kind of data you have, its volatility, what infrastructure you have heavily plays what backup policy you are going to adopt

I think that when it comes to backups there is a lot of personal preference in _what_ gets backed up. For me, it would be my JBOD and any user data. The rest is easily recreated either on a clean install (which might be required depending on the type of failure) or is containerized that means it's more of a transient type of data.

Other than encouraging backups in general (following the 3-2-1 rules) I don't see where we can do much to encourage our usres.

that's pretty much my view as well

Device backups to a central server can often be handed via rsync (or some form fo compressed archive. and rsync)

Now someone who is new to Fedora Server might not know what is packaged and what isn't

So it makes sense to have a list of known backup/restore apps

Also, if the systems are virtualized, chances are you're using snapshots at risky points of departure.

And the different virtualization platforms have their own backup methods

yes but snapshots are not backups (imho)

Do we clarify that items that are installed via rpm/DNF are packaged (even if they aren't in our repos) and most other things are Podman/flatpak?

No, but if you need a BACKUP backup, use the feature in your platform

They are a safety net for "I'm going to do this thing and it might break stuff"

so one example given was UrBackup.

I do not consider this as being packaged

Upstream provides rpms via OpenSUSE's build service.

For instance, when I'm doing testing in a VM, I do an inital install and then snapshot it, so i don't have to constantly reinstall

and I hesitate to recommend something that is not packaged

Agreed. Anything that we suggest is stuff that should be avialable to pull from the Fedora repos

It does also depend on what you're backing up. If you need a full disk image that you need restored to a new disk or system, clonezilla is your direct path as far as open source options go.

If you just need content in folders, rsync away.

While rsync can be complicated, I have set up aliases to quickly sync my workstation class machines to the server.

I wonder if some sort of quick doc might be better to discuss the various backup optoons

And if your system has a desktop environment installed, vorta takes the complexity out of it.

I realize that sounds alien, but plenty of folks actually do it.

What's Vorta

I suspect our users expect/want more than a quick doc

I know that for me, I often want the cliffnotes becuase i'm in the middle of trying ot sort it out as I'm searching

So we write up a full doc (and maybe a cliff-notes style quick doc)

Jocelyn (she/her) (Server WG: Docs): Vorta is a front-end for borg backup

pairing borg up with something like the service provided by rsync.net is quick and easy for off-site backups.

or even a remote repository on your own network

ah, that's the borg thing some users were talking about in our survey

It's not too terribly complex to set up. The third party repository for synology even has it so you can schlep backups over the LAN.

But even still, the existing documentation out there is sufficient. You don't really need to reinvent the wheel with yet another borg reference.

Or maybe that's what folks want. Fedora does package borg. (and vorta).

FTR, our survey showed that we have a lot of users using rsync+tar as a backup solution, along with duplicity, borg and a couple of others

Nothing very surprising

although I suspect backups is not a topic where people appreciate surprises...

One of Borg's strengths is that it deduplicates the content in the backup repository.

Locally, I don't compress it, but I use rsync

I think we've pretty much covered it all. Let's move on...

I need to make plans for Flock...

does anyone have anything to add?

I won't make it to Flock again this year.

I have nothing (and won't be making it to Flock)

Paul Maconi (Aggraxis): are you actually typing?

No

I'm using the element web client. It can be wonky. Sorry!

Let's end there, then