Hi all - This topic was raised on the matrix channel: https://matrix.to/#/!izTOsJxSUbKhKUROGM:matrix.org/$TFpn8iaB6IT38lKt0rjhoe1MIx0yjf9smwkPJvSGkzY?via=matrix.org
For transparency, I plan to request a VM for Fineract from Apache Infra to serve as a vendor neutral instance. The purpose of this environment would be multifold: 1) Provide a basic functional testing environment (headless api app) 2) Provide a backend against which front-ends and downstream data components can be tested. Note: A number of recently completed GSoC projects could connect to this environment during their (ongoing) development and testing phases. 3) Provide a test instance for security issue validation 4) Provide a basic performance benchmark and seed data setup Apache Infra has a program allowing each PMC to request one VM. We previously had a VM provisioned, but we decommissioned it a year ago because it had not been maintained. It needed an upgrade to the newest VM version, so we elected to decommission it. Projects at Apache find such instances useful for validating functionality, running tests and so on. For this project to be successful, we will need volunteers to be willing to write scripts that will help the application be "re-booted". That is, we need automation for self-healing (recovery to last good point) and rebooting so it remains operational. ASF Infra requires some version of this "recovery" concept to be in place. Note that test data and any new user data added will be ephemeral unless incorporated into a checked in test harness. Also note that *no* actual PII information should ever be added to this instance. The choice of tooling may be largely dictated by existing available tools, and I'll be interested in ideas for keeping this as simple as possible. Github actions for the pipeline, Gradle for creating the Docker (as today), dockerfile to include test and seed data, and docker image to compatible VM setup. Obviously, someone would need to work this out a lot more. I'll wait a couple of days to see if there are any concerns or comments about this. The process takes a few days for ASF Infra to set up the new instance. We may take a few days or weeks to get our setup working. Thanks, - James
