Taking over the maintenance of molecule-hetznercloud

[jooola]

Hello folks!

Some background: ansible-community/molecule-hetznercloud#43

I am currently evaluating taking over the maintenance of the hetznercloud molecule driver. It seems the molecule project changed a lot since 2021, and I didn't find any documentation on the how to develop a driver for molecule.

• Could someone educate me on what the first steps would be to revive the project?
• Can the hetznercloud driver be developed outside the molecule project, or do I also need to move it inside the https://github.com/ansible-community/molecule-plugins project?
  Having Drop or replace drivers with ansible content #3919 (and the coming molecule v6) in mind, how much extra work is required to revive the driver?

Thanks for your help!

[zhan9san]

HI @jooola

I am glad to help you.

Could you plz take a look at #3978 ?

It's an example to use docker collection without molecule-docker plugin.

Feel free to leave your concerns.

[jooola]

Thanks for the pointer, this already answered my last question.

• How can I get the files described in Add example of using docker collection using default driver #3978 released and distributed ?
• How does the discovery work now that we don't have the driver's python entrypoint ? Must the users copy the files and maintain them over time ?

[zhan9san]

How can I get the files described in #3978 released and distributed ?

The collection content intends to replace what molecule driver does, so you can get them from molecule_hetznercloud. And you have to tweak it a bit.

How does the discovery work now that we don't have the driver's python entrypoint ?

No python entrypoint, but ansible playbook. And these kind of playbooks would be run by ansible-playbook command.

Must the users copy the files and maintain them over time ?

Yes, the end user has to maintain them. The driver's magic is gone.

[jooola]

Oh, sorry, my question was not clear:

Once that I have revived the playbooks and cleaned the molecule-hetznercloud repository, how does users install and use my work inside their role ? You said they had to copy the files into their role and collections, but that sound like huge maintenance burden on the users.

Can users pip install the files and use them inside their role, and only define a molecule and converge file ?

Sorry for my really naive questions, but want to make sure I understand before going in the wrong direction. Thanks a lot for you answers !

[zhan9san]

I agree it's not convenient.

IIUC, the end users have to copy-paste the playbook files to their own repos.

@ssbarnea @cidrblock @ajinkyau
Correct me if I say anything wrong.

[cidrblock]

Thanks @zhan9san

The only thing I would add here is that I think we are in a "Wait and see" holding pattern.

There is no way we can remove driver support until a point in time several things have happened:

• The community of molecule users have embraced the idea of ansible as the primary provisioner
• Playbooks exist that meet or exceed the capabilitiies of the popular drivers, are authored, packaged, distributed etc (See RFE: New molecule.provisoning collection #4005)
• Patterns and examples of using pre-written/shared provisioning playbook are well documented & vetted.

Without a good understanding or the motivation here, I'm not sure I can suggest the best course of action, some options could include

• reviving the current repo and doing some cleanup to the point it is current and usable
• author playbooks to accompish the provisioning and distribute as a ansible collection
• add molecule specific playbooks to the current collection and add a example/doc in the molecule repo of how to use it

Regardless of what you decide to do, I can assure you your users will not be left behind due overnight changes in molecule without lots of warning/discussion and consensus about where molecule is headed and it backwards compatibility.

[jooola]

Thanks, this does answer many of my other questions.

From what I understand, I prefer to be conservative and revive the project as a molecule driver. I might be able to experiment a bit to help answer the "Wait and see", but my goal is mainly to have a working molecule driver for Hetzner Cloud.

I appreciate the note about the backward compatibility "promise/we will warn you", this wasn't totally clear from the other issues I read on the tracker.

[zhan9san]

@cidrblock

The only thing I would add here is that I think we are in a "Wait and see" holding pattern.

I am wondering if we can do something to move forward. We cannot give the end users any suggestion as there are two option to them, which is against the zen of Python, "There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.".

Maybe we can make a decision here. Each time I want to provides suggestions, I am afraid whether it is the right direction.

If we remove the driver support, it does make the maintenance easier, but it's not convenient for end users to manage the playbook by themselves.

Let me know what you think.

[jooola]

If I may shim in here.

I am wondering if we can do something to move forward. We cannot give the end users any suggestion as there are two option to them, which is against the zen of Python, "There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.".

I don't think that molecule MUST provide a single way of doing. Molecule MAY recommend a way moving forward, but MUST provide backward compatibility to the "old ways" until it is safe enough to drop the "old ways".

Right now the old way somewhat broken, the new way is not designed yet (please correct me and send me links), nor fully implemented.

[zhan9san]

#4032 is waiting for the decision here.

[jooola]

Hi @cidrblock @ssbarnea

Could we, @jooola and @apricote (Hetzner Cloud employees), get write access to the following repository https://github.com/ansible-community/molecule-hetznercloud ?

We probably also need write access to the existing molecule-hetznercloud python package on PyPi to publish new versions.

Could one of you help us achieve this, or point me to the right person to ask?

[cidrblock]

You should have access to the repo now. I'll work on the pypi piece, I wasn't previously an admin there.

LMK if you have any GH issues pls...

Brad

[jooola]

I can confirm that I have write access! Thanks!