On 16.07.24 08:00, Marc Haber wrote:
On Mon, 15 Jul 2024 15:35:32 +0200, Lukas Märdian <sl...@debian.org>
wrote:
I don't want people to think too much in terms of "sd-networkd VS Netplan",
but rather in terms of "sd-networkd PLUS Netplan". Contributors to Netplan
naturally build up knowledge in sd-networkd (and NetworkManager), so we would
actually have more minds knowledgeable about our network stack.
Other than being fully RFC 1925 6a compliant, why do we need that
layer then? And why do we need it in the installer, which is only
geared to supposed the most easy network configurations?
Haha, nice one (RFC 1925)!
Sure, if it would be just "sd-networkd PLUS Netplan", i.e. one layer on top of
another layer, it wouldn't make any sense and could be reduced to subjective
preference of the corresponding config format.
But it's not just this.
Netplan's beauty starts to shine when we're talking about the full picture:
* Netplan PLUS sd-networkd (server/cloud/container)
* Netplan PLUS NetworkManager(desktop/laptop)
* Netplan PLUS wpa_supplicant (server/embedded, using sd-networkd on WiFi)
* Netplan PLUS Open vSwitch (cloud/HPC)
So instead of having multiple different ways of configuring networking on Debian
systems, we should be telling one coherent story. In the end we want to have a
compelling answer to this question:
= "How to do networking on Debian?" =
Using Debian should NOT feel like using different distros. We want a common way
to
do network configuration. With Netplan we can tell people to use the "dhcp4:
true"
setting (for example), which will work on all Debian systems and is
automatically
translated to the corresponding backend for server/desktop/cloud/embedded
usecases.
All while giving sysadmins the flexibility to fully utilize the underlying
network
daemon directly, to optimize their special case.
= Why in the installer(s)? =
The same argument applies for having it in the installer(s. Supporting a common
network-configuration format across our installers, instead of multiple
different
"special cases" sounds like a more feasible and maintainable solution. Yes, we
already
have special cases in the installers today, but we should strive to reduce them
over
time, instead of adding more.
Netplan is integrated with [cloud-init] "v2" network configuration and the
"cloud-config"
is adopted by many major public cloud providers (AWS, GCE, Azure, ...) as a
deployment
method, which makes it a well-known format. Similarly default configuration for
[debian-cloud] is provided via Netplan. It is already supported in [Calamares]
for our
live-images and as of recently landed in [debian-installer] as well.
So we should have all the technical pieces in place for a streamlined
installation and
network configuration story across Debian!
Cheers,
Lukas
[Calamares] https://github.com/calamares/calamares/pull/2284
[debian-installer]
https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/netcfg/-/merge_requests/9
[cloud-init]
https://docs.cloud-init.io/en/latest/reference/network-config-format-v2.html
[debian-cloud]
https://salsa.debian.org/cloud-team/debian-cloud-images/-/tree/master/config_space/sid/files/etc/netplan
