Getting Started with RackHD

RackHD™ is a technology stack created for enabling hardware management and orchestration. It provides cohesive APIs to enable automated infrastructure. In a Converged Infrastructure Platform (CIP) architecture, RackHD software provides hardware management and orchestration (M&O). It serves as an abstraction layer between other M&O layers and the underlying physical hardware. Developers can use the RackHD API to create a user interface that serves as single point of access for managing hardware services regardless of the specific hardware in place.

This document acts as a single source location for interfacing with and learning about RackHD. It guides you to acquire or build all the pieces to take advantage of and contribute to RackHD. If you are having an issue finding information, please visit the RackHD Portal.

Various pages for the RackHD project

Community:  The RackHD Slack channel

There is a #RackHD slack channel athttps://rackhd.slack.com (activated on  May 1st 2018). There is also a #rackhd-chinese for discussions in Chinese.

Support: Installation, Create Bugs, and Feature Requests

The code and documentation are released with no warranties or service level agreements and are intended to be supported through a community driven process.

Your first step in getting increased access to RackHD is to sign up for a free JIRA account at https://RackHD.atlassian.net/admin/users/sign-up.

If you intend to become a RackHD Contributor, it's important to use your legal name while signing up. This is in keeping with RackHD's Developer's Certificate of Origin (DCO) Requirement.

Once you complete the self-signup process, you will have sufficient access to the RackHD JIRA and confluence tools.

To access and install RackHD package releases and installation instructions, please access the RackHD Release Page.

To create bug reports or feature requests, click on the links provided below or press the "+" in the left column of the RackHD Jira page and fill out all the applicable fields on the page. You can also directly Report a bug, ask for assistance, or request a feature with the following links:

Before requesting assistance (Questions & Help), reporting bugs, or requesting a feature, search existing issues to ensure that you do not report a topic that has already been covered. If you have new information to share about an existing issue, add your information to the existing discussion. A Knowledge Base RackHD is being developed to assist with this search.

To submit a bug, please provide the following information.

Necessary Information

  • Issue Type:  Please use the appropriate issue type for questions, help, or for reporting a bug
    • Assistance: For issues requesting help or an answer to a question
    • Bug: A problem which impairs or prevents the functions of the product. (Bug is the default.)
  • Reporter: The person reporting the issue.
  • Affects Version/s: Version of software that was in use when the issue was discovered.
  • Summary: Header to allow people to quickly recognize the issue.                         
  • Description: Includes problem description, steps to reproduce, actual / expected results and additional supporting information.
  • Repeatable: Identifies the issue’s occurrence behavior.

Optional Information

  • Attachment: Attach additional any significant collateral for the issue.
  • Flagged: Identify a progress blocker
  • Severity: Identify the impact to your work
    • S1: Essential operations are unavoidably disrupted, safety is jeopardized, and security is compromised.
    • S2: Essential operations are affected but can proceed.
    • S3: Nonessential operations are disrupted. No significant impact on operations.
  • External Issue ID: Non RackHD project tracking number of the issue

Reporting Security Vulnerabilities

EMC takes all security issues very seriously. Please report any suspected security vulnerability in this project to the EMC Product Security Response Center at security_alert@emc.com. You can encrypt your message using the PGP key located here to communicate with us securely.

Please include as much of the below information as possible to help us to better understand the nature and scope of the potential vulnerability.

  • Product name and version that contains the issue
  • Type of issue (XSS, buffer overflow, etc.)
  • Step-by-step instructions to reproduce the issue
  • Proof-of-concept or exploit code
  • Impact of the issue, including how an attacker could exploit the issue

Licensing

RackHD is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the “License”); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an “AS IS” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License. RackHD is a Trademark of Dell EMC.

Getting Accounts on RackHD

If all you wish to do is experiment with the RackHD source, you don't need an account. You can simply follow the RackHD Readthedocs to download the source anonymously. However, if you wish to report a bug, request a feature, or make contributions yourself, you will need login credentials.

Contributor Access to RackHD

Code and bug submissions are handled on GitHub at the relevant repository for the code. The RackHD project is a collection of libraries and applications housed at https://github.com/RackHD/ and available under the Apache 2.0 license (or compatible sublicenses for library dependencies). Please sign up for GitHub, and then search for the RackHD project at the top of the page. This project adheres to the Open Code of Conduct. By participating, you are expected to honor this code. 

Finding Something to Work On

As a new RackHD contributor, you should read the RackHD Readthedocs (Is this updated? Does it also cover Download and built the code and Set up your development environment?) There are also additional technical documents located in confluence at RackHD Technical Documents.

Feel free to work on any issues that are not assigned in the backlog.