@MSantos and @Jhernandez , would it perhaps make things far simpler to migrate to use Kubernetes/Docker? Each maps service will be able to use any version of Node, or any native package, or even a different version/distribution of Linux as needed, and it will not affect any other services even if they are running on the same physical hardware. Even migration will be easier, because you will be able to use different version of Node on the same machine by different instances of Tilerator/Kartotherian.

P.S. This approach will also allow Mapnik not to be backported because it can simply be used with an Ubunutu base image - thus simplifying managing of all dependencies.

@Gehel and @Pchelolo any thoughts on Yuri's comment?

Maps will go on k8s eventually afaik, but it's an independent issue. Node 6 support ends in April even for security updates and that is the primary reason for the move.

As said by @Pchelolo, moving to k8s would be great for a number of reason and will happen at some point. But it is a different issue. Also, k8s in the context of WMF will not mean anything can be deployed.

@Gehel is there a doc/procedure describing limits to docker deployment? E.g. would WMF have a docker repository and a well established build process that uploads to it, does it limit to the base images like "must use base Debian but not base Alpine", etc.

My understanding of Docker deployment was "to throw things over the wall" -- developers can build a docker image, throw it to dev-ops, who can deploy it to production in the matter of hours rather than months - simply because all dependencies are baked into the built image, and because dev-ops can compartmentalize different services more easily.

In T213077#4944989, @Yurik wrote:

@Gehel is there a doc/procedure describing limits to docker deployment? E.g. would WMF have a docker repository and a well established build process that uploads to it, does it limit to the base images like "must use base Debian but not base Alpine", etc.

Let's move this conversation somewhere else, this is unrelated to the current ticket. Ping me on IRC tomorrow and we'll get started.

@Pchelolo @Gehel I agree that Node 8 upgrade is urgent and must happen. This ticket was discussing Node 10, and mentioned that it was blocked on some dependencies, so I was proposing how to help with the difficulties of dependency upgrades, and k8s might be a good solution to that. I will be happy to chat on IRC. Thanks!!!

@MSantos : The service::node class which is used by Kartotherian/Tilerator recently gained an option $use_nodejs10, you can extend the kartotherian/tilerator Puppet classes with a new parameter for node10 which then gets passed down to the service::node class and then enable it in deployment-prep. See modules/aqs/manifests/init.pp which already does that.

related: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/operations/puppet/+/500615/

Unlinking from the parent since this is no longer a blocker. It's still worthwhile to do this maintenance, of course, so we aren't keeping the zombie fork open.

Change 851088 had a related patch set uploaded (by WMDE-Fisch; author: WMDE-Fisch):

[mediawiki/services/kartotherian@master] [WIP] Update modules to support mapnik3.1

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/851088

Change 851734 had a related patch set uploaded (by WMDE-Fisch; author: WMDE-Fisch):

[mediawiki/services/kartotherian@master] Update some node packages

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/851734

Change 851734 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/services/kartotherian@master] Update some node packages

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/851734

Change 852870 had a related patch set uploaded (by Awight; author: WMDE-Fisch):

[mediawiki/services/kartotherian@mapnik-3.1] Update modules to support mapnik-3.1

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/852870

Change 852870 merged by Awight:

[mediawiki/services/kartotherian@mapnik-3.1] Update modules to support mapnik-3.1

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/852870

Change 851088 abandoned by WMDE-Fisch:

[mediawiki/services/kartotherian@master] [WIP] Update modules to support mapnik3.1

Reason:

Cherry picked to the feature branch for mapnik3.1

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/851088

Change 853236 had a related patch set uploaded (by WMDE-Fisch; author: WMDE-Fisch):

[mediawiki/services/kartotherian@mapnik-3.1] Disable strict mode on vector lib

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/853236

Change 853236 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/services/kartotherian@mapnik-3.1] Don't load maps in strict mode in tilelive-vector

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/853236

Change 879592 had a related patch set uploaded (by WMDE-Fisch; author: WMDE-Fisch):

[mediawiki/services/kartotherian@master] [DNM] Bump node-mapnik to support libmapnik v3.1

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/879592