Since its inception, the Guix project has always valued its autonomy, and that reflects in its infrastructure: our servers run Guix System and exclusively free software, none of them is hosted by one of these transnational companies, and they’re administered by volunteers. Of course this comes at a cost and this is why we’re sending this call for contributions. Our hope is to make infrastructure-related activity more legible so that maybe you can picture yourself helping in one of these areas. • Coding We run many Guix-specific services; this is all lovely Scheme code but it tends to receive less attention than Guix itself: Build Farm Front-End: https://git.cbaines.net/guix/bffe Cuirass: https://guix.gnu.org/cuirass/ Goggles (IRC logger): https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix/maintenance.git/tree/hydra/goggles.scm Guix Build Coordinator: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix/build-coordinator.git/ Guix Data Service: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix/data-service.git/ Guix Packages Website: https://codeberg.org/luis-felipe/guix-packages-website.git mumi: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix/mumi.git/ nar-herder: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix/nar-herder.git/ QA Frontpage: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix/qa-frontpage.git There is no time constraint on this coding activity: any improvement is welcome, whenever it comes. Most of these code bases are relatively small, which should make it easier to get started. Prerequisites: Familiarity with Guile, HTTP, and databases. If you wish to get started, check out the README of the project of your choice and get in touch with guix-devel and the primary developer(s) of the tool as per ‘git shortlog -s | sort -k1 -n’. • System administration Guix System configuration for all our systems is held in this repository: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix/maintenance.git/tree/hydra/ The two front-ends are berlin.scm (the machine behind ci.guix.gnu.org) and bayfront.scm (the machine behind bordeaux.guix.gnu.org, guix.gnu.org, hpc.guix.info, qa.guix.gnu.org, and more). Both connect to a number of build machines and helpers. Without even having SSH access to the machine, you can help by posting patches to improve the configuration (you can test it with ‘guix system vm’). Here are ways you can help: - Improve infra monitoring: set up a dashboard to monitor all the infrastructure, and an out-of-band channel to communicate about downtime. - Implement web site redundancy: guix.gnu.org should be backed by several machines on different sites. Get in touch with us and/or send a patch! - Implement substitute redundancy: likewise, bordeaux.guix.gnu.org and ci.guix.gnu.org should be backed by several head nodes. - Improve backup: there’s currently ad-hoc backup of selected pieces over rsync between the two head nodes; we can improve on that, for example with a dedicated backup site and proper testing of recoverability. - Support mirroring: We’d like to make it easy for others to mirror substitutes from ci.guix and bordeaux.guix, perhaps by offering public rsync access. - Optimize our web services: Monitor the performance of our services and tweak nginx config or whatever it takes to improve it. There is no time constraint on this activity: any improvement is welcome, whenever you can work on it. Prerequisite: Familiarity with Guix System administration and ideally with the infrastructure handbook: . • Day-to-day system administration We’re also looking for people who’d be willing to have SSH access to some of the infrastructure to help with day-to-day maintenance: restarting a build, restarting the occasional service that has gone wild (that can happen :-)), reconfiguring/upgrading a machine, rebooting, etc. This day-to-day activity requires you to be available some of the time (during office hours or not, during the week-end or not), whenever is convenient for you, so you can react to issues reported on IRC, on the mailing list, or elsewhere, and synchronize with other sysadmins. Prerequisite: Being a “known” member of the community, familiarity with Guix System administration, with some of the services/web sites being run, and with the infrastructure handbook: . • On-site intervention The first front-end is currently generously hosted by the Max Delbrück Center (MDC), a research institute in Berlin, Germany. Only authorized personnel can physically access it. The second one, bordeaux.guix.gnu.org, is hosted in Bordeaux, France, in a professional data center shared with non-profit ISP Aquilenet. If you live in the region of Bordeaux and would like to help out when we need to go on-site, please make yourself known by emailing guix-sysadmin@gnu.org. On-site interventions are rare, but they’re usually in response to an emergency. • Hosting We’re looking for people who can host machines and help out whenever physical access is needed. More specifically: - We need hosting of “small” machines such as single-board computers (AArch64, RISC-V) for use as build machines. - We need hosting for front-ends and x86_64 build machines in a data center where they can be racked and where, ideally, several local Guix sysadmins can physically access them. The machines should be accessible over Wireguard VPN most of the time, so longer power or network interruptions should be the exception. Prerequisites: Familiarity with installing and remotely administering Guix System. • Administrative tasks The infra remains up and running thanks to crucial administrative tasks, which includes: - Selecting and purchasing hardware, for example build machines. - Renewing domain names. - Securing funding, in particular via the Guix Foundation: . Prerequisites: Familiarity with hardware, and/or DNS registrars, and/or sponsorship, and/or crowdfunding. The more we are, the less any single one of us has to do! Ludo’, on behalf of the infrastructure team.