[GitHub] [openwhisk] dgrove-oss commented on a change in pull request #4627: Add descriptions how to update, remove or rename runtime kinds and language families

[GitBox <gi...@apache.org>]

dgrove-oss commented on a change in pull request #4627: Add descriptions how to update, remove or rename runtime kinds and language families
URL: https://github.com/apache/openwhisk/pull/4627#discussion_r325135978
 
 

 ##########
 File path: docs/actions-update.md
 ##########
 @@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+<!--
+#
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+# contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+# this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+# The ASF licenses this file to You 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.
+#
+-->
+## Updating Action Language Runtimes
+
+OpenWhisk supports [several languages and runtimes](actions.md#languages-and-runtimes) that can be made
+available for usage in an OpenWhisk deployment. This is done via the [runtimes manifest](actions-new.md#the-runtimes-manifest).
+
+Over time, you may have the need for change:
+
+* Update runtimes to address security issues - for example, the latest code level of Node.js 10.
+* Remove runtime versions that are no more supported - for example, Node.js 6.
+* Add more languages due to user demand.
+* Remove languages that are no more needed.
+
+While adding and updating languages and runtimes is pretty straightforward, removing or renaming languages and runtimes
+requires some caution to prevent problems with existing actions.
+
+### Updating runtimes
+
+Follow these steps to update a particular runtime kind:
+
+1. Update the runtimes' container image.
+2. Update the corresponding `image` property in the [runtimes manifest](actions-new.md#the-runtimes-manifest) to use the new container image.
+3. Restart / re-deploy controllers and invokers such that they pick up the changed runtimes manifest.
+
+Already existing actions of the changed runtime kind will immediately use the new container image when the invoker creates a new action container.
+
+Apparently, this approach should only be used if existing actions do not break with the new container image. If a new container image is supposed to break existing actions, introduce a new runtime kind.
+
+### Removing runtimes
+
+Follow these steps to remove a particular runtime kind under the assumption that actions with the runtime kind exist in the system. Apparently, it makes sense to wait some time between accomplishing these steps to give action owners time to react.
+
+1. Deprecate the runtime kind by setting `"deprecated": true` in the [runtimes manifest](actions-new.md#the-runtimes-manifest). This setting prevents that new actions can be created with the deprecated action kind. In addition, existing actions cannot be changed to the deprecated action kind any more.
+2. Ask owners of existing actions with runtime kind to be removed to update their actions to a different action kind.
+3. Create an automated process that identifies all actions with the runtime kind to be removed in the system's action artifact store. Either automatically remove these actions or change to a different runtime kind.
+4. Once the system's action artifact store does no more contain actions with the runtime kind to be removed, remove the runtime kind from the [runtimes manifest](actions-new.md#the-runtimes-manifest).
 
 Review comment:
   "does no more" ==> "does not"

----------------------------------------------------------------
This is an automated message from the Apache Git Service.
To respond to the message, please log on to GitHub and use the
URL above to go to the specific comment.
 
For queries about this service, please contact Infrastructure at:
users@infra.apache.org


With regards,
Apache Git Services