Re: KernelCI Labs Working Group

Hello Gus,

On Mon, 1 Sept 2025 at 23:55, Gustavo Padovan <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Following discussions at the KernelCI Workshop 2025 in Amsterdam, we're establishing
> a Labs Working Group to address the challenges of executing testing through hardware
> labs in KernelCI.
>
> ## Working Group Scope
>
> The Labs WG will focus on improving how KernelCI integrates with and manages
> hardware testing laboratories. Currently, we support only LAVA, but there's growing
> interest in expanding backend support and addressing various infrastructure challenges.
>
>
> ## Key Areas of Focus
>
> - Labgrid Integration: Design and implement labgrid backend support alongside existing
> LAVA integration
> - CI Ecosystem Labs: Better support for vendor labs (TI, Qualcomm, etc.) through improved
> events API and shared rootfs images.
> - Alternative Backends: Explore integration with other lab management systems like Tuxtest
> for virtualized testing
> - Lab Health Dashboard: Develop tools to monitor lab status and infrastructure issues
> - Failure Classification: Improve detection and reporting of infrastructure failures vs. actual
> test failures
> - Lab Admin Guidelines: Create standards for lab administrators on device type differentiation
> and configuration facilitating accessing the same hardware across multiple labs.
> - Job Prioritization: Implement smarter job scheduling
> - Dependency Management: Avoid running dependent tests when prerequisites fail (e.g.,
> skip NFS-dependent tests if NFS boot fails)
>
> The Labs WG will work closely with the Infrastructure Working Group and Technical
> Steering Committee to ensure our efforts align with KernelCI's overall architecture and goals.
>
> Based on the interest during the workshop, we’d need to cover the West Coast timezone
> as well. So an initial proposal for these meetings is starting next week on Thursday,
> September 11 at 7:30am PDT/4:30pm CEST.


Great, thanks for putting this together. I cannot make 11th as I will
be on vacation for 2 weeks; however, I will be there on the 25th (if
it's running that week).

Regards,

Ben

>
>
> We invite all interested community members, especially those running or managing
> hardware labs, to participate in this working group. Please reply to this thread if
> you're interested in contributing or have specific use cases and requirements to discuss.
>
> Best,
>
> - Gus
>
> --
> Gustavo Padovan
>
> Collabora Ltd.
>
>