[tor-bugs] #33477 [Internal Services/Tor Sysadmin Team]: automate host retirement / decommissionning procedure

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#33477: automate host retirement / decommissionning procedure
-----------------------------------------------------+-----------------
     Reporter:  anarcat                              |      Owner:  tpa
         Type:  defect                               |     Status:  new
     Priority:  Medium                               |  Milestone:
    Component:  Internal Services/Tor Sysadmin Team  |    Version:
     Severity:  Normal                               |   Keywords:
Actual Points:                                       |  Parent ID:
       Points:                                       |   Reviewer:
      Sponsor:                                       |
-----------------------------------------------------+-----------------
 [we're removing a surprising number of servers. in the last few months,
 we're retired about half a dozen servers. that procedure is currently
 entirely manual, and quite error-prone, especially because of at(1) jobs
 errors or omitted steps. backup removal can be forgotten or typo'd and
 we've forgotten to remove entries in the spreadsheet or nagios a few
 times.

 we should automate this process.

 right now the documentation is in the
 [https://help.torproject.org/tsa/howto/retire-a-host/ retire-a-host] page,
 but i somehow got into the habit of calling tickets `decomission host
 FOO`. so we need to decide between "retire" and "decommission" as a naming
 convention, before we start writing code.

 the two contestants are:

  * retire, retirement, retiring, retired
  * decommission, decommissioning procedure, decommissioning,
 decommisssioned

 a quick IRC survey indicates people favor the former family because it's
 shorter and more familiar.

 decommission was seen as a "nice word". it's also less ambiguous: "retire"
 can also refer to a user, and it could also imply the host sticks around
 for a while and rant about pain in his lower backs and babble nonsense
 when guests are around, just to embarrass us. the problem with
 decommission is that I can't spell it to save my life. it also doesn't
 have a "name" (an action, like "retirement") so it makes it sometimes
 awkward to refer to.

 so we favor converging over "retire" for now.

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/33477>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online