Research Spike for Linux on Z support
We would like to research the effort associated with support GitLab Linux packages running on Z systems running Linux.
Research Conclusions
Testing was conducted on:
- An IBM Z
s390x
virtual machine running Ubuntu 20 LTS - Within a Debian 10 Buster builder image as constructed by this proof of concept branch
- Building with Debian 10 as the target
Discoveries
- The Omnibus Builder images can be updated to work on the
s390x
IBM/Z architecture. The proof of concept, which would need cleaned up to go into production, currently lives in a branch that is not attached to a merge request. - The GitLab application, e.g. the rails codebase, is not currently able to compile for the
s390x
IBM/Z architecture.
Next steps
If we determine that we want to pursue support for the s390x
IBM/Z architecture we need to resolve support for compiling the grpc
rubygem via one of the following routes:
- Working with the upstream
grpc
project to bring support back for using vanilla OpenSSL - Working with the upstream
BoringSSL
project to adds390x
support
Notable item - because the issues here are all around OpenSSL, we should carefully consider the implications for FIPS compliance and how this would relate to the work in #6316 (closed).
Edited by Robert Marshall