User:Taavi/History of Toolforge

This is a brief history of Toolforge.

Toolserver

Source for this is mw:Toolserver:History unless otherwise noted.

• 2005
  • zedler (a Sun V40z server originally donated for Wikimania use) becomes the first Wikimedia "tools server".
• 2014
  • Toolserver is shut down.

Tool Labs/Toolforge

Technical

• 2011
  • Wikimedia Labs is founded, with a goal of making it possible for community members to develop and test infrastructure changes.
• 2013
  • Wikimedia Tool Labs project is started, with a goal of replacing Toolserver.
• 2015
  • Kubernetes selected as the replacement for the Grid Engine.
• 2016
  • Kubernetes backend available for web services.
  • toolsadmin.wikimedia.org (aka Striker) is introduced.
  • toolsadmin extended to allow self-service git repository creation.
• 2017
  • Wiki Replicas are rebuilt. The new cluster no longer supports user databases mixed with MediaWiki databases.
• 2019
  • Last Ubuntu hosts are retired.
• 2020
  • Kubernetes cluster is rebuilt.
  • Kubernetes becomes the default backend (Grid Engine remains available).
  • Toolforge.org domain is introduced with a single subdomain for each tool.
  • Wiki Replicas are rebuilt. The new cluster no longer supports cross-section joins.
• 2022
  • Toolforge Jobs Framework is released.
  • Plans to deprecate the Grid Engine are announced.
• 2023
  • lima-kilo development environment tool is released.
  • Toolforge Build Service is released.
  • Functionality to manage envvars for Kubernetes jobs is announced.
• 2024
  • Grid Engine is shut down.

Social

• 2016
  • Wikimedia Foundation Community Tech Tool Labs support team is founded.
  • Right to fork policy and abandoned tool policy adopted by community after vote on meta.
• 2017
  • Toolforge standards committee created to help manage the right to fork and abandoned tool policies.
  • Community Tech Tool Labs support team and Labs Ops team are merged to form the Wikimedia Cloud Services team.
  • Tool Labs is rebranded as Toolforge.