Ironic/ThirdPartyVendorToolsDeveloperDoc

= Third party vendor tools developer documentation =

Third party vendors are encouraged to share the tools/scripts that operators can use with vendor hardware when using Ironic to provision them. Such tools can be located anywhere (in personal github repositories, stackforge/openstack github repositories, etc), and should be easily consumable to the operators. Roughly, the step-by-step instruction for sharing a new vendor tool is as follows:


 * 1) You have an idea for a tool that can help operators using your hardware.
 * 2) Check the current vendor tool list [1] to see if similar tools already exist.  If so, talk to the owner of that tool to see if similar work already done can be leveraged OR similar interface can be provided to the operator for your hardware also.  Ironic encourages vendors to share and leverage each other's work.
 * 3) If it's not in the current vendor tool list, talk to the Ironic community in #openstack-ironic channel to check the usability of such a tool and get a general consensus that it fits in as a tool related to Ironic.
 * 4) Provide an easy mechanism for operators to download and use your tool.  We encourage usage of github repositories - under personal namespace OR stackforge/openstack [2] namespace.
 * 5) Add your tool to third party vendor tools list [1] with email address of maintainer of the tool.
 * 6) Maintain the tool, by providing defect fixes and enhancements as and when required and encourage other folks using the tool to develop it.

NOTE: Ironic community will not be responsible for fixing issues and maintaining vendor tools. Vendor tool developers are encouraged to use publicly available API or ironicclient to talk to Ironic within the tool.

[1] https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Ironic/ThirdPartyVendorToolsList

[2] http://docs.openstack.org/infra/manual/creators.html