Hello, all!

This is a follow-up on our earlier announcement[0] of the above.

Thanks to those who have already migrated their tool(s) from Debian Stretch grid or are
in the process of doing this.
At the start of this process, there were 867 tools running on Stretch grid. The current number is 821.

=== Recap ===
We are migrating away from Debian Stretch[1] to Debian Buster for all of Toolforge servers,
and the most affected piece is the Grid Engine backend in particular.

We need to shut down all Stretch hosts before the end of support date to ensure that
Toolforge remains a secure platform. This migration will take several
months because many people still use the Stretch hosts and our users
are working on tools in their spare time.

== What should I do? ==
You should migrate your Toolforge tool to a newer environment.
You have two options:
* migrate from Toolforge Stretch Grid Engine to Toolforge Kubernetes[2].
* migrate from Toolforge Stretch Grid Engine to Toolforge Buster Grid Engine.[3]

== Timeline ==
* 2022-02-15: Availability of Debian Buster grid announced to community - DONE
* 2022-03-21: Weekly reminders via email to tool maintainers for tools still running on Stretch - IN PROGRESS
* Week of 2022-04-21:
** Daily reminders via email to tool maintainers for tools still running on Stretch
** Switch login.toolforge.org to point to Buster bastion
* Week of 2022-05-02: Evaluate migration status and formulate plan for final shutdown of Stretch grid
* Week of 2022-05-21: Shutdown Stretch grid

We thank all of you for your support during this migration process.

You can always reach out via any of our communication channels[4]

[0] https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/cloud-announce@lists.wikimedia.org/thread/EPJFISC52T7OOEFH5YYMZNL57O4VGSPR/
[1] https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/News/Toolforge_Stretch_deprecation
[2] https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Toolforge/Jobs_framework#Grid_Engine_migration
[3] https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/News/Toolforge_Stretch_deprecation#Move_a_grid_engine_webservice
[4] https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Portal:Toolforge/About_Toolforge#Communication_and_support

Thanks.
--
Seyram Komla Sapaty
Developer Advocate
Wikimedia Cloud Services