Hello to all tool maintainers!

It was good to see several of you in person this weekend! Faces ftw! :)

Here is a status update with what is now working in Tool Labs:

First of all (looking at DaB.s survey and your comments): You _don't_ have to care about virtual instances, puppet or any of this. This is underneath/behind Tool Labs but you can just use the login server without having to know about it.

What you get: * login server made to resemble the toolserver * database replicas from s1-s6, s7 is following in June. Access to all data you can access as a registered, unprivileged user. * possibility to create your own user databases * shared project storage, home directories (nfs) * possibility to add maintainers to your project via the web interface on http://tools.wmflabs.org/ * possibility to restore your files to the state they were in 1, 2, 3 hours ago, 1, 2, 3 days ago and on the last 2 Sundays. * infrastructure to run web services * job system: OpenGridengine * two different environments to develop tools in: "Tools" project which is a stable environment, "Bots" project which can be used for experiments with the environment, root access is possible in the latter. * bug tracking in WMF's Bugzilla (product: Wikimedia Labs, components: bots and tools for the two projects) * more stuff that is mentioned in the road map (link below).

What we are still on: * documentation (let's crowdsource this!) * make Merlissimo's MerlLinkBot hunt down deprecated weblinks and point them to your tools' new URL.

Looking for things you can help with? * Write down you experiences like some already did: Magnus Manske: https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Magnus_Manske/Migrating_from_toolse... or Russell Blau: https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Russell_Blau/Using_pywikibot_on_Lab... * Help to improve the user interface of tools.wmflabs.org! Contact Coren/Marc-Andre Pelletier.

Links: Tool Labs help: https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Nova_Resource:Tools/Help FAQ (ongoing collection of what you ask): http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Labs/Migration_of_Toolserver_tools Road map: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Tool_Labs/Roadmap_en (English) and http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Tool_Labs/Roadmap_de (German)

What's next? Please come and try out the new database replication! If your tool is up and running in Tool Labs, _please consider documenting_ what you missed in the docs. By doing so you will help others a lot! Don't hesitate to ask! The best places to ask questions: * IRC (#wikimedia-labs), where Coren and petan (as Tool Labs admins) and many other experienced people hang around * the list labs-l (https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/labs-l)

Do your tools need more adaptations than you think you can do? Wouldn't mind a helping hand? Ask me and I'll try to find you a helper!

Best, Silke