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On Mon, Nov 21, 2005 at 12:45:53PM -0500, Eric Thibodeau wrote: |
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> PXE-boot even for the Master?...so where do the images reside... |
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The PXE env resides on an install server, that's used for all of the |
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machines in the network (not just the cluster). (It serves up SUSE's |
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AutoYAST for our desktops, and a few different GLI profiles for our |
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other servers). |
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> how do you manage the slightly varying config items such as hostname |
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> and all? |
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hostname is taken from DHCP directly. dhcpcd -H. |
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The other slightly varying stuff is done with a postinstall script run |
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by the installer (the current script is under 100 lines). |
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> This approach still seems a little bit time consuming since all nodes |
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> are still individual entities (not NFS roots to a single maintained |
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> image). Though granted that the nodes being all identical, emerge -K |
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> should in theory be a breeze....but it's not the case for maintaining |
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> all the config files consistent. |
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Use INSTALL_MASK=/etc after the install is completed and propagate |
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config files manually (well triggerable command connecting to a local |
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rsync server). |
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We also make use of LDAP for authentication. |
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> So switching a machine's purpose/profile requires a complete |
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> re-install on the node? |
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Yes, but I'm talking about radical alterations here. |
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Eg we've got a binary app that needs the system compiled with gcc-3.3. |
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It doesn't work if glibc or a few other things are compiled with |
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gcc-3.4 or newer. |
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> You state 20 minutes for re-installing, is it |
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> a _real_ install |
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Full GLI install, extract stage, portage tree, emerge -K all needed |
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packages. If you want to make each node compile everything, it's about |
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an hour on the nodes (they are pretty speedy boxes). |
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> or the dump of a "reference" root? (Pardon my |
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> ignorance of the CLI installer you are referring to... I'll read the |
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> http link you'll send me ;) ) |
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Look for GLI first of all. It's the Gentoo installer. It has a number |
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of frontend modes - GTK, Dialog, and CLI. |
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The CLI is entirely non-interactive. |
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> Actually, I would have thought you use _one_ node to compile the packages |
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> (using distcc at your description) and _then_ propagate the package onto the |
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> other nodes with -K....still, I would think maintaining an NFS mounted ROOT |
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> would be less cumbersome.... |
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I do compile the packages on a single node. I was mainly pointing out a |
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danger in using -k due to Portage not use lockfiles the binpkgs |
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presently. |
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-- |
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Robin Hugh Johnson |
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E-Mail : robbat2@g.o |
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GnuPG FP : 11AC BA4F 4778 E3F6 E4ED F38E B27B 944E 3488 4E85 |
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