Re: [gentoo-server] Gentoo in corporate environments

[Rene Zbinden]

There is a different problem I think:
No Certification:
Oracle , DB2, SAP etc... are not certified for Gentoo. There are
only the two major Distros (RH and SUSE) that will have that certification.
And Usually the customer desides to use SUSE or RH becaus hist soft is
certified there...

my 2 cents...

Jose Gonzalez Gomez wrote:

>
>    Hi there,
>
>    I remember having read some thread about this, and I would like to
> add my 2cents to the subject. This mail comes from the feeling I get
> installing some packages and reading some threads on the Gentoo
> mailing lists or forums. As you may notice from a recent post, I'm
> evaluating backup software. I came to Bacula, that's included in
> portage, so I installed it, just to find that feeling I'm talking
> about. For those who doesn't know anything about Bacula, a quick intro:
>
>    Bacula has three different daemons that may be installed in
> different machines. These daemons are the Director, that manages the
> whole installation, the Storage Daemon, that handles storage devices,
> and the File Daemon that is installed in every machine with data to
> backup. If you have *just* one machine to backup, with the storage
> device attached, it makes sense to have everything installed and
> running, *but* if you have a _real network environment_, you usually
> have one machine with the director daemon installed and running,
> several machines with the storage daemon where the storage devices are
> attached, and file daemons in every machine with data to backup. The
> console can be installed in the operator/administrator workstation and
> configured to connect remotely to the director daemon.
>
>    In the case of the Gentoo ebuild, everything is built and
> installed, and even worse, the init script starts all three services,
> so you cannot use it in a network environment unless you manually edit
> the init scripts (you can only have one director, and there's no sense
> in having a storage daemon in a machine with no storage device). Maybe
> it's overkill to split the ebuild to build these component separately
> (maybe not), but at least the init script should be able to
> selectively start the daemons based perhaps in a /etc/conf.d file, so
> if I want to install bacula in my network I don't have to be
> individually customizing init scripts.
>
>    Now the bit of positive criticism: I remember discussions about
> what's needed for Gentoo to become adopted in real business. I think
> this is one of the facts that may slow Gentoo adoption. I have found
> several packages configured to run on a single machine, so if you want
> to use them in a real environment you have to tweak things you
> shouldn't tweak, like in this package: there is no possibility of
> configuring the ebuild to get only a daemon type, or configuring the
> init script to only start the needed daemons. You have the feeling
> that whoever made this was thinking of Bacula as an overkill toy to
> just backup her single machine, instead of the powerful piece of
> software I think it really is when used in real life with a whole
> network to backup using full blown tape changers and completely
> automated and unattended operation with real business data instead of
> backing up my collection of MP3s and my mail to a CD-RW.
>
>    I also have this feeling when I read in the mailing list or forums
> and see that a lot of people tell you to use tar/cp/rsync/whatever.
> That's ok for your home machine, but I don't think those are solutions
> for enterprise needs. Just imagine yourself telling your boss or
> client: "Yes, I'm gonna have all those machines with your critical
> business data backed up using rsync... err... oh, those tapes... don't
> worry, I'll write some scripts so the systems tars the rsynced copy
> and writes them to tape... err... oh. labeling... ummm, I'm gonna give
> you a wonderful pen so you can write on every tape... err... what do
> you say? tape changers? robots? err... don't you think those are a
> waste of money? Better sell them and contract somebody to manually
> change the tapes at 1:30am... after all somebody has to label them..."
>
>    Some samples:
>
> http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=179781&postdays=0&postorder=asc&vote=viewresult
> (rsync wins here)
>
> http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=229794&postdays=0&postorder=asc&vote=viewresult
> (backing up to CD/DVD or cp are the leaders here)
>
>    Joking apart, I think Gentoo needs a mind change to become a
> corporate distribution and attract people doing real business... just
> some thoughts of somebody who's trying to do Gentoo for a living and
> would love to see Gentoo in every data center.
>
>    By the way, I created a bug regarding this, and containing similar
> text, in http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=68317.
>
>    Best regards
>    Jose
>