Gentoo Archives: gentoo-admin

From: Robert Larson <robert@×××××××××.com>
To: gentoo-admin@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-admin] Distributed administration of gentoo - easy or hard?
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 18:02:38
Message-Id: 200601231159.09481.robert@sixthings.com
In Reply to: [gentoo-admin] Distributed administration of gentoo - easy or hard? by Andrew Kesterson
1 Hello,
2
3 I have been working on setting up a build host recently for similar reasons.
4 I have a network of Gentoo servers in production environments and I am
5 running a non-production workstation with Gentoo. It will be very beneficial
6 not to have my network slow to a crawl everytime I want to update packages.
7
8 I am in the progress of setting it up and learning a lot about what can and
9 can't be done. I have been referencing these documents:
10
11 This one helped with setting up CCACHE and BINHOST:
12 http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=2&chap=3
13
14 This one describes simply providing binary packages across the network:
15 http://gentoo-wiki.com/TIP_Providing_binary_packages
16
17 This one describes the process of actually setting up a build host:
18 http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Create_A_Build_Host
19
20 I must say though, please take these last 2 documents with a grain of salt. I
21 am finding some inefficiencies (possibly due to outdated content) in how they
22 are setup as well as mentioning half-truths on how it can be setup
23 (unforeseen pitfalls that can be prevented using your head and doing some
24 research).
25
26 Just my 2 cents... This is going to be the least hassle if all of the
27 machines you build binary packages for use the same make.conf. If that is
28 the case, you can just use "buildpkg" in FEATURES variable, or run quickpkg
29 on packages you've already built.
30
31 On the other hand, if you use 2+ different make.conf configurations then it is
32 likely that you'll need to emerge each app twice. The main reason for this
33 is because of the processor architecture. Another good reason though is the
34 USE flags. Perhaps you can set them up the same?
35
36 In my setup, unfortunately, I am having to setup a separate build environment.
37 Basically, my build host is a different arch all together than my servers, so
38 I'm creating scripts to copy various files into the build environment and
39 mount /usr/portage, etc. Then I chroot in. This build environment was built
40 from a stage1 tarball, bootstrapped and then an "emerge -e system" was
41 performed.
42
43 I'm almost to the point where I can distribute the packages for testing. Let
44 me know if you want to know more on my specific setup. I can also provide
45 scripts if anyone is interested.
46
47 A possible alternative may be to setup distcc, more information can be found
48 here:
49 http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/distcc.xml
50
51 Regards,
52
53 Robert Larson
54
55
56 On Monday 23 January 2006 11:11 am, Andrew Kesterson wrote:
57 > I've recently begun admining a few gentoo boxes in a distributed
58 > setting (mainly boxes that my friends asked me to set up for them on a
59 > personal, at-home basis.) I'm noticing that while portage makes updates
60 > alot smoother, compiling them takes forever, especially on initial
61 > installations. OpenOffice installs and updates are particularly heinous.
62 > How do you guys handle this? Do you configure all your systems the
63 > same, and set up a binary package host on the system somewhere for them to
64 > fetch binaries from? Or do you just use straight portage?
65 --
66 gentoo-admin@g.o mailing list

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Re: [gentoo-admin] Distributed administration of gentoo - easy or hard? "Alex V. Koval" <alex@××××××××××.com>