Re: [gentoo-server] Basic Boot deployment

[Andrew Cowie]

On Tue, 2003-08-05 at 22:28, Justin Filoseta wrote:
> Unfortunately the requirements for the windows kickstart include samba shares
> which may not be suitable for the gold server. However, it is something to
> consider rather than imaging windows boxes.

Whether it's images, packages, kickstart, jumpstart, or
emerge/bootstrap, there's nothing that says the file shares have to be
on the gold server.

If you're going to be bootstrapping an entire trading floor full of
machines one afternoon, it's clear that you'll need multiple (a few)
file servers to take the load of so many clients hitting them for that
volume of binary.

No biggie - have multiple file servers.

So applying that thought to the question of regulating access to the
gold server, the key ingredient is that the master server is the one
from which the others *get their instructions*. It could be that the
gold server is contacted by a PXE boot, and then passes instructions to
the new client of where to find the images (on another host), or, it
could be (and this would only be necessary in a *really* large situation
or if you wanted to be *really* paranoid about security) that the PXE
servers themselves are just a class of machine whose configuration and
content are controlled by the gold server.

> Note, this does require a http server on the gold box (or a
> machine controlled by gold box).

Exactly. Nothing wrong with that that I can see in any case. Doesn't
mean it's a web server speaking to the outside world.

AfC