Re: [gentoo-server] Basic Boot deployment

[Wade Mealing]

On Tue, 2003-08-05 at 23:13, Andrew Cowie wrote:
> 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.
> Wade.
> > 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

I agree, although I have this working here from the Gold server due to
my limited hardware ( And funding ).

Either way, All of these machine should be controlled, and "booted" from
the Gold server, as per the document. 

I have been looking at a few ways to deploy these images, and it is
difficult to find a method that will suit every deployment, it seems
each operating system and architecture has a default method of network
deployment and configuration. 

In the next few days, I'll post a more detailed document in regards to
the work ive been doing, although the Kickstart hacking seems to be
going nowhere fast.

GLIS still seems to be a while off for its configuration files, but it
is something to watch.  Does anyone know alternatives to Kickstart and
GLIS ?

Wade MealingRe: [gentoo-server] Basic Boot deployment