Re: [gentoo-user] Managing multiple Gentoo systems

[kashani]

On 7/2/2011 3:14 PM, Grant wrote:
> After a frustrating experience with a Linksys WRT54GL, I've decided to
> stick with Gentoo routers.  This increases the number of Gentoo
> systems I'm responsible for and they're nearing double-digits.  What
> can be done to make the management of multiple Gentoo systems easier?
> I think identical hardware in each system would help a lot but I'm not
> sure that's practical.  I need to put together a bunch of new
> workstations and I'm thinking some sort of server/client arrangement
> with the only Gentoo install being on the server could be appropriate.
>
> - Grant
>

	You may want to look at something like a config management system. I'm 
using Puppet these days, but Gentoo support isn't spectacular. It would 
be a bit complex to have Puppet install the packages with the correct 
USE flags. However you could use Puppet to manage all the text files and 
then manage the packages somewhat manually.

Here's a snippet of a template for nrpe.cfg

<% if processorcount.to_i >= 12 then -%>
command[check_load]=<%= scope.lookupvar('nrpe::params::pluginsdir') 
%>/check_load -w 35,25,25 -c 35,25,25
<% elsif fqdn =~ /(.*)stage|demo(.*)/ then -%>
command[check_load]=<%= scope.lookupvar('nrpe::params::pluginsdir') 
%>/check_load -w 10,10,10 -c 10,10,10
<% else -%>
command[check_load]=<%= scope.lookupvar('nrpe::params::pluginsdir') 
%>/check_load -w 10,7,5 -c 10,7,5
<% end -%>

If you were managing a make.conf you could set -j<%= processorcount*2 %> 
or whatever as well as pass in your own settings etc. Once you have 
things working it's pretty good at keeping your servers in sync and 
doing minor customization per server based on OS, hardware, IP, 
hostname, etc.

kashani