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On Sat, Jul 2, 2011 at 6:14 PM, Grant <emailgrant@×××××.com> wrote: |
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> After a frustrating experience with a Linksys WRT54GL, I've decided to |
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> stick with Gentoo routers. This increases the number of Gentoo |
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> systems I'm responsible for and they're nearing double-digits. What |
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> can be done to make the management of multiple Gentoo systems easier? |
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> I think identical hardware in each system would help a lot but I'm not |
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> sure that's practical. I need to put together a bunch of new |
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> workstations and I'm thinking some sort of server/client arrangement |
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> with the only Gentoo install being on the server could be appropriate. |
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> |
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> - Grant |
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> |
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> |
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I've been managing 3 very very different gentoo systems for more than 12 |
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months now. I used to have 2 more machines but I decomissioned them for |
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they were old and noisy and it's summer and it's hot enough like that! haha |
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I do not have a lazy-proof way of administrating this whole stuff, but I've |
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come up with some kind of methodology that helps... |
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I found it really helps to have the same profile on all machines, same |
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/etc/portage everything. The /etc/make.conf can vary, but I would make it |
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vary in the most minimal way. For example, all my kernels and |
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/etc/make.conf are compiled for an i686, global use flags are exactly the |
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same... in fact the only difference is my host has extra make option "-j5" |
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and their distfiles mirrors will point to my own computers. Basically, |
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downgrade all computers to the lowest common denominator of all your |
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computers. |
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|
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I don't use binpkgs but I'm working on that... and also for the world file, |
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I have 2 world file "styles", one has "everything" in it and the other is |
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just the minimal stuff. I used to maintain the world files directly but |
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I've opted for creating 2 ebuilds in my own portage overlay which are |
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basically called sys-apps/everything and another called |
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sys-apps/minimalist. Maintenance of world files moved to the maintenance of |
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these ebuilds. Also, it helps to have your faster computer install all |
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packages that would be installed on the others. If there's any trouble |
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doing the emerge on that one, you'll have the same problems on the others. |
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If the solution was to add some keywords in /etc/portage or something like |
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that, then you can copy the change over to your other PCs and their emerge |
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should be fine. |
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|
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To reduce network load, I sync my master server (my server online) against |
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official sync server, then I sync my main computer at home against my |
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server, then I sync any other computers at home against the main computer at |
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home. |
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|
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But the activity of making your systems up-to-date will vary in intensity |
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depending on how well it goes. When things are fine, it used to take 30 |
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minutes to get all my systems updated, with the slowest ones taking 2-3 |
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times that but requiring no intervention until the end. |
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|
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I'm currently in the process of writing a script that fully automates the |
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update process. It basically tries things like "emerge -uDN --keep-going |
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world" and checks for errors, if there are, it then fires a few safe |
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"responses" which have helped in the past. For example, if the above emerge |
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fails, it then tries a revdep-rebuild, an lafilefixer, python-updater and a |
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few more, and then it restart from scratch trying the emerge again, over and |
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over. Rarely, this will not work and will require that I mask something, |
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add some keyword or update my ebuild to get rid of some package. The script |
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is clearly not intelligent and is wasting a lot of time, but it eventually |
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gets it done. Upgrades now take at least 1 hour, but are fully unattended. |
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Also, I think Wonko's suggestion is pretty good in combination with my |
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suggestions, I haven't tried but it does seem very attractive. |
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|
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Simon |