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On 30/09/2013 19:31, Grant wrote: |
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>>> Keeping all of the laptops 100% identical as far as hardware is |
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>>> central to this plan. I know I'm setting myself up for big problems |
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>>> otherwise. |
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>>> |
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>>> I'm hoping I can emerge every package on my laptop that every other |
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>>> laptop needs. That way I can fix any build problems and update any |
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>>> config files right on my own system. Then I would push config file |
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>>> differences to all of the other laptops. Then each laptop could |
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>>> emerge its own stuff unattended. |
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>> |
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>> I see what you desire now - essentially you want to clone your laptop |
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>> (or big chunks of it) over to your other workstations. |
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> |
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> That sounds about right. |
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> |
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>> To get a feel for how it works, visit puppet's web site and download |
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>> some of the test appliances they have there and run them in vm software. |
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>> Set up a server and a few clients, and start experimenting in that |
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>> sandbox. You'll quickly get a feel for how it all hangs together (it's |
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>> hard to describe in text how puppet gets the job done, so much easier to |
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>> do it for real and watch the results) |
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> |
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> Puppet seems like overkill for what I need. I think all I really need |
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> is something to manage config file differences and user accounts. At |
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> this point I'm thinking I shouldn't push packages themselves, but |
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> portage config files and then let each laptop emerge unattended based |
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> on those portage configs. I'm going to bring this to the 'salt' |
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> mailing list to see if it might be a good fit. It seems like a much |
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> lighter weight application. |
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Two general points I can add: |
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1. Sharing config files turns out to be really hard. By far the easiest |
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way is to just share /etc but that is an all or nothing approach, and |
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you just need one file to be different to break it. Like /etc/hostname |
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You *could* create a "share" directory inside /etc and symlink common |
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files in there, but that gets very tedious quickly. |
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Rather go for a centralized repo solution that pushes configs out, you |
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must just find the one that's right for you. |
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2. Binary packages are almost perfect for your needs IMHO, running |
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emerge gets very tedious quickly, and your spec is that all workstations |
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have the same USE. You'd be amazed how much time you save by doing this: |
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emerge -b on your laptop and share your /var/packages |
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emerge -K on the workstations when your laptop is on the network |
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step 2 goes amazingly quickly - eyeball the list to be emerged, they |
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should all be purple, press enter. About a minute or two per |
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workstation, as opposed to however many hours the build took. |
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3. (OK, three points). Share your portage tree over the network. No |
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point in syncing multiple times when you actually just need to do it once. |
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> |
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> I'm soaking up a lot of your time (again). I'll return with any real |
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> Gentoo questions I run into and to run down the final plan before I |
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> execute it. Thanks so much for your help. Not sure what I'd do |
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> without you. :) |
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I'm sure Neil would step in if I'm hit by a bus |
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He'd say the same things, and use about 1/4 of the words it takes me ;-) |
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-- |
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Alan McKinnon |
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alan.mckinnon@×××××.com |
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