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On Thu, Dec 12, 2013 at 6:54 PM, Grant <emailgrant@×××××.com> wrote: |
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> I'm about to embark on this (perilous?) journey and I'm wondering if |
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> anyone would make a comment on any of the questions in the last |
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> paragraph below. This is basically my plan for setting up a bunch of |
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> systems (laptops) in an office which are hardware-identical to my own |
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> laptop and creating a framework to manage them all with a bare minimum |
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> of time and effort. |
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> |
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> Thanks, |
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> Grant |
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> |
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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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>> I've been working on this and I think I have a good and simple plan. |
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>> |
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>> My laptop roams around with me and is the "master" system. The office |
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>> router is the "submaster" system. All of the other office systems are |
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>> "minion" systems. All of the systems are 100% hardware-identical |
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>> laptops. All of the minions are 100% software-identical. |
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>> |
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>> I install every package that any system needs on the master and create |
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>> an SSH keypair. The only config files that change from their state on |
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>> the master are: /etc/conf.d/hostname, /etc/conf.d/net, |
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>> /etc/ssh/sshd_config, /etc/shorewall/*. I write comments in those |
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>> files which serve as flags for scripted changes. |
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>> |
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>> I write a script that is run from the master to the submaster, or from |
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>> the submaster to a minion. If it's the former, rsync / is run with |
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>> exceptions (/usr/portage, /usr/local/portage, /var/log, /tmp, /home, |
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>> /root but /root/.ssh/id_rsa_script* is included), my personal user is |
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>> removed, a series of workstation users are created with useradd -m, |
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>> services are added or removed from /etc/runlevels/default, and config |
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>> files are changed according to comment flags. If it's the latter, |
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>> rsync / is run without exceptions, services are added or removed from |
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>> /etc/runlevels/default, and config files are changed according to |
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>> comment flags. |
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>> |
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>> All user info on the submaster and minions would be effectively reset |
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>> whenever the script is run and that's fine. Root logins would have to |
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>> be allowed on the submaster and minions but only with the SSH key. |
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>> There are probably more paths to exclude when rsyncing master to |
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>> submaster. |
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>> |
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>> That's it. No matter how numerous the minions become, this should |
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>> allow me to keep everything running by administrating only my own |
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>> system, pushing that to the submaster, and having the submaster push |
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>> to the minions. I've been going over the nitty-gritty and everything |
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>> looks good. |
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>> |
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>> What do you think? Is there anything inherently wrong with rsyncing / |
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>> onto a running system? If there are little or no changes to make, |
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>> about how much data would actually be transferred? Is there a better |
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>> tool for this than rsync? I know Funtoo uses git for syncing with |
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>> their portage tree. |
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>> |
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>> - Grant |
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> |
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|
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Only thing that comes immediately to mind in rsyncing an overwrite of |
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/ is that any process that's running that goes looking for libraries |
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or other data after the rsync pulls the rug out from beneath it might |
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behave erratically, crash, kick a puppy, write arbitrary data all over |
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your drive. Also, it's somewhat important to be careful about the |
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various not-really-there mounts, /dev, /sys, /proc... /run's probably |
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touchy too, and /var has a few pieces that might be in use mid-sync |
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and choke something along the way. My idea on that would be... build |
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an initramfs that: |
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|
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1) boots to a script |
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a) warns the user that it's hungry and that feeding it will be |
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dangerous to any non-backed-up data, with prompt |
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b) warns the user again, with prompt ('cause watching an rsync roll |
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by that eats that document you just spent 3 weeks on isn't fun) |
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2) mounts / in a working directory |
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3) rsyncs the new data from the sub-master |
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4) kicks off a script to update a hardware keyed (mac address is good |
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for this) set of settings (hostname, etc) |
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5) reboots into the new system. |
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|
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For extra credit... sync /home back to the sub-master to prevent |
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overfeeding the beast. |
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|
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-- |
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Poison [BLX] |
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Joshua M. Murphy |
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