[clug] Automated install and maintenance

Ahmed El Zein zein at gawab.com
Wed Jun 13 07:44:12 GMT 2007



 <Michael.James at csiro.au> wrote on 5 Jun 2007, 11:21 AM:
Subject: Re: [clug] Automated install and maintenance
>On Mon, 4 Jun 2007 08:08:44 pm you wrote:
>> That sounds a lot like System Imager
>> [http://wiki.systemimager.org/index.php/Main_Page]
>> any reason you didn't use it?
>
>I had a look at something like it
> but it looked a lot more static than real world situations need.
>
>In their model of development I build the final master node,
> image it and build the rest of the cluster from that.
>
>Then if I want to use systemimager to change configuration
> or update a package I have to re-build the image
> and re-boot everything from the boot CD. Hassle
No. All you do is update the image from any imaged node. Then you run the
si-update command on the rest of the cluster.

>
>In my system the master node IS the image,
> complete with all the changes I just did in vi.
>If those changes are too widespread to be conveniently rsync-ed
> then I fire a general reboot across the cluster.
>So I can use cloneboot to ensure uniformity.
>
>There is nothing special about the master node,
> I can pick any node and un-enslave it
> just by changing a link in /tftpboot.
>Then I can develop it, re-partition its drive, upgrade the OS,
> test and if all goes well; make it the new master.
>Do a reboot of all but the old master and test again.
>If there's a problem, just point the other nodes
> back to the old master and reboot back.
>Yes, once I blow the old master away, it's lost.
>But I don't do that till the new config has been working for a good while.
I use systemimager for a small cluster. It is very useful to have multiple
images available!
For example I have 64 and 32 bit versions of the same system available. so
when it turned out that there are no 64-bit nvidia drivers that support
CUDA, it was easy to re-image the system with the 32 bit image.

>
>It looked as if systemimager didn't do the partitioning.
it does of course! It also recently supports LVM with is really useful in
my situation!


>With my system I could commission 6 new blades in 20 minutes,
Cloneboot and systemimager both use rsync, so I suppose they would take the
same about of time. It takes me less than 2 minutes to image one server.
but the image is only 788M!
systemimager supports multicast for large installations but I have never
tried it!

> that's from opening the crate to running with apps installed!
>
>Cloneboot has been doing just what I want for 4 years now
> and it's a few K of shell. Systemimager is 650Meg.
well systemimager itself is only about 2MB (compressed source). but it does
download about 80MB of other sources in the build process! but it is also a
lot more flexible and modular.
It might not be the best solution for you but it still a very powerful,
flexible piece of software.

Ahmed

>
>michaelj
>
>-- 
>Michael James                         michael.james at csiro.au
>System Administrator                    voice:  02 6246 5040
>CSIRO Bioinformatics Facility             fax:  02 6246 5166
>
>No matter how much you pay for software,
> you always get less than you hoped.
>Unless you pay nothing, then you get more.
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