Re: build kernel for server farm

[James Bourne]

On 6 Nov 2002, Matt Simonsen wrote:

> I am pretty familiar with the build process and kernel install for a
> single Linux box, but I wanted to confirm I'm doing things in a sane way
> for a large deployment. All the machines are the same hardware and
> running standard setups.
> 
> First, I plan on compiling the kernel on a development box. From there
> my plan is basically tar /usr/src/linux, copy to each box, untar, copy
> bzImage and System.map to /boot, run make modules_install, edit
> lilo.conf, run lilo.

If all of your systems are *identical*, try something like rsync
or rdist (both can be told to use ssh too).  

1) build your kernel and install it on your development box
2) do a test boot.  Ensure everything is there for you as needed
3) build a Distfile like so:
##################
HOSTS = (
host1
host2
host3
)

KERNEL = (
/boot
/etc/lilo.conf
/etc/grub.conf
)

kernel:
${KERNEL} -> ${HOSTS}
	install ;
# could use a cmdspecial after this to run lilo if needed

modules:
/lib/modules -> ${HOSTS}
	install ;

################

Now, run rdist -P/usr/bin/ssh -overify -f Distfile

You should see it verify what will be updated on hosts[1234...]

Once that's done run a shell loop to reboot the systems as required

for i in host1 host2 host3 host4 ; do
	ssh $i "shutdown -r now"
done

If they are not identical, you can do the same thing, only different /boot
and /lib/module directories to each host would be required as well
as seperate Distfile rules for each host or group of hosts.

Hope that helps.

Regards
James Bourne

> 
> Tips? Comments?
> 
> Thanks 
> Matt
> 
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-- 
James Bourne, Supervisor Data Centre Operations
Mount Royal College, Calgary, AB, CA
www.mtroyal.ab.ca

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