Re: Preparations for installing a Farm
On Thu, Nov 08, 2001 at 02:25:11PM +0100, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > I'm an utter newbie myself, but... > last night I've seen a package that promises to build a local > mirror from /var/apt/cache. > I think it's called apt-move (not sure, try apt-* if that's wrong). > Maybe that helps. > You're quite correct, I had forgotten about this package. > BTW: can't you just install one machine properly and then > copy the whole disk to the others? That's the way I'm currently thinking about things after Martin's comments. We're only really talking about changing the hostname and IP after all. Paul -- Paul Sargent Tel: +44 (1784) 476669 Fax: +44 (1784) 470699 mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Preparations for installing a Farm
On Thu, Nov 08, 2001 at 09:18:48AM -0500, John Kuhn wrote: > > I think the key is when doing your get-selections use: >dpkg --get-selections \* > my_selections > > Without the '*' dpkg will only list installed packages. With the '*' > it will also list purged packages. That works great, That'll make life a bit easier. Thanks Paul -- Paul Sargent mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Preparations for installing a Farm
On Thu, Nov 08, 2001 at 09:18:48AM -0500, John Kuhn wrote: > I think the key is when doing your get-selections use: >dpkg --get-selections \* > my_selections > > Without the '*' dpkg will only list installed packages. With the '*' > it will also list purged packages. True and how easy. Where is the documentation? -- ~\^o^/~~~ ~\^.^/~~~ ~\^*^/~~~ ~\^_^/~~~ ~\^+^/~~~ ~\^:^/~~~ ~\^v^/~~~ + Osamu Aoki <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, GnuPG-key: 1024D/D5DE453D + + My debian quick-reference, http://www.aokiconsulting.com/quick/+
Re: Preparations for installing a Farm
On Thu, Nov 08, 2001 at 12:12:03PM +, Paul Sargent wrote: > Hi People, > > I'm currently in the process of preparing to install several Debian boxes > which will be used to form a processing farm. I'm therefore looking for ways > to ease the installation so that it's not going to need lots of hand > tweeking along the way. There are some package to control multiple machine install. Look up recent post on this matter through google :-) Here is an mature view. I use "squid" for caching only ones downloaded. Another approach is NSF mount /var/apt/cache and share its content between machine. Making tar image and copy to another achine is another trick. > 1) I'm booting the machine off the current woody rescue/root images >(ReiserFS ones). Everything works great until it tries to install the >base distribution. Because my mirror is of Woody and Sid, the >installation fails because there are still several packages linked over >to Potato. One of these is "at", which is part of the base distribution. >My mirror is already 8G and I really don't want to add another 5 to that >to mirror Potato as well. Does anybody have any idea how to get around >this? Instead of running full mirror, properly configured squid proxy may require smaller foot print since it store only recently used ones. > 2) Once the base installation is complete (by pointing it to an outside >mirror), I want to be able to select a particular set of packes and have >them install. I was planning to tweak the package set-up on the first box >until I have exactly what I want, and then use "dpkg --get-selections" to >save it. Good >The problem is that when I use "dpkg --set-selections < [file]" it >appears to add the extra packages I've chosen, but not remove packages >I've gotten rid of of the first machine. Does anybody know of a method to >get a package selection list from machine A to machine B, so machine B >ends up with exactly the same packages installed regardless of what was >there before? how about doing "dpkg --get-selections > file.new" again. Then use sort and uniq to create remove list. Then "dpkg --remove `cat removelist`" or something should work. To move files, ftp, scp, nfs, floppy...? > Also, any other pointers that people may have if you've ever attempted this > before. Thanks No. -- ~\^o^/~~~ ~\^.^/~~~ ~\^*^/~~~ ~\^_^/~~~ ~\^+^/~~~ ~\^:^/~~~ ~\^v^/~~~ + Osamu Aoki <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, GnuPG-key: 1024D/D5DE453D + + My debian quick-reference, http://www.aokiconsulting.com/quick/+
Re: Preparations for installing a Farm
On Thu, Nov 08, 2001 at 03:07:17PM +0100, martin f krafft wrote: > * Paul Sargent <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2001.11.08 13:20:21+]: > > OK, I'll give it a go. Would that be a entry for the testing or stable part > > of the UK mirror? > > stable (i.e. potato) > > > > do you purge or delete packages? > > > > I tend to purge, trying to keep the system as clean as possible. > > good. i thought --set-selections takes care of that. let me research a > little... I think the key is when doing your get-selections use: dpkg --get-selections \* > my_selections Without the '*' dpkg will only list installed packages. With the '*' it will also list purged packages. John
Re: Preparations for installing a Farm
On Thu, Nov 08, 2001 at 02:07:17PM -, martin f krafft wrote: > get the same harddrive size for all, or at least make them all be big > enough to hold the main system. then you can image one successful > server, restore the images, and use the remaining space on each space > for a separate partiton like /store. > > small differences in configuration should not be a problem... I guess you're right, I hadn't really thought that way. I'll research a little on that. Guess it would be feasible to store a tar somewhere of an installed system, and then have a boot disk which: o Partitions the disk o untars the image o modifies any system specific bits (hostname, ip, etc) o runs lilo to make the system bootable Doesn't sound tough. Paul -- Paul Sargent Tel: +44 (1784) 476669 Fax: +44 (1784) 470699 mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Preparations for installing a Farm
* Paul Sargent <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2001.11.08 13:20:21+]: > OK, I'll give it a go. Would that be a entry for the testing or stable part > of the UK mirror? stable (i.e. potato) > > do you purge or delete packages? > > I tend to purge, trying to keep the system as clean as possible. good. i thought --set-selections takes care of that. let me research a little... > At the moment we've only built the first machine, the others will follow if > this is a success. All will try to be as similar as possible, but becuase > there's going to be a time delay in buying bits, I'll bet things will be > slightly different. so what? this is linux... get the same harddrive size for all, or at least make them all be big enough to hold the main system. then you can image one successful server, restore the images, and use the remaining space on each space for a separate partiton like /store. small differences in configuration should not be a problem... -- martin; (greetings from the heart of the sun.) \ echo mailto: !#^."<*>"|tr "<*> mailto:"; [EMAIL PROTECTED] micros~1: for when quality, reliability, and security just aren't that important! pgp7YomwzPERk.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Preparations for installing a Farm
On 8 Nov 2001, at 12:12, Paul Sargent wrote: > Hi People, > > I'm currently in the process of preparing to install several > Debian boxes which will be used to form a processing farm. I'm > therefore looking for ways to ease the installation so that it's >several packages linked over to Potato. One of these is "at", >which is part of the base distribution. My mirror is already >8G and I really don't want to add another 5 to that to mirror >Potato as well. Does anybody have any idea how to get around >this? I'm an utter newbie myself, but... last night I've seen a package that promises to build a local mirror from /var/apt/cache. I think it's called apt-move (not sure, try apt-* if that's wrong). Maybe that helps. BTW: can't you just install one machine properly and then copy the whole disk to the others? I don't know how many things need to be set differently, but if it's just a few you could maybe produce a shell-script that queries the necessary info from your 'muppet'. Maybe that's a silly idea... cu, Schnobs
Re: Preparations for installing a Farm
On Thu, Nov 08, 2001 at 01:06:23PM -, martin f krafft wrote: > just add the UK mirror next to yours. then the internet will only be > used for the potato files. or use a potato CDROM in apt's sources.list > for potato only. OK, I'll give it a go. Would that be a entry for the testing or stable part of the UK mirror? > >The problem is that when I use "dpkg --set-selections < [file]" it > >appears to add the extra packages I've chosen, but not remove packages > >I've gotten rid of of the first machine. Does anybody know of a method to > >get a package selection list from machine A to machine B, so machine B > >ends up with exactly the same packages installed regardless of what was > >there before? > > do you purge or delete packages? I tend to purge, trying to keep the system as clean as possible. > > > Also, any other pointers that people may have if you've ever attempted this > > before. Thanks > > do you have identical hdd's (size) and mostly identical hardware > configurations? then imaging would be the best... At the moment we've only built the first machine, the others will follow if this is a success. All will try to be as similar as possible, but becuase there's going to be a time delay in buying bits, I'll bet things will be slightly different. Paul -- Paul Sargent mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Preparations for installing a Farm
* Paul Sargent <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2001.11.08 12:12:03+]: > 1) I'm booting the machine off the current woody rescue/root images >(ReiserFS ones). Everything works great until it tries to install the >base distribution. Because my mirror is of Woody and Sid, the >installation fails because there are still several packages linked over >to Potato. One of these is "at", which is part of the base distribution. >My mirror is already 8G and I really don't want to add another 5 to that >to mirror Potato as well. Does anybody have any idea how to get around >this? just add the UK mirror next to yours. then the internet will only be used for the potato files. or use a potato CDROM in apt's sources.list for potato only. >The problem is that when I use "dpkg --set-selections < [file]" it >appears to add the extra packages I've chosen, but not remove packages >I've gotten rid of of the first machine. Does anybody know of a method to >get a package selection list from machine A to machine B, so machine B >ends up with exactly the same packages installed regardless of what was >there before? do you purge or delete packages? > Also, any other pointers that people may have if you've ever attempted this > before. Thanks do you have identical hdd's (size) and mostly identical hardware configurations? then imaging would be the best... -- martin; (greetings from the heart of the sun.) \ echo mailto: !#^."<*>"|tr "<*> mailto:"; [EMAIL PROTECTED] XP is NT with eXtra Problems. pgpfwcY5y1kUX.pgp Description: PGP signature
Preparations for installing a Farm
Hi People, I'm currently in the process of preparing to install several Debian boxes which will be used to form a processing farm. I'm therefore looking for ways to ease the installation so that it's not going to need lots of hand tweeking along the way. The general setup of the machines will be: Athlon Processor, 2-4GB of Memory IDE drive (20-40GB), 3Com 3c905C network card, Video card for instalation only, general running will be with the only access by network. "Woody" Based (needed for the software they'll be running). 2.4 Kernel (for ReiserFS, Large File, and High Memory support) Currently I've set-up a local RSync mirror (updated nightly) of the UK Debian Mirror (our local one), so that installations can occur without going out to the Internet, and therefore should be a lot quicker. I've decided to mirror Woody and Sid (i.e. the two package pool dists), i386 binary only. I'm also planning to do a custom kernel package which will be installed across all the machines. This will be placed on a network drive somewhere so it can be pulled in during the install. Now, the last couple of days I've been playing with the first box to try to streamline the install procedure. My thinking is that if we're going to be installing several boxes identically it would be nice is I can get so that a muppet can install it just by following a set of instructions. I've hit a couple of issues though. 1) I'm booting the machine off the current woody rescue/root images (ReiserFS ones). Everything works great until it tries to install the base distribution. Because my mirror is of Woody and Sid, the installation fails because there are still several packages linked over to Potato. One of these is "at", which is part of the base distribution. My mirror is already 8G and I really don't want to add another 5 to that to mirror Potato as well. Does anybody have any idea how to get around this? 2) Once the base installation is complete (by pointing it to an outside mirror), I want to be able to select a particular set of packes and have them install. I was planning to tweak the package set-up on the first box until I have exactly what I want, and then use "dpkg --get-selections" to save it. The problem is that when I use "dpkg --set-selections < [file]" it appears to add the extra packages I've chosen, but not remove packages I've gotten rid of of the first machine. Does anybody know of a method to get a package selection list from machine A to machine B, so machine B ends up with exactly the same packages installed regardless of what was there before? Also, any other pointers that people may have if you've ever attempted this before. Thanks Paul -- Paul Sargent mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
