Re: Large install and roll-out

[Marc Alvidrez]

Hi Rune,

On Mon, 11 Mar 2002, Rune Mossige wrote:

> In about 4-6 weeks, we will install a 128-node dual-CPU Linux cluster,
> running RedHat Linux 7.2, and I'd like to install cfengine on all those
> hosts at the same time....

Can you simply integrate it into your standard system image and install
it at build time?

> Also, after this initial rollout, we will need to update the kernels on
> all hosts very early after the initial bootstrap. How do others update a
> large number of RedHat 7.2 machines with a new kernel?

I don't have any direct experience with these tool sets, but you might
want to take a look at the System Configurator, System Imager, and System
Installer projects.  (I first became aware of these projects when I was
looking at IBM's DLM software: http://oss.software.ibm.com/dlm/.)  They
seem to be designed to ease the management headaches of clusters.

Here are the project homepages:

   http://systemconfig.sourceforge.net/
   http://systemimager.org/
   http://systeminstaller.sourceforge.net/

They could (should?), of course, be used in conjunction with cfengine.

Alternatively, perhaps RedHat's up2date (which I believe can be used to
update RedHat-built kernels) can be twisted to serve your kernel-upgrading
needs.

HTH,
Marc