Date: 21 Jan 2004 09:38:29 -0500 From: Dan Pelleg <daniel+bsd@pelleg.org> To: Thane Sherrington <tsherr@auracom.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Using FreeBSD to burn in computers Message-ID: <u2sk73lxt7e.fsf@gs166.sp.cs.cmu.edu> In-Reply-To: <5.2.0.9.0.20040120145720.02132688@mail.auracom.com> References: <5.2.0.9.0.20040120145720.02132688@mail.auracom.com>
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Thane Sherrington <tsherr@auracom.com> writes: > I'm new to this list, and I'm not a Free-BSD wizard by any means, but for > some time we've been using FreeBSD to burning new systems and to test > systems for stability issues. Below is the procedure we've been using. One > problem we seem to be having now is that if we run top while the various > makes are running, we don't appear to be filling the RAM, so I'm looking for > a way to stress the RAM more completely. If people would like to take a > look at the procedure below and comment on it, I'd really appreciate it. > Using this system has allowed be to find problems quickly that other > diagnostic procedures take days to find. > > > T > > 1)Download FreeBSD 5.1 (I don't know if this is the best version, since 4.8 > is the current "stable" release, but that's what I'm using. I downloaded > the large first CD, but I've been told I only need the mini, so I'm > downloading that now and am switching to that. You will need more than one > computer to test this on, because I have gotten corrupted ISOs a couple of > times on FreeBSD downloads, so you need more than one computer to check to > see if it's an ISO issue, a bad CD, or a probem with the computer.) > [...] > > 3)Get cvsup > a)Type sysinstall (perhaps you can do this step without exiting sysinstall > in the above step, but I like to go out and do a ping to be sure things are > working.) > > b)Choose Configure > c)Choose Packages > d)Choose FTP > e)Choose Site (I use Primary) > f)Click Yes to the Network question > g)Choose Net > h)Choose cvs-without-gui > i)Choose Install > j)Choose Ok > k)Exit > l)Exit > m)type shutdown -h now to restart > Another option is to download the full ISOs and install things from the CD. Yet another is to run your own local FTP server, and choose that in (e). > 4)Running cvsup > a)Login as root > b)cd /usr/local/bin > c)cvsup -h cvsup5.freebsd.org /usr/share/examples/cvsup/ports-supfile > Let that run (about 10-15 minutes in my experience.) Again, this uses expensive bandwidth which can probably be put to better use. See the handbook on how to run your own cvsup server, and use that for the -h switch. (If you feel really generous, you could even make it public so other people can cvsup to it). However I'm not sure this step is necessary at all. You're installing the basic tree in step (2) anyway. This cvsup will only update the ports to the newest versions, but you're not really interested in *running* them anyway. It can even incorporate a newly-added bug (sometimes the ports fail to build because of problems in the makefiles, and if you're unlucky you'll cvsup that just before the problem is fixed). I would just skip this altogether. -- Dan Pelleg
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