Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 09:48:22 -0600 From: Bob Van Valzah <Bob@WhiteBarn.Com> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Tools for Capturing/Cloning System Configuration? Message-ID: <38C91945.1ECADEC4@WhiteBarn.Com>
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Is there a tool to capture the configuration of a running machine so
that it can be easily cloned or rebuilt from a new release? Is anybody
working on one?
Here's why I ask: I have machines that're cvsup'd with the -CURRENT and
-STABLE trees but these aren't "production" machines. If these trees are
broken and I end up building a system that panics it's no big deal. But
the majority of machines I run are in "production" and have complex
configurations. They're running older -RELEASE bits. I can't afford to
take these out of service while I load a new release of FreeBSD, load
all the required packages and ports, recover the contents of all the
config files, rebuild all the symlinks in root, reload all required CPAN
modules, and generally cauterize the wounds opened by such a "brain
transplant."
Yes, I know I could use the "update" option of sysinstall, but the
chances of that working well go down as the spread between the old and
new releases goes up. It also leaves me with that terrible future
uncertainty every time something doesn't work--is it broken because
there's still a piece of the old release laying around? I run my
production machines from -RELEASE code and packages precisely because I
want the assurance that all the pieces will work together.
So I'm trying to find tools that'll survey the configuration of a
running machine and take note of how its configuration differs from a
freshly installed system. The output from such tools could be an
install.cfg file that's fed into sysinstall, a Makefile and set of diffs
that're fed into patch, instructions for CPAN::Shell, etc.
I'm a little way down the road to a Perl script that'll do the surveying
and building of the above files. But I thought I'd better ask if there
wasn't already something like this out there.
All comments appreciated.
Thanks,
Bob
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