Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2003 10:16:54 -1000 From: Clifton Royston <cliftonr@tikitechnologies.com> To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: rsync vs installworld Message-ID: <20031019101653.A29979@tikitechnologies.com> In-Reply-To: <20031019190036.3426D16A4D7@hub.freebsd.org>; 12:00:36PM -0700 References: <20031019190036.3426D16A4D7@hub.freebsd.org>
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> Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2003 19:28:27 -0600 (MDT)
> From: "M. Warner Losh" <imp@bsdimp.com>
> Subject: rsync vs installworld
> Message-ID: <20031018.192827.118920091.imp@bsdimp.com>
>
> I'm contemplating a binary distribution system for some systems that I
> have. I'm ignoring kernel updates for the moment, and concentrating
> on userland deployment.
>
> I'm thinking of doing something like:
>
> make buildworld
> make installworld DESTDIR=/big/disk/freebsd/image
> make mergemaster -D /big/disk/freebsd/mergemaster
>
> And then on each machine I want to update I'd do something like:
>
> sudo rsync --exclude etc --exclude usr/local --exclude boot \
> --delete -av host-server:/big/disk/freebsd/image /
> sudo rm -rf /tmp/mergemaster
> sudo scp host-server:/big/disk/freebsd/mergemaster /tmp/mergemaster
> sudo mergemaster -someargs
>
> My question is: has anybody else tried this? If so, what bumps along
> the way are there going to be?
I'm also very interested in this topic, as we're about to try to get
something similar working. Initially it will be for a moderate number
of servers at one location, and so can require console intervention,
but in our case it eventually needs to extend to many systems located
elsewhere with no onsite administrator.
In our case we have already built a simple framework for distributing
FreeBSD binary packages built within the ports system (rsync presently,
but extensible to http/https.) I have been hoping that it's possible to
build on the "make release" approach to generate a set of binary
packages for updates to the base system, distribute those via rsync,
and then install the package collection. It seems to me that an
advantage of that approach is that one could incorporate some of that
mergemaster logic into the pkg-install scripts.
Feedback, direction, or real-world experience with like systems would
be welcomed.
-- Clifton
--
Clifton Royston -- cliftonr@tikitechnologies.com
Tiki Technologies Lead Programmer/Software Architect
Did you ever fly a kite in bed? Did you ever walk with ten cats on your head?
Did you ever milk this kind of cow? Well we can do it. We know how.
If you never did, you should. These things are fun, and fun is good.
-- Dr. Seuss
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