From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-ID: <38443E3C.E60134CF@msede.com> Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 22:14:36 +0100 From: Michael Marxmeier MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [linux-lvm] Translation of Torsten's Message Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-linux-lvm Errors-To: owner-linux-lvm List-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: linux-lvm@msede.com Forwarded message from Holger.Rauch@datech.heitec.de. -------- Forwarded Message -------- Hi folks! Here is my translation of Torsten's message: I'm currently a bit lazy, that's why I'm asking here whether someone could potentially find my code useful. Maybe then I can manage to write documentation for it. I've created my own Linux installation CD (based on SuSE 6.2) which allows me to: - directly install LVM system (incl. initrd and / on a LV) - install a larger number of systems at the same time - make site-specific changes The method used is rather simple: I boot the CD, mount a master directory over NFS, and have then a script run that asks a few questions as to how exactly I would like to configure my system. Then, all that is done is that a big tar file will be extracted. The config file looks roughly as follows: [config_file] That means: I can choose an image ws.tar.gz in an ASCII user interface (which is shown to me in the selection box as "normal workstation"); that's preselected ("selected"=>1). And the size of the LVs is as follows: "/usr" is predefined to hold 1024MB and has to have at least 512MB in size. /tmp is supposed to hold 256MB and doesn't need to have a minimal size. At the end of the installation a script ws.postinstall.sh will be run. ( I can specify more such images in my configuration, and then choose among them ). In addition, I can then choose among different kernels (IDE systems vs. SCSI systems vs. SMP systems ) and install additional archives based on the host (e.g. vmware + preinstalled NT *sigh*) Finally, it is also intended to restore host specific files (XF86Config, ssh_host_key, ...) automatically. Using this method, I need only 10 minutes for our typical WWW server (from initially switching it on until I got a running system). That includes all site-specific adaptions. (That all takes such a long time because I have to change the boot order in the BIOS first and SCSI systems take such a long time to boot. The actual installation takes less than 5 minutes.) Now to my prerequisites: - There should be a machine that could be used as an NFS server (it needs a lot of hard disk space), everything should work from the CD as well (not tested). I was just using NFS because changes were easier to incorporate. - There should be quite a few machines (> 20) available that are supposed to be installed in a similar way. Otherwise, it's not worth the effort. Advantages of that system: - All hosts are configured identically, such that the effort to administer the systems is minimized. - All hosts are fully configured (e.g. the printer configuration is working immediately) - I don't need a backup of single machines since I can quickly reinstall them from scratch using the master image. Drawbacks: - The effort to create a clean image should not be underestimated Wishlist: - RAID1 support (fails because I've not yet been able to get RAID1 system with initrd up and running) - striping support (is supposed to be easy, I just haven't been able to come up with a user interface so far, append mode is already included) - tuning of the FS/LVM parameters, other fs's instead of ext2 (ReiserFS?) - ... Anyone interested should contact me, I think then I can manage to document the whole sutff clearly and to put it on an ftp server Greetings, Torsten ------------------------ Greetings, Holger ========================================= Holger Rauch HEITEC Datentechnik GmbH Schuhstrasse 30 91052 Erlangen Germany Tel.: 09131 / 877 - 273 Fax: 09131 / 877 - 222 Email: Holger.Rauch@datech.heitec.de =========================================