[lopsa-tech] Debian provisioning systems?

[Michael T. Halligan]

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Before this week, I had mostly used SystemsImager, in the debian  
realm, which I always found to be somewhat
klunky.  We had setup FAI once before, and apparently it's just  
better maintained for the i386 architecture.  Either
way, I'm not quite sure FAI was designed for anybody who manages real  
infrastructures. There's too much that
has to be done, and too many strange assumptions. IMHO, You should  
not have to run the OS you're trying
to image, in order to be able to image it. I've built SuSE servers  
off of AutoYast repositories on Windows 2003
servers.  That appears out of the question with FAI.

Michael T. Halligan
- -------------------------------------
BitPusher, LLC
http://www.bitpusher.com/



On Mar 24, 2006, at 8:11 AM, Andrew Hume wrote:

> while i have never used FAI, i am surprised at these comments.
> FAI is regarded (within the system config community at least) as
> being very good, and not long ago as nearly state of teh art.
> admittedly, this was within a Debian context, but still,
> i am surprised.
>
> On Mar 23, 2006, at 8:04 PM, Michael T. Halligan wrote:
>
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>> Can anybody recommend a good debian provisioning system?
>>
>> We're working on FAI right now, and since Debian is not our  
>> default platform, it seems that FAI is the wrong
>> solution for us.
>>
>> I'm very used to a much simpler auto-provisioning methodology. In  
>> the Redhat/Suse world, kickstart/autoyast goes like this
>> (for us, anyways)
>>
>> 1. Pxeboot
>> 2. Boot into initrd installer via tftp
>> 3. chroot into destination hard drive
>> 4. Install packages.
>>
>> It seems to me that FAI is a very bigoted method of installation,  
>> and can only be done from another debian server. I'm not quite
>> sure the logic behind having to create a fully chrooted debian  
>> installation, and then nfs mount that, but unless I'm wrong about
>> how FAI works, this is just not the right solution.
>>
>> Is there an initrd based method of doing a simple automated  
>> install? My only goal here is to create a very basic debian  
>> installation,
>> that is hosted on a non-debian server, and is easy to install a  
>> base operating system, with one OS change (IP address), then
>> hand it off to a customer for their configuration.  FAI does not  
>> seem to be optimal for this.
>>
>> Michael T. Halligan
>> - -------------------------------------
>> BitPusher, LLC
>> http://www.bitpusher.com/
>>
>>
>>
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>
> ----
> Andrew Hume  (best -> Telework) +1 732-886-1886
> andrew at research.att.com  (Work) +1 973-360-8651
> AT&T Labs - Research; member of USENIX and LOPSA
>

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