Re: Replicating Debian Systems
On Tue, May 25, 2004 at 02:37:27PM -0700, Loren M. Lang wrote:
>I may have to rapidly deploy multiple debian systems that will have
>the same software installed and be configured the same way. The ideal
>way to install debian would be to stick a cd into a computer, turn it
>on, and come back a couple hours later. If I could make a custom cd
>to do just that and maybe d/l the packages off of the web or another
>computer that don't fit on the cd would be nice.
>
>I also have some of my own software to install and also need to modify
>files like .profile in the users home dir as well as setup one users
>with password on the system. Maybe I'll have to learn how to make deb
>packages.
>
>I don't want the installer to ask questions for each packages like
>exim's mail configuration. I know I can turn it off by modifying a
>file and telling them to be silent, but instead I'd just like to have a
>text file that specifies the correct answer to all of them. Does debian
>provide a way to do this?
>
>My last problem is that some software is too old in stable, I've had to
>upgrade several programs including XFree86 on some systems already
>installed. I know about backports.org, but some programs like gnuplot
>don't have a backport, and I'm debating about using testing/unstable,
>but I want to believe that the system will be stable since I won't be
>down there most of the time and ppl who know nothing about linux will be
>using it.
You should check out FAI. I use it in conjuntion with cfengine to deploy
and maintain our current systems. We used to rely on creating our own
debian packages, but maintaining configuration files with cfengine is
really the way to go. You can then keep everything in version control,
too.
Reply to: