Tim Krieglstein said on Fri, Dec 05, 2003 at 02:10:57AM +0100: > I would like to have some feedback, especially on the topic of > doing automatic updates with an cron job. I would also like to hear of > some hints if there is an other tool which does the job (debix, > skolelinux,...: haven't looked at them. The websites of the subprojects seem > still to be hit by the security incedent :( ) better than these puny > script files. I think the whole automatic management thing (which is > also the reason behind the whole "enterprise" discussion) has a lot of > potential. Having the ability to reconfigure large clusters or > workstation installations is *really* helpful. I did what you are trying to do using systemimager, cvs, and cvsup.
I use systemimager to install the initial Debian image (the golden-image, in systemimager terminology), that is created from a functional working Debian system (the golden-client). I also have a CVS repository off all per host configurations. A cron job runs the systemimager updateclient tool (basically an rsync wrapper) + cvsup once/hour. Using systemimager is nice because it's a file-based image; I don't have to worry about debconf, or installers; I just install the package once on the golden client, update the master image from the client, and then everything picks up the new software automatically. There are a few rough spots (mostly in that I don't have a fully automatic way to restart daemons that have been updated in the golden client, so I have to restart them by hand), but in general it works very well, and has saved me a lot of time. M
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