Duane,
On Tue, 27 Mar 2001, Duane Powers wrote:
> faced with installing
> 30+ similar machines with debian, life sucks, eh? :o)
I modified the NetBSD boot floppy so it automatically uses the defaults
(answers "yes"), uses DHCP (by default) and uses a local FTP server.
(Right now it is two floppies, but after I remove some junk and reduce the
kernel size it may fit on one.)
Maybe you can modify a Linux boot floppy to do the same.
> Most (of our) engineers are not linux-compliant.
All that needs to be done with my boot is:
1) DHCP server setup for location;
2) DNS setup to provide correct info for the installs;
3) local ftp server setup with the base files;
4) one floppy put into machine, turn on, replace floppy when prompted
and then press "Y" and enter to begin auto install;
5) repeat step three for each system.
Putting the floppies into 30 computers will take about thirty minutes. The
complete installation for all 30 computers will take 30 minutes (each) --
so all 30 computers will be installed within one hour.
> Need centralized login, (can't use NIS+, we've already got a NIS+ system
> for Solaris... don't wanna confuse the issue,)
The base files on the FTP server can be modified for your particular needs
-- so by default they can use some type of centralized authentication.
Maybe there are some login (or PAM) routines that can use RADIUS or
someother external authentication.
Or maybe you can use a different NIS server for these?
> May need to be reinstalled occassionally due to high tech network
> engineers hosing
> various applications (these are going to be workstations, not servers...
> accessed frequently by different users... stuff will get broken)
If complete reinstall is needed, then simply put the auto-install disks in
again.
If just need to update an update (and using Debian), try using dpkg with
the "--set-selections" option to set the package selections based on a
prepared list. (Or point your apt sources.list to your own local Debian
packages list and collection.)
Jeremy C. Reed
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