Jumpstart - your opinion

by **Neil W Rickert** » Tue, 27 Jan 2004 23:03:11 GMT

"Morten Green Hermansen" < XXXX@XXXXX.COM > writes:


I don't do fully automated jumpstarts, but I do install over the
network.

I run a bunch of scripts (from my install server), both before and
after the reboot.  The scripts are in a directory with names that
imitate the "/etc/rcS.d" organization.  That is, they have names such
as I04inetd (which edits inetd.conf).  There is a master script that
calls them in sequence.

The master script contains (among other things)

## Is this being run during install.  In that case the
## installed software is at "/a".  Do a crude test.
INSTALLBASE=

if [ -d /a -a -d /a/usr/bin -a -h /a/bin ] ; then
	INSTALLBASE=/a
fi

export INSTALLBASE

 -----------------


Your choice.  I like to install everything before the reboot
(possible with a network install, since the install image is not
limited to a single CD capacity).

Then I like to disable unneeded services before the reboot, so as to
reduce the initial exposure to attacks from the net.

by **eedmit** » Wed, 28 Jan 2004 01:56:13 GMT

In article <4015056e$0$1602$ XXXX@XXXXX.COM >, "Morten Green Hermansen" < XXXX@XXXXX.COM > writes:

Three examples from our (perfect!) jumpstart finish scripts:

1. relocatable command:
pkgadd -d ${SI_CONFIG_DIR} -a ${SI_CONFIG_DIR}/pkgadmin -R /a \
SUNWiof SUNWdtpcz SUNWdtpcv

2. the chroot method:
chroot /a /usr/sbin/lpadmin -d $DEFAULT_PRINTER
echo "default printer set to $DEFAULT_PRINTER"

3. the start script method:
client_inventory() {
        echo "client inventory reporting (user products via cron)"
        # delay cron installation by 0-4 minutes:
        date=`date +%S`
        random=`expr $date % 5`
        bootfile=/etc/rc3.d/S95client_inv
        cat > /a$bootfile << EOT
su products -c "/usr/bin/crontab" << _EOT
$random 10 * * 3 /app/client_inv/0/userinv_cron.sh >/dev/null 2>&1
$random 11 * * 3 /app/client_inv/0/machineinv_cron.sh >/dev/null 2>&1
_EOT
rm $bootfile
EOT
}


Method 3 generates a start script (the here document between EOT) that
executes when the machine comes up and at the end deletes itself.

-- 
Michael Tosch
IT Specialist
HP Managed Services Germany
Phone +49 2407 575 313

by **30$13$f3i99le** » Wed, 28 Jan 2004 04:04:27 GMT

Morten Green Hermansen < XXXX@XXXXX.COM > probably said:

I release my modular jumpstart scripts because not everyone has the
time and energy to deal with such things as this. They automate
installing many things post-reboot for you with no intervention and
make it a lot easier to maitain lots of profiles that have much or
little in common.

  http://www.**--****.com/ 

P.

-- 
pir

by **Rich Teer** » Wed, 28 Jan 2004 04:18:03 GMT




If you have a lot of systems that you wnat to be very similar
or identical, using flash archives might be the way you want
to go.

-- 
Rich Teer, SCNA, SCSA

President,
Rite Online Inc.

Voice: +1 (250) 979-1638
URL:  http://www.**--****.com/

by **Scott Howard** » Wed, 28 Jan 2004 19:08:06 GMT



Most can be made to work. Either by passing the correct option(s), or at
worst using chroot.  If you happen to find any Sun packages which dont
work correctly with pkgadd -R then feel free to get a bug raise and they
should be fixed.

There's some details on the chroot method at
 http://www.**--****.com/ 's a little outdated - I
really should update it one day...

Alternatively, have a look at JET, the JumpStart Enterprise Toolkit. It's
available from  http://www.**--****.com/ 
It includes a framework which makes configuring packages fairly easy, with
the ability to do it either before the first reboot, or even automatically
on any subsequent reboots.

  Scott.

by gl » Thu, 29 Jan 2004 08:45:01 GMT

In article <1075198086.189564@docbert>,






i install only the OS during jumpstart proper.
i leave about 5 scripts in /etc/rc2.d to to the rest.

advantages:
once the finish script pulls over the custom.tar, kitup.tar,
the machine doesn't do any appreciable network activity.
so if you've a bunch of machines to do on one subnet,
you know you can kick off machine # 2 when machine #1
reboots the first time.  ie, if you want to guarantee
you won't have two machines fighting for the network.

yep, you're working with /, not /a.  one less thing
to deal with.

i have many of my customizations in packages.  i've never
tried them against /a, maybe they will, maybe they won't.
but i don't care, of course.  so i saved myself some
testing by going against / instead of /a.

doubtless there's a down side--it certainly isn't as elegant
as "doing it right", but it works.

-- 
Jay Scott		512-835-3553		 XXXX@XXXXX.COM 
Head of Sun Support, Sr. Operating Systems Specialist
Applied Research Labs, Computer Science Div.                   S224
University of Texas at Austin

by **Darren Dunham** » Thu, 29 Jan 2004 12:44:13 GMT







Here's one more opinion.  I generally don't have a problem with setting
things up in a finish script, but that doesn't make it easy to make
changes in your existing machines.

I'd prefer to spend my time setting up jumpstart to get the machine
built and "in the environment" (might be limited to SSH or NIS
membership), plus activation of some sort of maintenance software.

The maintenance software is on all the machines for
installing/configuring them.  That way installation of stuff after a
jumpstart is just a special case of making sure the correct stuff is on
all the machines.

That might be a real simple rsync (possibly combined with some startup
scripts that run extra commands) to a very involved cfengine setup.

-- 
Darren Dunham                                            XXXX@XXXXX.COM 
Unix System Administrator                    Taos - The SysAdmin Company
Got some Dr Pepper?                           San Francisco, CA bay area
         < This line left intentionally blank to confuse you. >

Jumpstart - your opinion

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