Amy Tanner asked:
> FAI experts: can FAI be configured to use http (like kickstart) rather
> than nfs?
Mike Maurer wrote:
> I've setup a cluster of 36 clients using FAI.
We use it at the Institute for Mathematics and it's Applications (IMA)
to install around 80 or so workstations. It works well, but it's a real
bear to configure. As Debian packages start using Debconf instead of
shell hacks, it becomes easier.
Mike Maurer wrote:
> Since FAI uses NFS to mount the root parition during install, I don't
> think so.
FAI does have the ability to download and expand a root tarball. I
don't recall if it's http or ftp or what, but you CAN do it, I believe.
It's been over a year since I last worked with FAI, though, so don't
take my word for it.
The best thing to do is get on the FAI user's list.
There are other alternative installation utilities for Debian. The UMN
Computing Science department uses a Progeny product called
'autoinstall'.
autoinstall - Progeny Debian auto-installation system
autoinstall-i386 - Progeny Debian auto-installation system - i386-specific files
Ask Scott Dier about this setup. I downloaded the source code for it
and it looks pretty slick, and far easier to wrap your head around than
FAI. There does look to be a very net-centric installation methodology
to it, but it's pretty flexible.
"Minimal Tarball
---------------
The autoinstaller currently relies on a "minimal system tarball".
This could be an official minimal system tarball such as that used
by Debian 2.2 (potato) or Progeny Debian 1.0 (newton).
Debian 3.0 (woody) does not have a minimal tarball. Instead, it
contains the "debootstrap" program, which installs a minimal set of
packages directly onto the target system. You can use debootstrap
to create a minimal system tarball and place it on a Web server.
After installing debootstrap ("apt-get install debootstrap" should
do the trick) and following debootstrap's instructions for creating
a minimal system in a directory, do this:
cd <dir> && tar cf - . | gzip -9 > ../base.tgz
This will create a tarball suitable for use with the autoinstaller."
The rest is handled by apt-get. Had I to set up the IMA installation
all over again, I'd use autoinstall.
--
Chad Walstrom <chewie at wookimus.net> http://www.wookimus.net/
assert(expired(knowledge)); /* core dump */
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