Bootstrapping ark on other hosts

A long list of packages must be preinstalled before ark can begin running on
a host: gcc, python, gzip, tar, etc.  On the initial ark server--the "gold"
server--there is no alternative to installing these packages.  I would like
to avoid manually installing these packages on subsequent hosts.

Ark looks for "boot" versions of these packages when it cannot find a
version that it installed.  For example, in the distributed configuration,
ark first looks for gcc in /our/bin/gcc (really
@team:ark-dirs:OUR@/bin/gcc).  Failing that, ark then looks for a boot
version of the command in /usr/local/bin/gcc (really
@team:ark-dirs:ARK_BOOT@/bin/gcc).

Rather than preinstall several packages in /usr/local, I would prefer to
install them somewhere NFS mountable, say /d/arkboot.  When ark is being
installed on a new machine, it can NFS mount /d/arkboot and look for boot
commands there.  Once ark and the basic packages have been installed,
/d/arkboot can be unmounted.  This scheme eliminates the undesirable residue
of manually installed packages in /usr/local.

Of course, I want to use ark to construct /d/arkboot.  I'll call this pseudo
host arkboot.

First the gold server is built upon manually installed packages.  Then the
arkboot pseudo host is built on the gold server.  The arkboot host includes
only the packages needed to boot ark on subsequent hosts.  Finally, other
hosts are built using the arkboot packages.

The rules can be summarized by this table.

           boot directory              target (our) directory
host       @team:ark-dirs:ARK_BOOT@    @team:ark-dirs:OUR@
----       ------------------------    ----------------------
gold       /usr/local                  /our
arkboot    /our                        /d/arkboot
other      /d/arkboot                  /our

Additional hand waving is required to support multiple hardware platforms or
operating systems.

I would appreciated comments, questions, and suggestions.  Thanks.
--

Joel Shprentz
National Imagery and Mapping Agency
Mailstop N-17
Washington Navy Yard, Building 213
1200 First Street, SE
Washington, DC 20303-0001

202-685-3534




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