RE: Bootstrapping ark on other hosts (revisited)

Last fall, before I was pulled away for four months of application
development, I was working on Arusha bootstrapping strategies.

To recap the concept: 

> A long list of packages must be preinstalled before ark can begin
> running on a host: gcc, python, gzip, tar, etc.  Rather than
> preinstall these packages in every system's /usr/local, I would
> prefer to install them somewhere NFS mountable, say /d/arkboot.  

> As each system bootstraps ark, it could NFS mount /d/arkboot and 
> look for boot commands there.  Once ark and the basic packages
> have been installed, /d/arkboot could be unmounted.

> This scheme eliminates the undesirable residue of manually
> installed packages in /usr/local.

Builds would proceed as follows:

1. Manually install basic boot packages in /usr/local on gold server.

2. Use boot packages from /usr/local to build ark and other packages
   in /our on gold server.

3. Use ark and packages in /our to build basic boot packages for
   pseudohost arkboot in /d/arkboot on gold server.

4. On all other hosts, mount boot packages from /d/arkboot and use
   them to build ark and other packages in /our.

Needless to say, it didn't quite work.  I couldn't convince ark to
build the packages for the pseudohost.  Ark always knew it was
running on the gold server and would reconsider the gold server's
many packages.

Now I'm delving into hosts, proxies, and their relationship.

If anyone has succeeded with something like this, I would appreciate
learning from your experience.
--

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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