73 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
73 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
[[!meta title="Bootstrapping configuration and installation servers"]]
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## Introduction
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Imagine you can start from beginning in a new environment. There
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are no automatic frameworks to install and configure systems
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in place.
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## Installation versus Configuration
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We need a system to install machines and one to configure machines.
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Although there are systems out there which try to do both at the
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same time, the experience is having two specialised tools for this job
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is the better choice: Each tool can focus on its own task best.
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Some tools even enforce a reinstallation, if something needs to be
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reconfigured, which is a good example why having two tools is the
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better choice.
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Seperating the installation from the configuration also allows you
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to have the newly setup system minimally configured and adjust it
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on demand, wheras having both in the same step would require
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to define the use at installation time.
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## Where to start?
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Now the question is, which tool do we install first? The automatic
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installation or configuration?
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From a logical way on how a system is built, the installation
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method should be preferred, because only an installed system can
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be configured. But as you can see shortly, this is a bad choice,
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as it results in the following steps:
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* Manual installation of a system
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* Manual installation of installation tool
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* Manual configuration of installation tool
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* Automatic installation of a new system for the configuration tool (optional)
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* Manual installation of configuration tool
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* Manual configuration of the configuration tool
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* Automatic configuration of installation and configuration tool possible
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If we change the order, we'll benefit from an automatic infrastructure
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earlier:
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* Manual installation of a system
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* Manual installation of a configuration tool
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* Manual configuration of the configuration tool
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* Automatic installation of an installation tool
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* Automatic configuration of an installation tool
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* Automatic installation of a new system for the configuration or installation tool (optional)
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## Ok, but what to do with these information?
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As you might have watched my recent activities,
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I've written a new
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[[configuration management tool named cdist|software/cdist]],
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started a project to install
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[[unix installers named cuni|software/cuni]] and try to
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bring together the [[unix community in the u2u project|net/u2u]].
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The idea described above is the result of an old discussion, but
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not having an installation framework at home a current problem.
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## The plan
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As **cdist** is ready to be used in production mode, I plan to write
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some **cdist** types to setup installation servers soon.
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Watch this blog for updates, if you want to install a installation
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server via configuration management or begin to bootstrap a UNIX
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infrastructure.
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[[!tag eth sysadmin unix]]
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