[Beowulf] Parallel Development Tools

[Bogdan Costescu]

On Thu, 18 Oct 2007, Tim Cutts wrote:

> The real killer advantages of FAI, for me, are the SSH server so I can
> monitor the install remotely, and the detailed logging.  Both of these
> are invaluable for diagnosing installation problems.

With kickstart, you can start a VNC connection, check out:

https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-5-manual/Installation_Guide-en-US/s1-kickstart2-options.html#id3202874

It's probably started at a later stage than FAI's sshd, but it's 
useful nevertheless, although it shows only the installation progress 
and doesn't give you a console; but you could bend it a bit to do that 
as well, especially after the work is finished (in %post), as 
described here:

https://www.redhat.com/archives/kickstart-list/2005-August/msg00123.html

If you want to start sshd/rshd/telnetd/etc. sooner, you could use the 
%pre section to run scripts which could initialize network and then 
get and run the daemon of your choice; the mechanism is not built-in, 
but not so difficult to get to work either ;-)

[ Mind you, I'm not trying to say that kickstart is better than FAI. ]

-- 
Bogdan Costescu

IWR - Interdisziplinaeres Zentrum fuer Wissenschaftliches Rechnen
Universitaet Heidelberg, INF 368, D-69120 Heidelberg, GERMANY
Telephone: +49 6221 54 8869, Telefax: +49 6221 54 8868
E-mail: Bogdan.Costescu at IWR.Uni-Heidelberg.De