[Beowulf] Parallel Development Tools

[Tim Cutts]

On 17 Oct 2007, at 6:50 pm, Jon Tegner wrote:

> Drifting off a bit further, but as I see it, the biggest advantage  
> of FC over debien/ubuntu is kickstart. Or???

Debian/Ubuntu both have automated install methods.  There's the  
'preseeding' method, which is pretty similar in principle to  
kickstart; you just tell the installer where to find all the answers  
to the questions it would have asked.

There's also the more flexible FAI, which is what we tend to use,  
which boots the machine into an NFS root, then uses debbootstrap and  
custom scripts to build the machine.  It's faster than preseeding,  
and a lot more flexible.  I use it to build all of our Debian  
machines, both desktops and servers.  One of its nice features is  
that it starts an SSH server as soon as the NFS root is booted, and  
before the actual install begins, so if you're trying the install on  
a new type of hardware, you can get in there and mess with it if it  
goes wrong.

Tim


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