FAI - multi distributions

[Henning Sprang]

Hi Florent,

I finally come to get into that. Until now, I only read you fine
documentation about what you did, and I have some questions about it
- please don't think I am picky, I am just - hmm, detailed :) to be
exact and get good results:


- it seems like you want to create an extra NFSROOT for each
distribution. As my idea was that I want to use the same NFSROOT, only
installing different base.tgz images, depending on a DISTRIBUTION
variable set in the class definition of an install client, I wonder if
you tried that, and it didn't work.
I think if it works, using only different base images instead of
complete NFSROOTS would be better, because then you can be sure to
always have the same tools in the NFSROOT, and it can be configured in
the FAI_CONFIGDIR which distribution is to be installed on a machine.
For using different NFSROOTS you always need to change the dhcp config
for a host - I do that with the Ubuntu hack I use, and therefore I know
it's less desirable than being able to change distribution at the same
place where all other configuration for install clients takes place.

- at page 2 of your pdf there's an extract of a sample configuration
file. two comments:
1) it would nice for the reader if he's told very above for which
distribution it is (mandriva can be guessed when further reading, and
how this file would be called. Maybe you could just write, after "for
example: nfsroot_mandriva10_2.conf": and here's the contecnts
of /etc/fai/nafsroot-mandriva.conf.
Something like that.
2) in the sample config, just above the mirrorhost line, you write a
comment saying "this is also hardcoded in sources.list". This can be
confusing. mirrorhost is only used for debootstrap at nfsroot generation
time, while the sources.list is the file that gets copied into the
nfsroot and gets used for apt-get'ing the additional packages into the
nfsropot, as well as for the package installation on the client.

- later, you write that you depend on bae images, which cannot be
generated by FAI. How do you create those? (something like manually
installing a minmal mandriva, and packing the result into a base.tgz?)

- on page 4 of the pdf there's a paragraph that starts with "to build a
bootstrap system ..." and then shows how to run make-fai-nfsroot. I
think it can be confusing for non-experienced FAI users to refer to the
NFSROOT sometimes by the name NFSROOT, and sometimes by the name
"bootstrap system", it's better to keep that unified and always say
NFSROOT. Only when trying to explain what the nfsroot does, one could
say "the nfsroot is the system in which the bootstrapping of the
system-to be installed takes places" - just for example.

- in chapter III, page 5 of the pdf you say FAIBASE is only for Debian,
other distributions have classes like RHEL, MANDRIVA, ...
But in chapter V you mention classes called MANDRIVA_FAIBASE,
REDHAT_FAIBASE, what id true then? do they all exist, RHEL _and_
FAIBASE_RHEL? Why? If not, only the documentation is a bit buggy.

- I would, in general, not define the distribution as a class itself. I
would define a variable DISTRIBUTION, and in there you find a value
which says which distribution would be installed on a client. By reading
this variable, for example the package installation script would know
which installer (apt or rpm) it needs to call.

As most classes for package config and other stuff will not be
interchangeable between distributions, somebody using FAI-md can be
recommended to establish a FAI configuration policy in his organisation.
For example, one can then setup a a rule that each class must be
prepended with the distribution name for which is made, or ALL, when the
class works for all distributions (which is most often not the case, I
guess, because config file formats, as well as package name can differ.
It's not worth to try to unify that, or to create classes that work for
all distributions, thats way more complicated then having different
classes for each distribution. 

- in chapter IV you refer to "package groups" in Redhat and Mandriva -
is that something similar to the Debian tasks which get installed with
taskinst.

- would it be hard/ a big difference to try centos instead of Red hat
AS3? Just for curiosity and becaue I have no knowledge of Redhat at all
- maybe you can give me a hint that helps before I try it myself.

- I assume you only tested network installation, no fai-cd, right?

So far, that's for the talk, next step is that I will actually try it
out, with mandriva.

Henning



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