FAI working like RIS?

[Michael Tautschnig]

[...]
> 
> But there are going to be several changes to config files scattered 
> about the place, and installing new files as well, adding users etc. So 
> I can either script the changes to existing config files using cfengine 
> or something,  or use fcopy or ftar just to 'brute force' apply my 
> configurations to the machine. Is there anything wrong with that? Up 
> till now I've been using a combination of fcopy and ftar, but I'm 
> thinking that the easiest way to do it is just tar all my changed 
> configurations from the test machine, and in my FAI setup use ftar to 
> apply all of the replacement config files to my target machine. Does 
> that sound about right?
>

Yes, that's fine - although you might try to use debconf for some changes,
usually the things /etc/default are the result of debconf-questions.

Furthermore, you might want to use softupdates, such that you modify only files
in the config-space and the package_config-directory, then run fai softupdate,
and check, whether everything works. This way, you never touch your system
"manually" and thus you know, that the configuration provided by FAI is complete
and correct.

If you still find yourself modifying the configs manually, you might want to
take a look at integrit or tripwire, which checks the file system integrity
(daily) and reports changes via mail. You could then do the following:

run integrit (check-only)
run fai softupdate
run integrit (update database)

This at least catches all changes, if you don't change anything while fai
softupdate is running.

I'd like to add something personal: Don't use ftar, even though creating so many
directories/files for fcopy might suggest, it makes life easier. Rather, use
fcopy -r /

to copy all your config-files at once. This still allows you to keep your config
in a CVS repository. At our site, we do it the following way: Each entry for
fcopy is a directory containing:

- file-modes  (to ensure proper permissions)
- DEBIAN   (the original config file provided by the distribution, if there was
  any)
- <some-class-files>  (the effective files to be copied)
- postinst (only, if there is something to be done upon copying the file)

This way, we can always change back to the Debian defaults and minimize the
necessary changes.

HTH,
Michael

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