[2934] in SIPB_Linux_Development
Hesiod information for systems installed with our installer
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sam Hartman)
Mon Aug 28 14:58:32 2000
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2000 14:53:35 -0400 (EDT)
From: Sam Hartman <hartmans@MIT.EDU>
To: linux-dev@MIT.EDU
I realized a problem that is probably obvious to people with Athena
update procedure more swapped into their brain. Machines need cluster
information in order to auto_update. I had assumed that we could
install local cluster information for machines without Hesiod, but
this is a bad idea.
The problem is that the syscontrol cluster info is version-specific.
If we create local cluster info, we will have an 8.4 syscontrol line.
This is fine until 8.5 or 9.0 rolls around, then the machine stops
updating.
We could also rely on Hesiod. However, we need to do a bit of work to
make sure people get Hesiod To do this, we need to work with IS and
may sure we do not create too much of an impact on their support load.
But we also need to make sure we get everyone into a Hesiod cluster.
This is especially important, because this installer need to be
somewhat resistante to lameness on the part of SIPB. I had hoped to
do this by relying on the Athena update mechanism to quickly update
machines if our images became out of date. This is less reasonable
if people don't always end up with cluster information.
We could do something like adding a feature to prompt the user to mail
hesreq similarly to the way we had the NetBSD installer send us mail
about installs. Alternatively we could have a screen asking the user
to send mail to hesreq.
The way cluster info interacts with Athena versions seems undesirable.
I think it would also be interesting to explore better ways this could
be handled and to make suggestions for future Athena releases.
