Re: [gentoo-user] Putting gentoo to work :)

[Hans-Werner Hilse <hilse@web.de>]

Hi,

On Fri, 9 Feb 2007 19:43:16 +0200
"Alexandru Mincu" <mincua@gmail.com> wrote:

> My setup will look like this:
> big server with 2 or 3 gigabit ethernet cards and lots of sata drives in a
> big raid array.
> disk less workstations with 512mb or 1gb of ram, nvidia or integrated video
> and a gigabit ethernet card.
> and of course a gigabit ethernet switch.

Hm. Are those "diskless" workstations supposed to be thin clients (i.e.
just displays for applications running on the big iron)? Probably not,
I guess. So your "big iron" will probably be a file server. For serious
productive work either virtualize the web-, mail- and calender servers
or even better make them separate machines. It's easier to maintain the
pieces when each of them has its own environment. You'll also need a
lot of CPU power on the main rig just for getting the needed throughput.

If you're going to go that road, I would suggest to offer your client
terminals access to a common, NFS read-only shared root and individual
shares for home directories. Make a testing environment and regularly
make it the new root if it has proven to be stable. Always remember
that the common root file system is now a single point of failure for
the whole company's productivity.

> First of all let's start with the clients...
> I am a Gnome fan and I think it is better and simpler to use, but them if
> you have windows users that you want to put to use linux, kde might be a
> better option... although this is a matter of taste I would accept some
> suggestions(without killing each other here), bu please take in
> consideration all the things i want to add.

I don't think it's a big issue. Maybe others have more experience in
maintaining a common desktop environment in larger environments.

> Things required:
> Email,
> Calendar  sharing,
> IM,
> Office suite,
> other bullshit managers use to put you to work(suggestions accepted here) :)
> Web  browsing,
> A content management system

Should be possible in one way or another.

> I also think that some eye candy would be gr8 to have ... I tried both
> compiz and beryl, but none were stable for me... it's true i was using
> nvidia's beta driers but anyway. have any of you tried compiz or beryl?
> which one is really stable and ready to use for a company? Is the
> Xgl+(compiz|beryl) variant stable? I for one really liked beryl's features
> but it seems to be more unstable than compiz.

Hm, I don't know what kind of company we're talking about, but is this
really a mission critical issue? I think my boss would be scared and
thinking "heck, this guy has to much time for playing, let's give him
more work" -- but hey, I'm german and probably not supposed to have fun
at work :-)

> Now for updates .. which profile do you think would better suit a company ..
> should I use hardend gentoo? Is there a version of gentoo that keeps things
> down with the upgrades to stable packages or I should keep my own tree and
> sync only the stuff I want and test into it?
> Now the nice part,
> What about the disk less clients? is there a way to keep a stable file
> system for all the workstations without requiring to copy all the base files
> for each workstation? It would be nice to be able to dynamical add
> workstations to the network without requiring admin intervention...
> From what I have seen in the gentoo diskless faq it suggested doing an
> separate dir for each client in the network....

I would suggest to share the full root file system read-only by NFS
(i.e., probably just a chroot environment in which you maintain a
client-specific environment). It will be a bit of a PITA to get the
configuration for each specific client done in a sane way (writable,
client-specific NFS unionfs mount onto /etc and /var?) but easier than
maintaining N copies of the same stuff on the same RAID (after all, you
said "diskless clients", right?).

> What are the good points in using the system instead of using MS Windows
> (besides the money)?

They can't ever fire you. Really. They would lose productivity _and_ data.

> PS: Excuse my English.

Not that this means anything, but since I think I understood every
single word, I'd say it's excellent :-)


-hwh
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