[gentoo-user] Using portage through NFS

[gentoo-user] Using portage through NFS

[Chris Lieb]

I have read the guide on gentoo-wiki about setting up portage to work
over NFS[0] and have it mostly working.  I have two issues that I would
like to work out:

1) I use sync-eix to update portage and my overlays (via layman).  I
want the client to still be able to run sync-eix, but have it only run
`emerge --metadata` (no `emerge --sync` or `layman --sync ALL`).  What
do I need to change in the eix-sync.conf?  (Man, that's a long man page :) )

Better yet, since my overlays are all in the exported NFS filesystem
(hence, the eix database would be the same across all clients), is it
possible to export my eix cache by hardlinking it into the NFS share?
If so, how do I make the client's eix use this database instead of the
one at /var/cache/eix?

2) I use the buildpkg feature on both the server and the client since
the client can usually use the packages for its own installations
(getbinpkg).  However, sometimes I require different use flags for the
client, but I still want to keep the package locally so I can restore it
later if I need to.  I have the NFS share mounted ro to keep the client
from overwriting what is on the server, so I am guessing that portage
will throw some kind of error when it tries to save the package to disk.

I was thinking of getting around this by using some kind of union mount.
 However, I don't understand how union mounts work or if they can be
used for my situation.  What I would like is to have some directory,
lets say /var/lib/portage/packages, that I union mount on top of the
exported NFS share, at /mnt/nfs_portage/packages.  I noticed in the
Portage w/ SquashFS/aufs howto[1], they used aufs to create a rw layer
on top of a ro SquashFS.  This sounds kind of what I want, except it
appears that aufs is memory-backed instead of disk-backed.  Is this so?
 The clients are all strapped for memory, so a memory-backed fs won't be
feasible.

Does anyone have any ideas or details on how I might implement this?

Thanks,
Chris Lieb

[0] http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Sharing_Portage_over_NFS
[1] http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Squashed_Portage_Tree

[gentoo-user] Using portage through NFS

[Chris Lieb]

I have read the guide on gentoo-wiki about setting up portage to work
over NFS[0] and have it mostly working.  I have two issues that I would
like to work out:

1) I use sync-eix to update portage and my overlays (via layman).  I
want the client to still be able to run sync-eix, but have it only run
`emerge --metadata` (no `emerge --sync` or `layman --sync ALL`).  What
do I need to change in the eix-sync.conf?  (Man, that's a long man page :) )

Better yet, since my overlays are all in the exported NFS filesystem
(hence, the eix database would be the same across all clients), is it
possible to export my eix cache by hardlinking it into the NFS share?
If so, how do I make the client's eix use this database instead of the
one at /var/cache/eix?

2) I use the buildpkg feature on both the server and the client since
the client can usually use the packages for its own installations
(getbinpkg).  However, sometimes I require different use flags for the
client, but I still want to keep the package locally so I can restore it
later if I need to.  I have the NFS share mounted ro to keep the client
from overwriting what is on the server, so I am guessing that portage
will throw some kind of error when it tries to save the package to disk.

I was thinking of getting around this by using some kind of union mount.
 However, I don't understand how union mounts work or if they can be
used for my situation.  What I would like is to have some directory,
lets say /var/lib/portage/packages, that I union mount on top of the
exported NFS share, at /mnt/nfs_portage/packages.  I noticed in the
Portage w/ SquashFS/aufs howto[1], they used aufs to create a rw layer
on top of a ro SquashFS.  This sounds kind of what I want, except it
appears that aufs is memory-backed instead of disk-backed.  Is this so?
 The clients are all strapped for memory, so a memory-backed fs won't be
feasible.

Does anyone have any ideas or details on how I might implement this?

Thanks,
Chris Lieb

[0] http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Sharing_Portage_over_NFS
[1] http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Squashed_Portage_Tree

Re: [gentoo-user] Using portage through NFS

[Mike Kazantsev]

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On Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:16:36 -0600
Chris Lieb <chris.lieb@gmail.com> wrote:

> 1) I use sync-eix to update portage and my overlays (via layman).  I
> want the client to still be able to run sync-eix, but have it only run
> `emerge --metadata` (no `emerge --sync` or `layman --sync ALL`).  What
> do I need to change in the eix-sync.conf?  (Man, that's a long man page :) )

You can use cluster-aware filesystems like GFS2 / OCFS2 to do anything
you like on any end, without having to worry about any inconsistency on
the other end.
That way you can do 'emerge --sync' or edit some overlay ebuild on any
end, seeing all the changes real-time on the other.


> 2) I use the buildpkg feature on both the server and the client since
> the client can usually use the packages for its own installations
> (getbinpkg).  However, sometimes I require different use flags for the
> client, but I still want to keep the package locally so I can restore it
> later if I need to.  I have the NFS share mounted ro to keep the client
> from overwriting what is on the server, so I am guessing that portage
> will throw some kind of error when it tries to save the package to disk.

Prehaps you should just 'mount /some/dev /usr/portage/packages' on each
machine, after you've mounted shared /usr/portage FS, so you'll have
unique packages on each server.
And if you'll need to copy some new packages from one machine to the
other without overwriting any of locally-compiled ones - you can just
use rsync, via cron, if it's kinda constant need.

-- 
Mike Kazantsev // fraggod.net

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