On Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 21:43, Christopher Brown <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
...
> I would like all the machines to be identical, and I would like to be able
> to update packages automatically. My question is, what is the best way to
> deploy and maintain this environment onto several networked machines?

We have recently migrated our cluster (21 multicore blades) to oneSIS:

http://onesis.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OneSIS

I can now edit the master (say, to install new RPMs) and it is visible
in real-time
since the blades use a ram disk approach. A few directories are excluded
from the shared part to allow for "personal" data on each blade, i.e. to avoid
that log files or daemons interfere.
Pretty happy with that installation.

Markus

-- 
Markus Neteler, PhD
Fondazione Edmund Mach (FEM) - Research and Innovation Centre
Department of Biodiversity and Molecular Ecology
Head of GIS and Remote Sensing Unit
Via E. Mach, 1 - 38010 S. Michele all'Adige (TN), Italy
Web:   http://gis.cri.fmach.it  -   http://grass.osgeo.org
Email: markus.neteler AT fmach.it