On 04/15/2012 03:43 PM, Christopher Brown wrote:
> Hi,
>
> My apologies if members don't consider this list appropriate, if so perhaps a more appropriate forum could be suggested.
>
> I am using scientific linux 6.2. I will be installing it on 4-5 computers that will make up my lab. I plan to add some additional packages from source or otherwise:
>
> /opt/python2.7
> /opt/python3.2
> /opt/libreoffice3.5
> /opt/zotero3.0
> /opt/qt-4.8.1
>
> ...and a few more plus a number of python2.7 packages such as numpy, pyqt, etc. I have my environment setup pretty well on one machine with a bash script I wrote to download make and install all the packages I need. It also sets up a decent /etc/skel/, so that global settings are set for all users. 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? Setting up my own repo seems like a lot of overhead for a few machines. Is there a better way? I could go around to each machine with my bash script, but what would the best way be to handle updates? I am willing to learn about repository management if necessary, but obviously the less effort/knowledge required the better, as I am a relative novice at system administration. Thus, any suggestions will be appreciated.
>
> Thanks, Chris
>


If you're looking for simple, decide on which system will be 'the master' just use rsync to sync /opt and your single /etc/skel/ file to each of the clients.  E.g., on master:

for client in clienthost1 clienthost2; do
   rsync -avHP --relative --delete /opt /etc/skel/foo.sh  $client:/
done

Of course, use 'rsync -n' until you're confident your rsync won't do any damage.  This is off the top of my head so be careful.

Hope that helps!