Hi,

Christopher Brown <[log in to unmask]> writes:

> /opt

You are already up to a dime or so but here are my 2c.

> I have my environment setup pretty well on one machine

NFS export /opt (and /home) from this machine and mount it on the lab
nodes. 

Manage /opt's non-standard user environment with either usepackage or
modules [1].  Which ever you like, keep its config file somewhere on
/opt so the Lab nodes see it.

Avoid putting anything special in /etc/skel as it only applies when a
new account is made.  Instead, put customization in /etc/profile and
/etc/login, but it is best to keep that to a minimum.  In particular you
would need to add the sourcing of usepackage's/module's setup script.

You don't need to mess with making RPM packages, imo.

Puppet is indeed a good suggestion for managing things that don't fit
into the above (or complementing them).  For example, Puppet can
distribute the changes to /etc/profile.

You will also need to distribute account information.  Puppet can
distribute /etc/passwd (and friends) or you can setup NIS (or similar).


-Brett.

[1] http://usepackage.sourceforge.net/ 
    http://modules.sourceforge.net/