Tools for Doing Mass Deployments of Linux

[Colin McGregor]

On 9/10/08, CLIFFORD ILKAY <clifford_ilkay-biY6FKoJMRdBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> The "Cloning a running Linux OS" thread inspired me to ask about doing
> mass deployments of Linux.
>
> I am helping a small school get their systems in order. At the moment,
> it's all Windows and many of the machines in the lab are infested with
> all manner of malware. Initially, we started out with the idea that we
> were just going to do fresh installations of Windows XP only to discover
> that was not feasible since we don't have appropriate licensing to
> install XP Pro on all the machines. That would require us to purchase XP
> Pro licenses, which for a school is not a big deal, if only Microsoft
> would sell them. Apparently, they now have to buy Vista licenses and
> there is some question as to whether a "downgrade" would be allowed or
> not and whether those Vista keys would work for XP Pro. One thing we are
> certain of is that some unknown number of the machines and some of the
> software they are currently running will not be supported by Vista so
> running Vista is not an option. Enter, Linux, though not without some
> resistance, mostly out of fear of the unknown.
>
> I have thought about using LTSP but it seems like such a waste to turn
> Pentium 4 2.4GHz+ and Core2 Duo machines with between 2GB and 4GB of RAM
> into thin clients. There is experimental support for local apps but I'm
> mindful of the fact that Linux doesn't just have to be good in this
> environment. It has to be close to perfect to gain acceptance amongst
> the passive (and active) resisters so I'm wary of things marked
> "experimental".
>
> Ideally, I want the ease of centralized management of LTSP but with fat
> clients that don't have to netboot and can local apps. For instance,
> let's say I want to install EduBuntu on each desktop. In advance, I want
> to select packages, locales and time zone, integrate with a directory,
> and merge all the updates into the installation source. From the server,
> I want to wake up all the client machines on the LAN and do a push
> installation via PXE based on my installation source. Once the
> installation has finished, I want to shut the clients down. The clients
> will not store any user data so it should be feasible to repeat the
> process when we update the "master" installation source by adding,
> removing, or updating software. I realize that we could automate this
> using Puppet or some such tool but the fresh, push installation is
> probably a better route to go for the sake of keeping the desktop
> machines synchronized and uniform.
>
> DRBL <http://drbl.sourceforge.net/> supposedly does all this but it has
> not exactly been the most intuitive thing to configure.
>
> I looked at kickstart for Ubuntu but it seems broken because I don't see
> any package selections. KIWI for openSuse looked mildly interesting
> except I feel like a fish out of water with openSuse, not to mention
> that I got random freezes on one of the newer Core2 Duo machines with
> openSuse 11. (Remember, it has to be close to perfect.) I won't even
> consider Fedora because it changes too quickly. CentOS 5.2 had trouble
> with the Intel Q965 graphics chipset. Besides, K/Ubuntu is perfectly
> fine. Debian's FAI, which is also available for Ubuntu, might be an
> option, though I have no experience with it.
>
> Any suggestions would be most appreciated, well, maybe except for "run
> Gentoo/*BSD/OpenSolaris".

The closest I have come to the above problem was setting up a 28
machine Internet lounge for a convention. Bottom line was creating a
custom version of the Knoppix live-CD, and ignoring the hard drives. A
DVD based variation on this might be good for a school setting, where
you allow the students to save work onto a USB key (one of the local
clearance shops is offering 256 MB USB keys for $2.29, an amount
within effectively all student budgets...). In case of trouble, just
reset the box...

My takes on how/why to do a custom live Knoppix CDs can be seen here:

- www.linuxjournal.com/article/7127
- www.linuxjournal.com/article/8081

In addition, this bit I did might be of interest:

- "Original Spin – Building a custom live CD with Fedora's
livecd-creator", Linux Pro Magazine, December 2007, pages 48-50


Colin McGregor

> --
> Regards,
>
> Clifford Ilkay
> Dinamis
> 1419-3266 Yonge St.
> Toronto, ON
> Canada  M4N 3P6
>
> <http://dinamis.com>
> +1 416-410-3326
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