Printer-friendly Email story Gentoo in the server room?

[Collins Richey]

On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 07:56:05 -0500, Michael Hipp <michael at hipp.com> wrote:
> Collins Richey wrote:
>   > Depends on what the "widely varying" means. If you can settle on a
> > common compile configuration, then it's manageable. You can compile
> > everything to packages on a local server. Install and test them
> > locally. When everything is cooked, then you can use scp (or some
> > other secure means) to roll the packages over to the remote servers
> > and install the packages there. Not overly complicated.
> 
> Yes. But it partly defeats the advantage of Gentoo as you may have to
> settle on a "lowest common denominator" configuraton and spread some USE
> flags in places they're not needed. And it is a lot of manual labor
> compared to just "emerge" or "apt-get".

Manual labor is almost unavoidable with a source based distribution.
You have to develop procedures that duplicate the "back room" work
done at RedHat or Debian or Suse. If you are going to maintain a
"widely diverse" set of machines, you only have two choices: lowest
common denominator (the Redhat et al method) or a much more
complicated custom compile process. You've also got to duplicate the
local testing process. That's not a game I would choose to play.

> 
> I hope Gentoo can put some work into automating that whole thing at some
> point.
> 

Perhaps they will provide an automated distribution process, but you
still have the difficulties mentioned earlier that make a
custom-tailored upgrade and testing process problematic. There are
just too many permutations and combinations involved in maintaing a
bevy of "widely diverse" machines. Even with a "lowest common
denominator" server package, I wouldn't want to be responsible for
that can of worms.

Gentoo is a good solution, but it's not for everyone.

-- 
 /\/\
(CR) Collins Richey
 \/\/        "I hear you're single again." "Spouse 2.0 had fewer bugs than
              Spouse 1.0, but the maintenance ... was too much for my OS."
                  - Glitch (tm)