Re: [tlug] CentOS to Gentoo-Pros/Cons(if any)?

[Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com>]

On 13/12/05, mudrii <mudrii@example.com> wrote:

> The best server space for Gentoo is running on Cluster or Server farms
> with some modification to portage and special server only for
> compilation as binary update server could be officiant solution.
> This is my opinion after 3 years of using Gentoo.

You can do this without modifying Portage. The best way is to:

- Designate a single machine to be the Portage master.

- Setup a cron job on the master that will sync the Portage tree
(emerge --sync) nightly, or weekly, or monthly, or whatever.

- In the master's /etc/make.conf, add "buildpkg" to the FEATURES line;
if you have no FEATURES, just add a new line:

FEATURES="buildpkg"

This will cause the master to build binary packages of every ebuild it
installs. Also, you will want to add a line:

PKGDIR="/var/ftp/pub/grp/i686/pentium-4"

or something like that, so binary packages will be dropped in a
directory that is accessible to the slaves through FTP.

- Export /usr/portage from the master as a NFS or some other network
filesystem--read-only!--and mount it on the slave machines.

- In the slave's /etc/make.conf, add "getbinpkg" to the FEATURES, or
add a new line:

FEATURES="getbinpkg"

Also, add a line:

PORTAGE_BINHOST = "ftp://login:pass@example.com/pub/grp/i686/pentium-4";

or whatever (change the path to match your master's PKGDIR--which
should be based on architecture, etc.).

Now, as long as you want all of the machines to remain the same, to
install software:

1. On the master: "emerge foo".
2. After the master's emerge has completed, simply "emerge foo" on all
the slaves (a tool like x11-terms/clusterssh[1] will be invaluable).

Hurrah!

-Josh

[1] http://clusterssh.sourceforge.net/