[arch-releng] Archlinux automated via PXE

[Nico Schottelius]

Hey Thomas,

Thomas S Hatch [Fri, Apr 01, 2011 at 05:27:16PM -0600]:
> I really need to get my stuff on this out into the wild, I use ramdisk
> network boots, I had to modify the mkinitcpio but it works amazingly well.
> So I never install systems, I just reboot them into new root images.

Interesting approach, we're doing something similar with nfsroot
sometimes.

Though for this issue in particular, I'm more interested in
installing real systems, so I could in theory drive my business
with archlinux.

> The problem is that I need to refine it a great deal.
> 
> If you are however interested in automating virtual machine installs you can
> use varch:
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Varch

Had a look at that, does not really match what I'm searching for.

> Also, are you using puppet? I could not live without it in the datacenter.

We've just migrated away from puppet to cdist for various reasons,
including, but not limited to push vs. pull approach, no high level
language / interpreter requirements and hopefull more clean error
messages.

You can find more about cdist at
http://www.nico.schottelius.org/software/cdist/.

Cheers,

Nico

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