Server auto-configuration
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Daniel JamesDaniel James
    Posts: 844Member, Sourcefabric Team
    Hi all,

    Just thought I'd share what Robin has been working on lately -
    automating Newscoop server setup with debconf.

    This means that it will be possible to write a preseed file containing
    the domain name of your server, email of the sysadmin etc. and then have
    a complete hands-off install on a bare server. Newscoop will be ready to
    run as soon as the machine has booted from the hard disk for the first
    time.

    Cheers!

    Daniel

  • 4 Comments sorted by
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Sava TatićSava Tatić
    Posts: 113Member, Administrator, Sourcefabric Team
    This looks very, very nice!

    Sava

    On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 6:24 PM, Daniel James <
    newscoop-dev@lists.sourcefabric.org> wrote:

    > Hi all,
    >
    > Just thought I'd share what Robin has been working on lately -
    > automating Newscoop server setup with debconf.
    >
    > This means that it will be possible to write a preseed file containing
    > the domain name of your server, email of the sysadmin etc. and then have
    > a complete hands-off install on a bare server. Newscoop will be ready to
    > run as soon as the machine has booted from the hard disk for the first
    > time.
    >
    > Cheers!
    >
    > Daniel
    >
    > <http://forum.sourcefabric.org/index.php?t=getfile&id=70> Attachment:
    > Screenshot-Terminal.png<http://forum.sourcefabric.org/index.php?t=getfile&id=70>
    > (Size: 43.59KB)
    >



    --
    Sava Tatić
    Managing director, Sourcefabric o.p.s.
    sava.tatic@sourcefabric.org

    Salvátorská 10
    110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic
    +420 2 22 36 25 40
    +1 647 889 2811 (Toronto)
    Skype: tictactatic

    http://www.sourcefabric.org
    http://www.twitter.com/Sourcefabric


  • Hey.... way cool !!

    Robin, I did the same like a year ago and it was almost done... I used
    wwwconfig at that time though and I guess you are using dbconfig now
    which goes one step further and makes it easier the db step which is
    the one I struggled with if I remember correctly.

    It was possible to make the installation with Synaptic under Gnome and
    it looked quite nice, I guess it works the same with KDE but I don't
    even know the package manager name on it, although it must be
    something like KPackage lol !!

    Anyway, looking forward to seeing it in action !!


    On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 6:24 PM, Daniel James
    <newscoop-dev@lists.sourcefabric.org> wrote:
    >
    > Hi all,
    >
    > Just thought I'd share what Robin has been working on lately -
    > automating Newscoop server setup with debconf.
    >
    > This means that it will be possible to write a preseed file containing
    > the domain name of your server, email of the sysadmin etc. and then have
    > a complete hands-off install on a bare server. Newscoop will be ready to
    > run as soon as the machine has booted from the hard disk for the first
    > time.
    >
    > Cheers!
    >
    > Daniel
    >
    > Attachment: Screenshot-Terminal.png
    > (Size: 43.59KB)
    >


    --
    Holman Romero
    Senior Software Engineer, Sourcefabric
    holman.romero@sourcefabric.org

    Salvátorská 10
    110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic
    +420 608910633

    http://www.sourcefabric.org
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Sava TatićSava Tatić
    Posts: 113Member, Administrator, Sourcefabric Team
    Hey, don't mess with the power of K. KPackageKit is the name, as the
    enlightened few among us would know :)

    On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 8:39 PM, Holman Romero <
    newscoop-dev@lists.sourcefabric.org> wrote:

    >
    > Hey.... way cool !!
    >
    > Robin, I did the same like a year ago and it was almost done... I used
    > wwwconfig at that time though and I guess you are using dbconfig now
    > which goes one step further and makes it easier the db step which is
    > the one I struggled with if I remember correctly.
    >
    > It was possible to make the installation with Synaptic under Gnome and
    > it looked quite nice, I guess it works the same with KDE but I don't
    > even know the package manager name on it, although it must be
    > something like KPackage lol !!
    >
    > Anyway, looking forward to seeing it in action !!
    >
    >
    >
    > On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 6:24 PM, Daniel James
    > <newscoop-dev@lists.sourcefabric.org> wrote:
    > >
    > > Hi all,
    > >
    > > Just thought I'd share what Robin has been working on lately -
    > > automating Newscoop server setup with debconf.
    > >
    > > This means that it will be possible to write a preseed file containing
    > > the domain name of your server, email of the sysadmin etc. and then have
    > > a complete hands-off install on a bare server. Newscoop will be ready to
    > > run as soon as the machine has booted from the hard disk for the first
    > > time.
    > >
    > > Cheers!
    > >
    > > Daniel
    > >
    > > Attachment: Screenshot-Terminal.png
    > > (Size: 43.59KB)
    > >
    >
    >
    > --
    > Holman Romero
    > Senior Software Engineer, Sourcefabric
    > holman.romero@sourcefabric.org
    >
    >
    > Salvátorská 10
    > 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic
    > +420 608910633
    >
    > http://www.sourcefabric.org
    >
    >



    --
    Sava Tatić
    Managing director, Sourcefabric o.p.s.
    sava.tatic@sourcefabric.org

    Salvátorská 10
    110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic
    +420 2 22 36 25 40
    +1 647 889 2811 (Toronto)
    Skype: tictactatic

    http://www.sourcefabric.org
    http://www.twitter.com/Sourcefabric

  • Vote Up0Vote Down Daniel JamesDaniel James
    Posts: 844Member, Sourcefabric Team

    Hi Holman,

    > I used
    > wwwconfig at that time though and I guess you are using dbconfig now

    It was Alessio's suggestion to use dbconfig-common:

    http://people.debian.org/~seanius/policy/dbconfig-common-usi ng.html/

    At the moment, the Newscoop package does not force installation of the
    mysql server package, because it may be that the sysadmin wants to run
    apache and mysql on two different physical servers. This choice is
    probably better to automate at the preseed level, when we know the
    specific requirements of a particular customer.

    > It was possible to make the installation with Synaptic under Gnome and
    > it looked quite nice

    Yes, you can do that, but I've written the instructions for the console
    so that we have one method that works for both headless servers over
    SSH, and desktops for casual testers.

    Cheers!

    Daniel