[lug] Admining Linux Desktops

[Jeffrey Haemer]

Ben,

On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 1:50 PM, Ben <bluey at iguanaworks.net> wrote:

> There is talk about setting up some desktop Linux machines at work. [...]
>

For what?  My experience here at work, where every engineer's desktop
box is a Linux box, is that what you'll use it for matters.

Here's what I'm thinking (suggestions welcome on the approach,
> alternatives, ways of doing this, etc)


If you need to control stuff tightly, like this, pick an LTS release (For
Ubuntu, Hardy Heron).  Some folks here now regret ignoring that advice. :-)

There's an O'Reilly booklet (I think it's only available off the web) with
detailed instructions on setting up your own yum repository, in case you end
up with RHEL/CentOS instead.  Not all of it is correct, but it's a starting
point.

Anyone reading know something analogous for Debian-based distros?

Also, if configured correctly, yum will let you roll back updates.  I'd like
to know how to do that for apt/dpkg.  [ I don't actually remember how to do
it for yum, but I know I could look it up. :-) ]


> 2) Create one debian package (put it in said repositories) that contains
> standard configuration files


A raft of tools, like Puppet, are designed for this problem.  A few months
ago, at a BLUG talk, I won free admission to the Open Source Bridge
conference, in Portland, next week.  They're having both a session and a BoF
on the topic.  Ask me again in two weeks. :-)

Rob Savoye's giving a BLUG talk tonight, by the way.

-- 
Jeffrey Haemer <jeffrey.haemer at gmail.com>
720-837-8908 [cell]
303-997-1219 [Google Voice]
http://seejeffrun.blogspot.com
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