If you are collecting the inventory file semi-dynamically, why not 
randomize the order while you are collecting the hosts?

On Sunday, October 5, 2014 8:53:10 PM UTC+2, Eric Wedaa wrote:
>
>
> Changing the setting to random and the fork value to 40 gives me a 
> reasonable chance that all 40 forks will be more or less equally 
> distributed.  With more than 40 blades, it's a good bet only one fork per 
> blade.  Of course, being random, I could someday get all 40 forks going to 
> one blade.  It's not that the blade is already at 100% CPU,  it's that 
> hitting a single blade with 40 updates at the same time will not only 
> flatline my cpu, but the ethernet sockets for the same blade as well.  And 
> on some of my blades, the system may try and move LPARs to different blades 
> to re-equalize the load, which just then makes it take even longer.
>
> This is a semi-common option, at least in the network scanning tools I 
> have used.  I was hoping it would already be here and I just wasn't seeing 
> it.
>
> For instance,
>
>  Nmap 6.47SVN ( http://nmap.org )
>  Usage: nmap [Scan Type(s)] [Options] {target specification}
>  TARGET SPECIFICATION:
>    -iR <num hosts>: Choose random targets
>
>
> And for Nessus
>   http://static.tenable.com/documentation/nessus_5.0_user_guide.pdf  page 
> 11
>
>  Avoid Sequential Scans  
>
>  By default, Nessus scans a list of IP addresses in sequential order. If 
> checked, Nessus
>  will scan the list of hosts in a random order. This is typically useful 
> in helping to
>  distribute the network traffic directed at a particular subnet during 
> large scans
>
>
>   
> We have to be careful when we scan our Z series boxes for instance with 
> Nessus.  Thank goodness for random host selection.
>
> This is a scalability issue as far as I am concerned.
>
> >>>Ericw
>
> On Sunday, October 5, 2014 2:23:20 PM UTC-4, Michael DeHaan wrote:
>>
>> There's no such setting.
>>
>> However, I don't understand why changing the order wouldn't smakc your 
>> *other* blade, so this question seems orthogonal. 
>>
>> Sounds like you need to take it out of rotation if it's already nearing 
>> 100% CPU, such as using our load balancing modules.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Oct 5, 2014 at 1:24 PM, Eric Wedaa <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> How do I shuffle/randomize long lists of hosts?  That is, without 
>>> writing an executable hosts file that randomizes them and then spits them 
>>> out, and then dealing with all the groupings and variables and other 
>>> wonderfulness that I can include in the hosts file?
>>>
>>> My inventory file is collected semi-dynamically and comprises long lists 
>>> of servers that are all running on the same blade on a long list of 
>>> blades.  I run upto 40 servers per blade, and I have about a 80 blades (or 
>>> more).  The FIRST time I run an "update bash" (for instance) I'll wind up 
>>> hitting all of one blade first, effectively flat-lineing it.  If I can 
>>> shuffle my hosts list, I can have a larger fork/serial value and won't  
>>> flatline my blades and I can shorten my effective runtime.
>>>
>>> I was hoping for a "--shuffle-hosts" variable but I couldn't find it.
>>>
>>> >>>Ericw
>>>
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