[Already posted on debian-devel] [I'm currently not on the list; please cc replies to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>]
I'm interested in the administration of clusters and infrastructures (i.e., very large, dishomogeneous installations) and in related debian package and administration tools. I searched on debian-devel and found some mention of the need to create a dedicated list/project, but couldn't find anything. Is there such a discussion group? (I found some interesting issues on debian-beowulf). In case there isn't yet, are enough people interested in this issue to justify the creation of such a list? Some issues that come to mind that may be relevant include the following: * debian's stability and well-done package tools are great for professional use--but the package system is too much geared towards single machines. It would be a petty not to add cluster features to make Debian more used in larger environments! * Administration of large clusters or infrastructures usually brings the need for techniques that work for multiple kinds of platform (Debian, Solaris, AIX, etc.) The only homogenous clusters out there are possibly Beowulfs. * I've seen considerable interest and activity to port Debian tools to other platforms (See debian-scala HOWTO and some reports on ports of package tools to different architectures). This seems to fit well on a cluster/infrastructure list. * I believe that the debian package system and tools can be made more modular and flexible in order to adapt to situation different from single machine installation. Some of my ideas are reported at http://www.sistema.it/univSrcPkg/. While this is not written for Debian, the Debian source package would be a great starting point. The essence of the idea is that a single source package supports the creation of various binary packages/installation methods for different purposes: single machine installation, installation on non-debian platforms w/ debian tools, cluster installation with central configuration management, and even creation of non-debian packages from debian source packages. The difference to current source packages would be a consistent use of APIs that encapsulate OS, platform, and configuration management specific issues. * There has been significant work on infrastructures management. A lot of it is reported on www.infrastructures.org that also has an interesting mailing list. There is the "founding paper" of the infrastructures site by Steve Traugott that is a great introduction. I've started to collect interesting links at http://www.sistema.it/twiki/bin/view/Main/infrastructures. These and some discussion papers on (Debian) infrastructures can be found at my site: http://www.sistema.it/infrastructure/ Anyways, these are just some ideas to make the issue more concrete. hope this is of interest --bud /------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Bud P. Bruegger, Ph.D. | mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] | | Sistema | http://www.sistema.it | | Information Systems | voice general: +39-0564-418667 | | Via U. Bassi, 54 | voice direct: +39-0564-418667 (internal 41)| | 58100 Grosseto | fax: +39-0564-426104 | | Italy | P.Iva: 01116600535 | \------------------------------------------------------------------------/
