Hi gentoo-clusterists, I have been working on patching genkernel and some initrd scripts to be able to directly overlay "/" with a rw unionfs branch. What's new here?
The modifications give the possibility to mount a ro NFS root and overlay another rw NFS directory over the root of a diskless client. This way, you can have a stateful diskless client. I'm testing it right now, both in an SSI setup (all machines share the same "/" -- but you probably all know what SSI means :) ), and in a more traditional way, having a root for the master node, and a root dedicated to the diskless nodes (typically /nfsroot/). At boot, the nodes first nfs-mount "/" from the master, then nfs-mount "/var/state/systems/unionfs_changes/nodeXY" as their rw unionfs overlay. You can then modify directly the "per-nodes" configuration, for example "/var/state/.../nodeXY/etc/fstab", so this will be the fstab seen on boot by nodeXY. Or you modify it live on the node, it will stay this way. If anybody would care to try and give me feedback on the approach, you may find the patches in http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=121334 and http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=99682 Thanks, -- Jean-Francois Richard -- http://jean-francois.richard.name Most general statements are false, including this one. -- [email protected] mailing list
