Not only would you have to shut down all the guests to introduce your
maintenance (although not during the actual "apply"; you could allocate new
disks, copy the old ones, and apply your maintenance there, then switch
everybody over), you'd also have to find a way of tracking changes the
maintenance made to the writable directory paths, such as /etc. These would be
the changes that would bite you in the rear.
This type of set-up was done initially, in order to share a common /usr
filesystem (I'm not sure the others are really large enough to make a big
difference, space and cache -wise). But maintaining the system, especially the
parts and pieces outside the shared filesystem, becomes a nightmare, because
you can't just use the tools supplied by the vendor to do the maintenance; you
have to do something extra to catch all the extra fallout. I think, for this
reason, most people have abandoned the shared /usr concept, and are just
allocating the space and maintaining each system as if it was a stand-alone
box. I could be wrong, though.
But you are going through the same thought process that everyone else has at
some point in this process, so you're in good company.
--
.~. Robert P. Nix Mayo Foundation
/V\ RO-OC-1-13 200 First Street SW
/( )\ 507-284-0844 Rochester, MN 55905
^^-^^ -----
"In theory, theory and practice are the same, but
in practice, theory and practice are different."
-----Original Message-----
From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of MOEUR TIM C
Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 9:45 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Shared common Directories
Hello List,
I'm pursuing an architecture for multiple guests under VM and I'd like
to know if anyone else has done the same, or if this is just an accident
waiting to happen. I invite your thoughts, comments, and witty remarks.
Here's what I'm considering: I'd like to create multiple VM Linux
guests that each have read access to a set of common minidisks. On
those common minidisks will be what I'm calling the shared Linux file
systems, such as stuff in /sbin, /bin, /boot, /lib. Each VM Linux
guest will also have an exclusive minidisk (WRITE) that will contain the
file systems needed to update and operate (/etc, /proc, /sys, /tmp and
so on). The assumption is that each Linux guest will use the same level
of OS, patches, and add-on programs.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit
http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
