Since you use Red Hat, your choices and tradeoffs may be different from mine.
With Debian systems, I've tried several approaches, and I end up liking the
one of scripting the install. I do a base install (over the network; we keep
a local Debian mirror on site, and Debian's installer is *designed* around
doing network installs from an archive). I then run a very simple script by
hand to install the package set I want (from the mirror). I then download
the site-specific config files from another system (maybe a tarball, maybe
individually; depends on how many there are).
If the system includes kernel source, I download the config file and do a
kernel compile locally; if it doesn't have the source (e.g., a
firewall/router, with a small hard disk and no compilers installed), I
download a suitable compiled kernel and modules from a development host.
Run LILO for the new kernel and I'm set.
That's for a new system. In your case, after you do all that, you need to
add on your established content. I've done it both with tar and via NFS; the
main tradeoff is whether gzip'ing the tarball reduces download time more
than gzip'ing adds to the total time ... and that depends entirely on
details of CPU, memory, and connection speed.
In general, sounds like you're thinking about the right issues. Good luck.
At 04:19 PM 5/31/00 -0500, Mike Tvarkunas wrote:
>Ray,
>I realize that the kernel stuff will be somewhat different. The 6.0 box
>(let call is OLD) can be down for a reasonable amount of time. I'm at a
>small college and its NOT that critical after 10pm at night. My idea was
>to back up the old box, and wipe it clean... and do a minimal 6.2 install
>on it. Build a kernel with my raid card, and NICs and any other kernel
>dependent stuff. That way I can set partition sizes and all that in the
>initial install. Then this is where I'm kind of at a halt. Is NFS the
>answer... or is something else a better idea... I'm not as concerned about
>the iPs and the hostnames... I feel like I can knock most of those out in
>few hours... or would tar'n things be easier... ftp them over and
>uncompress them. I guess it could be more selective that way. I'm just
>looking for suggestion and pitfalls... and you have given me a few
>already... thanks.. any other ideas
[old stuff deleted]
------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
Palo Alto, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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