On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 10:54 AM, Aaron Coburn <acob...@amherst.edu> wrote: > Has there been any thought about the installation procedure of the perl code > for VCL? > > The current approach is to manually rename the management node directory to > /usr/local/vcl > > Wouldn't it be better to use a standard Makefile.PL for this? This would > allow the modules to avoid the 'use lib "$FindBin::Bin/..."' constructs, > because the modules would be in perl's @INC path. Furthermore, there are a > number of places where the installation directory is hard-coded > (VCL::Module::OS::Windows) -- that could all be pushed to a configuration > file, written by the Makefile.PL script.
Is there something in the Windows.pm module or are you referring to the package structure in general? I did find /usr/local/vcl being hard-coded in the S99vcld.linux file. This should probably be improved. > It would also allow the vcld script to be installed in a more standard > location (e.g. /usr/local/bin) > > Plus, this would make the code consistent with other CPAN modules. If there > was interest (some time in the future) to make these libraries available on > CPAN, these changes would all be necessary. I thought about adding the VCL backend code to CPAN long ago before it was donated to the ASF. I don't know if this would be possible or advantageous now. I'm very used to developing and running vcld and the Perl modules from a single directory but I can see how using standard locations may make it more straightforward -- especially for Linux pros. Either way, I think an installation mechanism should allow the person installing it to override default locations and also provide additional information. I think a model similar to VMware's standard method of installing things under Linux would work best: -untar the installation files (doesn't matter where) -run vcld-install.pl -answer questions (or press enter to accept defaults) -when the script is done, vcld is up and running > Furthermore, this would make it much easier to build and run a test suite for > the perl code -- ExtUtils already has a structure for supporting this. I have > attached a sample Makefile.PL I like the idea of anything that makes installation easier (and managing the installation scripts). I'll give your Makefile.PL a try. -Andy > > > > This is just a stub, but with a little more work, it could be used to > configure /etc/vcl/vcld.conf and run the various tests that have been listed > below. > > Aaron > > > -- > Aaron Coburn > Systems Administrator and Programmer > Academic Technology Services, Amherst College > (413) 542-5451 acob...@amherst.edu > > > > > > On Jan 13, 2012, at 11:41 AM, Andy Kurth wrote: > >> I like the idea. Other tests which would be useful: >> >> -check VM host license expiration dates >> -check if the network names defined in the VM profile are available on >> the VM hosts >> -check amount of space available for VM host datastores, management >> node repository, and management node volume where vcld.log is being >> written >> -make sure required attributes are defined for VMs such as MAC >> addresses if they are not auto-generated >> -check if time is sychronized on VM hosts, management node, and the >> database server >> -send a test sysadmin email message >> >> The architecture of 'vcld -setup' hasn't been discussed on this list >> so now is a good time to begin. The idea is for vcld to handle all of >> the details so that any module just needs to implement a subroutine >> named 'setup' and it automatically gets added to the menu. This >> allows any module to contain options specific to itself but results in >> a somewhat clunky menu system. >> >> It would be good to have a single menu option where all of the tests >> appear yet still allow each module to implement it's own test code. >> In order to do this, the setup_management_node sub in vcld will need >> to be extended. I had thought about adding something like this in the >> past but never completed it. I was thinking of adding code to vcld to >> look for modules which implement a 'setup_check' subroutine (the same >> way it looks for 'setup') and then put all of these under a single >> menu option. >> >> There are a few bits and pieces to look at in the current code. There >> is a setup_check subroutine in Windows.pm. It simply gets called by >> Windows.pm::setup every time it is run. It only checks if product >> keys have been configured. The Module.pm::setup_test_rpc_xml >> subroutine would be another one that would be part of this. >> >> -Andy >> >> >> On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Aaron Coburn <acob...@amherst.edu> wrote: >>> Hi, Guys, >>> >>> The web front-end to the VCL has a "testsetup.php" script that tests a >>> variety of server settings so that the web code is easier to install. >>> >>> I am wondering if there might be interest in building a similar facility >>> into the vcld -setup script. It seems that many of the questions posed on >>> this (and the users') list relate to misconfigured networks and/or >>> provisioning module components. Clearly, the vcld logfile captures all of >>> this, but even that is often turned over to the list for interpretation. >>> This could be a sort of 'dry run' image capture. >>> >>> So here is a stab at what might be useful for such a script to check. My >>> list will be biased heavily in favor of the VMware provisioning modules, >>> because that's what we use in our installation. And I am assuming that the >>> output would be something easy to understand. >>> >>> Network: >>> 1. can vcld get an IP address from a vmhost 'short name' >>> 2. can vcld get an IP address from a given computer 'short name' >>> 3. can vcld reach to the running VM(s) >>> 4. can vcld reach to the VM host >>> 5. can vcld transfer a file to/from the vm host >>> 6. if the image library is enabled, is that accessible >>> >>> Computer: >>> 1. is cygwin installed and sshd running (for Windows) >>> 2. can vcld login successfully >>> 3. does the computer have network access >>> 4. do the computer's MAC addresses match what is expected in the database >>> >>> VM Host: >>> 1. can vcld login to the vm host >>> 2. are the paths listed in vmprofile available in the vmhost infrastructure >>> 3. are certain utilities and/or commands available to vcld from inside the >>> vmhost (i.e. copy virtual disk, create a vm, etc.) >>> >>> etc, etc. >>> >>> Thoughts? >>> >>> >>> Aaron >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Aaron Coburn >>> Systems Administrator and Programmer >>> Academic Technology Services, Amherst College >>> (413) 542-5451 acob...@amherst.edu >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> > >
