Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 08:57:00 -0800 (PST) From: David Wolfskill <dhw@whistle.com> To: dhw@whistle.com, mike@smith.net.au Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: how to get hardware info Message-ID: <199812021657.IAA12205@pau-amma.whistle.com> In-Reply-To: <199812020448.UAA02671@dingo.cdrom.com>
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>Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 20:48:30 -0800 >From: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au> >What information do you require? I think we've discussed this before; >if I remember correctly I'm not convinced that your justification for >having the information is really particularly useful, and worse the PC >doesn't make it possible to get the information you want in the first >place. Correct on all counts, which is why I was actually trying to avoid re-hashing the issue, but let the original poster know that some of this had been discussed before. Put into a "requirement": I need enough information so that an automated process could generate a shopping list for a relatively unskilled person to be able to obtain the components to replicate a given system, then do so. It is assumed that the boot.flp & installation media, as well as current backups of the system are available. The purpose is for disaster recovery preparedness. Consider, please: we have off-site backups of all the servers & most of the desktops; adding another system to the amanda disklist is anywhere from borderline trivial to an hour's worth of work. Determining the configuration of a machine to the requisite level of detail is (for me) challenging and time-consuming. And tracking those changes is a task that does not scale at all well. I am trying to automate as much of this as possible; doing things manually that computers are able to do automatically isn't my idea of "fun." For comparison, I posted some excerpts -- I really doubt anyone would want the list spammed with the entire thing -- of the output of "sysinfo -level all" from a modest Solaris 2.x (SPARC) system during the previous go-round. Its level of detail is awe-inspiring (or something like that). I'd be happy to do the work to port the code, if I could find out how to get at the information... but the situation you metion in your last comment is, apparently, the killer. More's the pity. david -- David Wolfskill UNIX System Administrator dhw@whistle.com voice: (650) 577-7158 pager: (650) 371-4621 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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