From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Oct 24 21:18:37 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E58F2106564A for ; Sun, 24 Oct 2010 21:18:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jhs@berklix.com) Received: from tower.berklix.org (tower.berklix.org [83.236.223.114]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 53FD08FC18 for ; Sun, 24 Oct 2010 21:18:36 +0000 (UTC) Received: from park.js.berklix.net (p549A404B.dip.t-dialin.net [84.154.64.75]) (authenticated bits=0) by tower.berklix.org (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id o9OKouv6071076; Sun, 24 Oct 2010 20:50:57 GMT (envelope-from jhs@berklix.com) Received: from fire.js.berklix.net (fire.js.berklix.net [192.168.91.41]) by park.js.berklix.net (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id o9OKoldm006061; Sun, 24 Oct 2010 22:50:49 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from jhs@berklix.com) Received: from fire.js.berklix.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by fire.js.berklix.net (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id o9OKobs8010481; Sun, 24 Oct 2010 22:50:42 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from jhs@fire.js.berklix.net) Message-Id: <201010242050.o9OKobs8010481@fire.js.berklix.net> To: Ahmed Ossama From: "Julian H. Stacey" Organization: http://www.berklix.com BSD Unix Linux Consultancy, Munich Germany User-agent: EXMH on FreeBSD http://www.berklix.com/free/ X-URL: http://www.berklix.com In-reply-to: Your message "Sun, 24 Oct 2010 21:45:36 +0200." <4CC48CE0.4060509@master-zone.net> Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2010 22:50:37 +0200 Sender: jhs@berklix.com Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Administrating more than 10 servers X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2010 21:18:38 -0000 Hi, Reference: > From: Ahmed Ossama > Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2010 21:45:36 +0200 > Message-id: <4CC48CE0.4060509@master-zone.net> Ahmed Ossama wrote: > Hi folks, > > Lately I was put in charge to administrate 12 FreeBSD servers, and I was > wonder what is the best way to > administrate/monitor/follow-up/update/patch these servers such that all > work like a clockwise with each other with the exact same updates? > > I wrote few scripts that notifies me with system failure and updates, > but I want to manage the servers more efficiently. > > Any advice/guide is much appreciated. Some of my hardware hosts answer differently to 'uname -m', also I don't want to have the same 'uname -r' on all hosts, so What I do: Have a site wide directory of common stuff, mastered on one host, & each host has symbolic links into its _local_ copy of /site for stuff that's common, & each host has it own /etc/ & usr/local/etc files for the rest. No central /site on just one host via eg amd+nfs, as that would be a single point of failure/ overload. To replicate /site to all hosts I use rdist6 , (you might prefer eg rsync) both in /usr/ports/net/ It's what suits me, but I'm not claiming it's best for others :-) Cheers, Julian -- Julian Stacey: BSD Unix Linux C Sys Eng Consultants Munich http://berklix.com Mail plain text; Not HTML, quoted-printable & base 64 spam formats. Avoid top posting, it cripples itemised cumulative responses.