Les Mikesell lesmikesell@gmail.com wrote:
I provide the QA people with a machine with the latest updates and when they say everything works I try to duplicate those updates into the production boxes. As you imply, this is something nearly everyone has to do, so I find it surprising that the package management tools don't give you a simple way to do it.
??? Have you actually tried building a YUM repository ??? It's pretty straight-forward.
And you can get your package list from RPM. A quick diff makes it cake.
Also note that there are as many risks in waiting for testing and QA approval as not and you have to balance
them.
I'm confused. You're setting up a system, then duplicating the same packages. How would maintaining a YUM repository internally be any different?
I typically maintain 3. 1. Rsync of the latest packates from an external source 2. Packages under test 3. Packages designated as production
Using rsync, yum and a few other tools (including RCS ci/co/diff), I find it rather simplistic and easy to do.
So, I consider the 'real' test to be the first small set of of production boxes that are updated after QA's blessing and watch for problems before rolling out to the rest.
Then maintain such a repository separate from the others.