[CentOS] package 'synchronization' for multiple systems

Thu Feb 7 19:32:48 UTC 2008
mouss <mouss at netoyen.net>

Tim Alberts wrote:
> I'm setting up multiple systems and ideally I want the same package 
> configuration on all of them.  So I'm going through yum and rpm 
> queries manually to try and get this done.  There must be a better 
> way.  Is there a way to use yum or rpm to configure multiple systems 
> with the same packages?
>
> If yum or rpm has something native built into it to do this, that 
> would be great.  If there's some scripts to simplify some tasks that 
> works too.
>
> I've used webmin's 'Cluster Software Package' module, and will 
> probably fall back to it.  However I don't think I get the info that 
> yum gives regarding package grouping and what packages are part of 
> what capabilities.  Gotta query elsewhere for it.  (no disrespect to 
> webmin folks, great tool)

what I did was to build a meta-package that depends on the packages I 
want, and put it on a local yum repository. then used yum on each 
machine to install the meta-package or to update it (if new software 
needs to be added). Of course, make sure to test everything before you 
put it on production machines.

In fact, yum is not needed here. you can also setup a script on web 
server, then on each machine, a small script downloads said script and 
runs it.

wget $your_url/your_script.sh
#/path/check_script_safety.sh
chmod u+x your_script.sh
./your_script.sh

(security controls and error handling left to you...).