What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?
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@scottalanmiller said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@coliver said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
Ansible or kickstart files could go a long way to automating the process. So if you ever have to deploy more its just dropping it into the environment without touching it again.
I am planning on using ansible for configuration management, didn't know I could deploy to fisical hardware with it.
Well you don't. You deploy a stock base image of the OS. But you just do a normal deployment or a minorly modified one with the Ansible setup in it. Then Ansible does the rest.
It's a really cool system and is super powerful. Someone (@stacksofplates maybe?) has this in production.
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@scottalanmiller said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@coliver said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
Ansible or kickstart files could go a long way to automating the process. So if you ever have to deploy more its just dropping it into the environment without touching it again.
I am planning on using ansible for configuration management, didn't know I could deploy to fisical hardware with it.
Well you don't. You deploy a stock base image of the OS. But you just do a normal deployment or a minorly modified one with the Ansible setup in it. Then Ansible does the rest.
Well that is my question, what is the best way to deploy the image to the hardware
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@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@scottalanmiller said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@coliver said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
Ansible or kickstart files could go a long way to automating the process. So if you ever have to deploy more its just dropping it into the environment without touching it again.
I am planning on using ansible for configuration management, didn't know I could deploy to fisical hardware with it.
Well you don't. You deploy a stock base image of the OS. But you just do a normal deployment or a minorly modified one with the Ansible setup in it. Then Ansible does the rest.
Well that is my question, what is the best way to deploy the image to the hardware
For that part, just Clonezilla or FOG.
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@scottalanmiller said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
What distro is this going to be?
Its going to be Ubuntu Mate
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$5000 a year for Ansible and a 100 device minimum?
What is this madness?
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@Breffni-Potter said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
$5000 a year for Ansible and a 100 device minimum?
What is this madness?
That is Ansible Tower
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@coliver said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
Ansible or kickstart files could go a long way to automating the process. So if you ever have to deploy more its just dropping it into the environment without touching it again.
Can I use Kickstart with Debian base distros?
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@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@Breffni-Potter said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
$5000 a year for Ansible and a 100 device minimum?
What is this madness?
That is Ansible Tower
I only found Ansible Tower on page 2 of Google.
They've got really bad SEO.Where can I find Ansible as an item?
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@Breffni-Potter said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
$5000 a year for Ansible and a 100 device minimum?
What is this madness?
Ansible is free. Tower is expensive.
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@Breffni-Potter said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@Breffni-Potter said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
$5000 a year for Ansible and a 100 device minimum?
What is this madness?
That is Ansible Tower
I only found Ansible Tower on page 2 of Google.
They've got really bad SEO.Where can I find Ansible as an item?
Google "Ansible" and it is the first hit:
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https://www.ansible.com/get-started
Don't go on to the Tower steps, just stop with the Ansible ones.
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https://docs.ansible.com/ They separate both in the docs.
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@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@coliver said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
Ansible or kickstart files could go a long way to automating the process. So if you ever have to deploy more its just dropping it into the environment without touching it again.
Can I use Kickstart with Debian base distros?
Debian has preseed and I've never used it. Kickstarts are great because you can do a lot with your post install. It's essentially a big shell script. So you can update, configure users, make config backups, etc.
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@stacksofplates said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@coliver said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
Ansible or kickstart files could go a long way to automating the process. So if you ever have to deploy more its just dropping it into the environment without touching it again.
Can I use Kickstart with Debian base distros?
Debian has preseed and I've never used it. Kickstarts are great because you can do a lot with your post install. It's essentially a big shell script. So you can update, configure users, make config backups, etc.
Is it worth to learn about preseeding in this case or using something like Clonezilla would be better in your opinion @stacksofplates
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@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@stacksofplates said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@coliver said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
Ansible or kickstart files could go a long way to automating the process. So if you ever have to deploy more its just dropping it into the environment without touching it again.
Can I use Kickstart with Debian base distros?
Debian has preseed and I've never used it. Kickstarts are great because you can do a lot with your post install. It's essentially a big shell script. So you can update, configure users, make config backups, etc.
Is it worth to learn about preseeding in this case or using something like Clonezilla would be better in your opinion @stacksofplates
That's a tough one. I really know nothing about preseeds. However, if I had to make a guess, I would think it would be much easier to use those than to Clonezilla everything. Preseeds would allow you to have different configs for different systems. I can't imagine using Clonezilla for 30 machines. I can do 30 machines at once with kickstart configs (using pxe). Using a disk, I can start the kickstart on one machine, and then take the same disk and go to the next machine, etc.
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@stacksofplates said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@stacksofplates said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@coliver said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
Ansible or kickstart files could go a long way to automating the process. So if you ever have to deploy more its just dropping it into the environment without touching it again.
Can I use Kickstart with Debian base distros?
Debian has preseed and I've never used it. Kickstarts are great because you can do a lot with your post install. It's essentially a big shell script. So you can update, configure users, make config backups, etc.
Is it worth to learn about preseeding in this case or using something like Clonezilla would be better in your opinion @stacksofplates
That's a tough one. I really know nothing about preseeds. However, if I had to make a guess, I would think it would be much easier to use those than to Clonezilla everything. Preseeds would allow you to have different configs for different systems. I can't imagine using Clonezilla for 30 machines. I can do 30 machines at once with kickstart configs (using pxe). Using a disk, I can start the kickstart on one machine, and then take the same disk and go to the next machine, etc.
I'll try to research more about preseeds then, by the way using Clonezilla SE you can PXE the image to several computers at the same time.
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@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@stacksofplates said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@stacksofplates said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@coliver said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
Ansible or kickstart files could go a long way to automating the process. So if you ever have to deploy more its just dropping it into the environment without touching it again.
Can I use Kickstart with Debian base distros?
Debian has preseed and I've never used it. Kickstarts are great because you can do a lot with your post install. It's essentially a big shell script. So you can update, configure users, make config backups, etc.
Is it worth to learn about preseeding in this case or using something like Clonezilla would be better in your opinion @stacksofplates
That's a tough one. I really know nothing about preseeds. However, if I had to make a guess, I would think it would be much easier to use those than to Clonezilla everything. Preseeds would allow you to have different configs for different systems. I can't imagine using Clonezilla for 30 machines. I can do 30 machines at once with kickstart configs (using pxe). Using a disk, I can start the kickstart on one machine, and then take the same disk and go to the next machine, etc.
I'll try to research more about preseeds then, by the way using Clonezilla SE you can PXE the image to several computers at the same time.
True, but how do you set hostnames, IP addresses, etc?
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@stacksofplates said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@stacksofplates said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@stacksofplates said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@coliver said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
Ansible or kickstart files could go a long way to automating the process. So if you ever have to deploy more its just dropping it into the environment without touching it again.
Can I use Kickstart with Debian base distros?
Debian has preseed and I've never used it. Kickstarts are great because you can do a lot with your post install. It's essentially a big shell script. So you can update, configure users, make config backups, etc.
Is it worth to learn about preseeding in this case or using something like Clonezilla would be better in your opinion @stacksofplates
That's a tough one. I really know nothing about preseeds. However, if I had to make a guess, I would think it would be much easier to use those than to Clonezilla everything. Preseeds would allow you to have different configs for different systems. I can't imagine using Clonezilla for 30 machines. I can do 30 machines at once with kickstart configs (using pxe). Using a disk, I can start the kickstart on one machine, and then take the same disk and go to the next machine, etc.
I'll try to research more about preseeds then, by the way using Clonezilla SE you can PXE the image to several computers at the same time.
True, but how do you set hostnames, IP addresses, etc?
Ip addresses won't be trouble since my machines are using dhcp but hostnames indeed would be trouble. I have been reading that I am going to need to use a simple kickstart file plus the preseed file in order to deploy debian based distros.
How are different hostnames set when using kickstart?
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@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@stacksofplates said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@stacksofplates said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@stacksofplates said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@Romo said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
@coliver said in What is the best way to deploy Linux desktops?:
Ansible or kickstart files could go a long way to automating the process. So if you ever have to deploy more its just dropping it into the environment without touching it again.
Can I use Kickstart with Debian base distros?
Debian has preseed and I've never used it. Kickstarts are great because you can do a lot with your post install. It's essentially a big shell script. So you can update, configure users, make config backups, etc.
Is it worth to learn about preseeding in this case or using something like Clonezilla would be better in your opinion @stacksofplates
That's a tough one. I really know nothing about preseeds. However, if I had to make a guess, I would think it would be much easier to use those than to Clonezilla everything. Preseeds would allow you to have different configs for different systems. I can't imagine using Clonezilla for 30 machines. I can do 30 machines at once with kickstart configs (using pxe). Using a disk, I can start the kickstart on one machine, and then take the same disk and go to the next machine, etc.
I'll try to research more about preseeds then, by the way using Clonezilla SE you can PXE the image to several computers at the same time.
True, but how do you set hostnames, IP addresses, etc?
Ip addresses won't be trouble since my machines are using dhcp but hostnames indeed would be trouble. I have been reading that I am going to need to use a simple kickstart file plus the preseed file in order to deploy debian based distros.
How are different hostnames set when using kickstart?
They are assigned in the kickstart config for each machine. What we did was write a bash script that takes the hostnames, IPs, disk sizes, etc from a table, adds the package list and post install script and generates the kickstart config from that. Then when you boot the machine from the disc, you give it the http address of the kickstart config and it pulls everything in and starts imaging. It takes about 15 mins to kickstart a workstation. Less for the server since they're minimal.
