"Stateless Linux" project

Erik LaBianca erik at totalcirculation.com
Tue Sep 14 14:31:49 UTC 2004


> 
> Hi,
> 
> Red Hat engineering is starting a new project we're calling
> "stateless Linux" for lack of a better name - some components of this
> are already in Rawhide, and others will be appearing shortly.
> 
> Appreciate feedback, especially from anyone who has time to try out
> the HOWTO. We expect the code to change quite a bit as issues and
> suggestions come in.
> 
> Havoc
> 

I too am thrilled to see this happening. It's this sort of technology
that has the potential to give linux a solid leg up on the competition
for both the desktop and the server. 

I have a couple of questions. 

1. Do I need to be running rawhide to test out the read-only root rpms
and the HOWTO?

2. Configuration management. I've been trying to extract my
configuration from running systems for a while now, but not really been
entirely successful. Typically the list of files to "watch" gets
unwieldy, or someone forgets to make the .orig file, or commit to cvs. I
think ideally a configuration management system would integrate rpm (to
know what files are config files) and cvs/subversion (to provide
revision control) in such a way that you have revision controlled
configuration files available off-system. 

In a truly stateless system, you could just export all the config files
from CVS into the ramdisk on bootup.

I'd REALLY like to be able to edit files on a "live" system, and type a
command to "check in" my changes. I'd like to be able to use the same
system to show my the change history for a given file, and to ease
forward migration. 

Is this sort of thing within the scope of this project?

3. I'd like to recommend looking at including the linux-vserver [1]
patches and tools with the OS distribution for server-side applications.
All the aforementioned technology would be an ideal fit in virtual
servers, and the ability to keep all your "logical servers" in virtual
sandboxes makes testing and deployment in smaller environments much
easier. 

Statelessness would make virtual servers far more efficient, since you
could run them all off the same physical filesystem instead of making
hard link trees. 

I'm already close to running "stateless servers" just by keeping them in
virtual machines, where I can shut them down and rsync them to a
different physical machine without leaving my desk.

Thanks

--erik


[1] http://www.linux-vserver.net/





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