[Linux-cluster] Set up Satellite on notebook/laptop or server?

[Mark Watts]

On Thursday 29 January 2009 14:51:39 sunhux G wrote:
> Hi,
>
>
> We're exploring to get Satellite for ease of patching the Linux servers.
>
> The recommendation from Redhat is to have at least 200Gb disk space,
> 2Gb RAM.
>
> As the largest server (SCSI) disk available is only 146Gb, I thought of
> setting up Satellite on a notebook instead (as there's larger disks
> available
> for notebook).
>
> My colleagues/manager prefer a server but of course this means setting up
> RAID 0 (or RAID 0+1) to obtain larger disks.
>
> Does anyone has any comments as to the pros & cons of setting up
> Satellite on a notebook vs on a server?  I was told notebook/laptop is less
> reliable but we're taking an Acronis backup as and when there's changes
> or new patches/updates being loaded into the Satellite, so risks of a
> crashed satellite is mitigated.
>
> What's the largest disk available on a notebook/laptop?
>
> My idea of setting up Satellite on a notebook is that I could bring the
> notebook
> around to connect it up to various subnets (or even to a another datacentre
> at
> a remote location) to patch the Linux servers without the hassle of opening
> up
> firewall rules and sharing of satellite between different locations.
>
> Any issue (legal of technical) with just changing the IP address of the
> Satellite
> server as & when I need to connect it up to a different subnet?
>
>
> What are the various hardware people knew have been used to host Satellite?
>
>
> Thanks
> U

We're currently using Satellite 5.0.2 on a fairly meaty Dell server (8GB ram, 
800GB raid-5 disk, 4 cpu).
To my mind this server is massivly over-spec'd for the job its doing, and 
spends most of its time idle.

/var/satellite is taking up 80GB (we have RHEL4 AS and ES 32bit, RHEL5 32bit 
and RHEL5 64bit)
/rhnsat (the database) is only 6.5GB, although we don't have that many servers 
(~20)

A quick check on the Dell website reveals the Precision M6400 Mobile 
Workstation, which take upto 16GB ram, a Quad-core cpu and upto two 500GB 
disks.
This type of laptop would be perfect for a mobile satellite IMHO, although 
it'll probably be more expensive than a server for long-term use.

Mark.

-- 
Mark Watts BSc RHCE MBCS
Senior Systems Engineer
QinetiQ Applied Technologies
GPG Key: http://www.linux-corner.info/mwatts.gpg
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 197 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part.
URL: <http://listman.redhat.com/archives/linux-cluster/attachments/20090129/73259cb5/attachment.sig>