[noctool-devel] compact configurations for identical machines

[William Annis]

 >He brought up that we would really like some sort of "compact 
 >configuration syntax" for systems like we have in our 'viz lab'.  The viz 
 >lab has boxes, named by the crazy Director*, with names like "taro", 
 >"poi", "vino", "macaroni", "dumpling", (and it just goes on ;) .

        It seems like computers are actually a good match for certain
OO concepts.  Create a bunch of profile mixins (OS, machine's main
purpose, etc) and the slam a bunch of machines into appropriate mixes.


(define-machine-class solaris
  (df-command "/bin/df -kl")
  ...)

(define-machine-class condor-host
  (ensure-process "condor_master")
  (ensure-pingable) 
  ...)

(define-monitor-group (solaris condor-host)
  "dedicated solaris condor hosts"
  (hosts "hegel" "kant" "schopenhauer" "wittgenstein"))


Certain kinds of machines of course will always have to be tweaked by
hand, but where you're lucky enough to have groups of basically
identical machines this sort of thing is a big win.  One group on
campus I know of have 1000-host clusters doing a single job on
basically identical hardware.  The only thing you should have to
repeat is the name/address.

--
wm