Central Repository - File Distribution Question (AIX)

What are other AIX sites using to keep scripts, cron jobs, printer
definitions, etc. in-sync across multiple LPARs? We have 10 LPARs right
now, not counting a NIM server which has yet to be built.

When I've asked in other fora, about the only response I got involved
RSYNC. We don't want to deal with NFS on that scale, so I'm looking for
something uses RSH, SSH, RCP, SCP or ??? instead (preferably some SSL
implementaion).

The Central Repository could be on Windows or UN*X - doesn't matter to
us.

Anyone have any ideas?

David J Dachtera
Technical Analyst
Northwestern Memorial Hospital
Chicago, IL

P.S.: I'm a long-time VMS jock returning to UN*X after 22 years.
Apologies for any improper/unfamiliar terminology, etc.

On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:59:29 -0500,
David J Dachtera wrote:
> When I've asked in other fora, about the only response I got involved
> RSYNC. We don't want to deal with NFS on that scale, so I'm looking for
> something uses RSH, SSH, RCP, SCP or ??? instead (preferably some SSL
> implementaion).

Look up what rsync[1] does. It is described[2] as:

rsync is a replacement for rcp that has many more features.

And indeed it can use ssh as the transport.

Further, you could take looks at cfengine and arusha/ark[3], but
you might equally well put all config files in one of various SCM
systems[4][5]. There are, in short, quite a few options around.

What sort of use cases are you thinking of?


[1] http://rsync.samba.org/
[2] Taken from my copy of the FreeBSD ports collection.
[3] Named after the place/airport code, it's also software.
[4] And for this purpose RCS or CVS might do very well as /etc tends
to be full of not-quite-related files and small file collections.
[5] Or use one specialised for system configuration files.

--
j p d (at) d s b (dot) t u d e l f t (dot) n l .
This message was originally posted on Usenet in plain text.
Any other representation, additions, or changes do not have my
consent and may be a violation of international copyright law.

David J Dachtera writes:

> What are other AIX sites using to keep scripts, cron jobs, printer
> definitions, etc. in-sync across multiple LPARs? We have 10 LPARs right
> now, not counting a NIM server which has yet to be built.
>
> When I've asked in other fora, about the only response I got involved
> RSYNC.


What you seem to want is

rsync -e ssh source/path user-at-remotehost:destination/path


Uses ssh as the transport mechanism, with the efficiency of rsync
such that you only transfer the stuff that changed.

rsync is available for all *nix, and also for windows under Cygwin.


--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/