Cloning software

[Brian McKee]

> > Which will be simplest way to install and maintain same set of
> > software on large number of PCs. Is there anything like "kick start"
> > of RedHat, which make installation on various PCs simple, you need not
> > to give same answer again and again on all PCs.
> >
> > I wish to make one PC as "Master" and all other slave. If I install or
> > remove some software from Master, all slave should do same
> > automatically (may be within 24 hours). How can I achieve this?


There's a couple of different options and approaches here...

There is a tool that takes your currently installed packages and feeds
it back to the installer.
Don't have the name handy - sorry - synaptic search for dpkg or
kickstart might find it.

If you actually want a clone, not just the same packages installed try
mondorescue, partimage etc then you just restore the same image on
each drive.

If you want the replicating configuration master-slave thing see
cfengine http://www.cfengine.org/

We do it all with scripts and remote shell access :-)

HTH
Brian