[csw-maintainers] Bugreport on alternatives with NFS-shared /opt/csw

[Philip Brown]

On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 2:07 AM, Dagobert Michelsen <dam at opencsw.org> wrote:
> Hi Phil,
>
> Am 22.03.2010 um 22:23 schrieb Philip Brown:
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 1:47 PM, Dagobert Michelsen <dam at opencsw.org>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> This sucks as it is in direct opposition to sparse zones.
>>
>> Could you remind us as to how, please?
>
> Sparse-Zones: Must keep configuration in /etc/opt/csw, must not modify
> /opt/csw/etc
> NFS-Shared: Must keep configuration in /opt/csw/etc, /etc/opt/csw ingored

I think you both overstate, and understate, in BOTH cases.

For example, BOTH installation types technically have the "must not
modify /opt/csw/etc" restriction to the same degree.
Yet both have essentially the same leewway, in that usually global
admin can in each case, tweak a config file in /opt/csw/etc, either on
"the NFS server", or "the global zone".

Additionally, there are sub-cases for "sparse zones", and
configuration preferences for an admin will be different across these
cases.
Perhaps for future reference, you might put the section I am about to
write, in a wiki page somewhere, and expand on it as needed:

NFS-shared:
  Can have "global" configuration in /opt/csw/etc.
  MAY pay attention to /etc/opt/csw, for machine-local override configuration

 Sparse zones:
    case 1: Multiple quasi-identical zones on a machine, where zones
are separated solely
       for purposes of resource management. All packages added at
global zone only.
        sparse "root", and sparse "/opt/csw"
        Admins will prefer to do all configuration on the global zone.
        configuration then PREFERRED to be "global" in /opt/csw/etc,
as per NFS-shared.
   case 2:  sparse "root", but local /opt/csw.
         Zones can be considered as almost completely separate hosts
for our purposes,
         with the one exception of /usr/sadm/install/scripts.
         Doesnt matter whether config is in either directory in theory.
   case 3: similar to case 2, but administrator is only a "child zone"
administrator, and
        has little to no control over the global zone.
  case 4: similar to #1: sparse root AND sparse /opt/csw, but each
zone may or may not
         have individual per-zone tweaks to config, in which case,
/etc/opt/csw will be
         used heavily.

   How about (as Secretary of the organization :) you start a poll to
ask people who used zones, which configuration they tend to use?
Without that data, I dont think we can accurately make assumptions
about "(This) is more useful to our customers than (that)"