Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucsd!nosc!peanuts!dennis
From: dennis@peanuts (Dennis Cottel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: RAI problems
Message-ID: <1946@nosc.NOSC.MIL>
Date: 27 Feb 90 20:34:15 GMT
References: <9002270422.AA02911@icaen.uiowa.edu>
Sender: nobody@nosc.NOSC.MIL
Lines: 38

Among other complaints about Apollo's installation tools,
dbfunk@icaen.uiowa.edu (David B Funk) writes:

>     It is not easy to maintain a heavily customized system in the face of that
> steam-roller called RAI. It will mash ACLs, wipe out customized system
> configuration files, and play general havoc with a carefully distributed system
> of links.  ...
> "cfgsa" & "config" are totally inadequate, they
> only let you answer those few questions that the creator of the product saw
> fit to provide you with. If you don't fit in that general mold, then you
> are out of luck. 

I heartily agree with David, here.  We have just begun converting from
SR9.7 to SR10.2 and I was extremely disappointed with RAI.  Having read
the glossies on the Super Installation Tools (I should know better by
now), what I thought we were going to get was a truly useful toolset
which would allow the system manager to tailor the exact configuration
of each node in the network.  Further, this tool could be used at any
time to run a check to verify that the node contained exactly the
configuration specified by its configuration file.

In fact, as David points out, you get no more configurability than
someone at Apollo thought you needed.  There is no way to finely tune
the installation by telling exactly which files should be links and
which should be local copies.  For instance, the DPCE installation
doesn't even allow you to create links to the binaries -- you either
load it on the disk or you can't use it.

So, as before, we are left with no ability to automatically install a
node; first we do the install using some generic configuration file,
then we go through a long check list of items: "delete this, make a
link to there, copy this from the admin node, ...".  And no way to
verify anything.  Rats.  As far as I am concerned as a system manager
and user, Apollo wasted their time developing RAI.  The tools may help
application developers but are of no benefit to the rest of us.

   Dennis Cottel, dennis@NOSC.MIL, (619) 553-1645  
   Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego, CA  92152