From c4154ca4d2b7b2a7bcc266d3f473ff1d247cac9f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Chris St. Pierre" Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:14:43 -0400 Subject: Various Packages plugin fixes: * Added bcfg2-yum-helper to offload Yum API calls to a short-lived process. As absurd as this is, it appears to be the standard way to get around Yum's atrocious memory handling (cf. yum-updatesd). * Added SourceInitError for non-fatal errors instantiating new sources. * Fixed bug that caused all cached data to be removed on server startup (reported by mikemccllstr on IRC). * Fixed a number of overly aggressive caching issues. * Fixed the way sources are loaded at server startup. * Fixed handling of Yum package groups. --- doc/server/plugins/generators/packages.txt | 35 ++++++++++++++++++++++++------ 1 file changed, 28 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-) (limited to 'doc') diff --git a/doc/server/plugins/generators/packages.txt b/doc/server/plugins/generators/packages.txt index 2299da3ee..f49b12a68 100644 --- a/doc/server/plugins/generators/packages.txt +++ b/doc/server/plugins/generators/packages.txt @@ -344,8 +344,11 @@ be validated using ``bcfg2-lint``. Limitations =========== -Packages does not do traditional caching as other plugins do. Changes -to the Packages config file require a server restart for the time being. +Packages does not do traditional caching as other plugins +do. Modifying sources in the Packages ``sources.xml`` file requires a +server restart for the time being. You do not have to restart the +server after changing ``packages.conf`` or after adding new sources to +``sources.xml``. Package Checking and Verification ================================= @@ -415,15 +418,33 @@ Drawbacks include: if you have a lot of repositories. * Resolution of package dependencies is slower in some cases, particularly after running ``Packages.Refresh``. +* If you have a very large number of clients using a very small number + of repositories, using native yum libraries may actually increase + memory usage. + +Configuring the Yum Helper +-------------------------- + +Due to poor memory management by the Yum API, the long-lived +bcfg2-server process uses an external short-lived helper, +``bcfg2-yum-helper``, to do the actual Yum API calls for native yum +library support. By default, Bcfg2 looks for this helper at +``/usr/sbin/bcfg2-yum-helper``. If you have installed the helper +elsewhere, you will need to configure that location with the +``helper`` option in the ``[yum]`` section, e.g.:: + + [yum] + use_yum_libraries = 1 + helper = /usr/local/sbin/bcfg2-yum-helper Setting Yum Options ------------------- In ``Packages/packages.conf``, any options you set in the ``[yum]`` -section other than ``use_yum_libraries`` will be passed along verbatim -to the configuration of the Yum objects used in the Bcfg2 server. The -following options are set by default, and should not generally be -overridden: +section other than ``use_yum_libraries`` and ``helper`` will be passed +along verbatim to the configuration of the Yum objects used in the +Bcfg2 server. The following options are set by default, and should +not generally be overridden: * ``cachedir`` is set to a hashed value unique to each distinct Yum configuration. Don't set this unless you know what you're doing. @@ -466,7 +487,7 @@ necessary to configure a Pulp repo is the repo ID:: Pulp sources require some additional configuration. First, the Bcfg2 server must have a valid ``/etc/pulp/consumer/consumer.conf`` that is -readable by the user your Bcfg2 server runs as; the Pulp server , +readable by the user your Bcfg2 server runs as; the Pulp server, URLs, and so on, are determined from this. Secondly, in ``Packages/packages.conf`` you must set the following -- cgit v1.2.3-1-g7c22