TC as a monitoring proxy

[errorsmith]

Hi

(some of my qustions would better fit the TCE section but I didn't want to create two nearly identical threads.)

I used to use TC as OS for diskless clients / thin clients for some time now and liked it very much. As for now, every need I had was fullfilled with the huge amount of ready-made extensions the TC-repository provides.

Now I have been given the task to set up a network monitoring system for my employer. We plan to use "Zabbix" (http://www.zabbix.com/).
One of the features we need to use is the distribution of proxy-nodes at remote locations, so we can keep an eye on the servers there.

My plan is now to "refurbish" unused thin clients (Intel Atom 1.6GHz, 512MiB Memory, 2GiB mSSD, GBit ethernet) as proxy-nodes.
I want to create an Image wich almost ready to use, so the user only needs to install it, configure hostname and IP adress and can deploy the node at the location where it is needed. This would need the zabbix_agentd, zabbix_proxy and mariadb-server or mysql-server as a requirement. A (very small) php capable webserver would be a bonus but isn't really needed.

Unfortunatly as far as I can see, there are no ready-made extensions for the agent and the proxydaemon and so I have some questions:

- what is needed to build these two applications as extension to pre-install them on the image?
- I don't want to have the buildtools / dependencies on the image to save space, so what do I need to create a build-system?
- Is it possible to create a ready-made Image one can copy to the client using, lets say "dd image.bin > /dev/sda"?
- what is needed to create said image?
- can I create a custom made TC installtion wich only has the needed packages installed as I don't need a GUI and related applications but only a shell, sshd and the above mentioned packages.
- If I'm successful in creating the extensions, is there any interest to include them into the TC repository?


with kind regards,
errorsmith

[Juanito]

what is needed to build these two applications as extension to pre-install them on the image?

the compiletc extension and the *-dev extensions for your applications to build, then see the re-mastering section of the wiki for pre-installation.

- I don't want to have the buildtools / dependencies on the image to save space, so what do I need to create a build-system?

see above

- can I create a custom made TC installtion wich only has the needed packages installed as I don't need a GUI and related applications but only a shell, sshd and the above mentioned packages.

yes, using remastering

- If I'm successful in creating the extensions, is there any interest to include them into the TC repository?

yes, see the extensions section of the wiki

[errorsmith]

Thank you very much for your reply!
I will check the according wiki sections, from a first look at it, it looks like all my qustions are covered there but one:

Is it possible to create a ready to boot harddisk image wich can installed on about 20 or 30 identical computers just by copying it onto the harddisk using dd?
I plan to boot the thin client from a pen drive wich contains a small tc installtion, the image and a script wich copies the image onto the harddisk. This is imho the fastest way to install a number of identical devices.

with kind regards
errorsmith

[Juanito]

yes - it's already been done, so if you search the forums, you'll probably find how to do it.

[errorsmith]

okay, thank you very much again, i will see if I can get it to work.

regards,
errorsmith