Hi All,

I'm using RHEL4 i386 and I'm creating template servers.
The problem I'm having is related to changes being made to the rpm packages installed.

I'd like to have a cron job that keeps track of the installed packages on a given date and to be able to restore the installed packages or rpm database back to that point in time.

It is possible to do this with Ubuntu by doing a:
crontab -> dpkg --get-selections > /tmp/dpkglist[date].txt
to get a list of installed packages

and then a:
dpkg --set-selections < /tmp/dpkglist[date].txt
to restore these packages.

In Redhat, I know I can backup the /var/lib/rpm directory but I don't understand how the rpm database really works if I needed to get back to a system state in time. I.e process to install/remove all packages to achieve a given snapshot state.


Is there a way to achieve the above?

DM

Date IMHO is easiest to work with when converted to epoch. Luckily 'rpm --qf' allows that format so selecting by grepping for epoch should be fast and workable: list packages with --qf format %name and %epoch; awk /epoch/ print name; use list of names as input for reinstall/restore.


Restoring could mean reinstalling or rollback: be aware rollback must be enabled *before* packages are updated and reinstalling could require use of --force. Whatever you want to do it is possible but the question is what the *reason* for restore is (config fsck ups, pristine state testing, et cetera) and what its scope is ("rpm -g someGroup", few packages, whole system). Answering that could make it easier to find a solution.

Thanks for the response unSpawn.

The restore reason is most like "pristine state testing".
As I am building a template server, I want to have a basic system without the following:
X window(s), Multi-media programs, printer support, GUI programs, any utility/application that I will never use.


If the template is to be deployed as a webserver or a mailserver, a script will install a bunch of relevant packages and if something goes wrong, I need to get back to a clean system state.

I've never used the RPM/up2date roll-back facilities before and I found very little on the Web about rolling back packages/snapshots.



Did you mean fu*k-ups or FileSystem ChecK ups?

Then wouldn't automated Kickstart install be more efficient?


You pretty well know what I mean: SNAFU, basically.

Look into SystemImager if you need a template type system when you want to revert back, etc.