Puppet users - Mar 2013 - Managing CentOS package versions with Puppet

I''ve been designing the infrastructure for a new team using CentOS 6
and Puppet.  I''m still learning Puppet, but thought I had things pretty
well under control.  After this week, I''m beginning to wonder… :-)

In the last week I''ve had versions of three packages disappear from the
yum repositories I''m using.  Since I''m trying to install
specific versions of packages with Puppet, this is a problem.  The most recent
one that just turned up this morning is kernel-devel.  I have the following
resource defined in one of my Puppet manifests:

    package {"kernel-devel-${::kernelrelease}":
        alias => ''kernel-devel'',
    }

I''m trying to ensure that I''ve got the kernel-devel package
installed that matches the kernel I''m currently using.  I naively
assumed that once a package was made available via the official CentOS mirrors
that it would never disappear.  That doesn''t appear to be the case.  I
the kernel-2.6.32-279.19.1.el6.x86_64 package installed. 
kernel-devel-2.6.32-279.19.1.el6.x86_64 is gone, apparently replaced with
kernel-devel-2.6.32-358.0.1.el6.x86_64.  I have a couple of other packages that
have given me problems, too, namely ngircd which was upgraded from 18 to 20.1.

How do I manage this problem?  Do I need to maintain my own mirrors?  That seems
like a horrible solution.  Is there another CentOS repository I should be using?
Am I just going about this all wrong?

Thanks,
Brian

--
Brian Lalor
blalor@bravo5.org


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If you want to ensure specific versions of packages, then yes, creating 
your own repo with the desired package is the best way to do it. It gives 
you absolute control over what your clients see, and It''s fairly simple
as
well. You also get to omit the version numbers from your package 
declaration up there. Just make sure to exclude the packages you mirror 
from the normal repos, so they don''t get updated anyway.

There''s not really anything horrible about it, if you''ve
already admitted
to wanting out of date packages. :)

On Sunday, March 10, 2013 9:49:42 AM UTC-7, blalor
wrote:
>
> I''ve been designing the infrastructure for a new team using CentOS
6 and
> Puppet.  I''m still learning Puppet, but thought I had things
pretty well
> under control.  After this week, I''m beginning to wonder… :-) 
>
> In the last week I''ve had versions of three packages disappear
from the
> yum repositories I''m using.  Since I''m trying to install
specific versions
> of packages with Puppet, this is a problem.  The most recent one that just 
> turned up this morning is kernel-devel.  I have the following resource 
> defined in one of my Puppet manifests: 
>
>     package {"kernel-devel-${::kernelrelease}": 
>         alias => ''kernel-devel'', 
>     } 
>
> I''m trying to ensure that I''ve got the kernel-devel
package installed that
> matches the kernel I''m currently using.  I naively assumed that
once a
> package was made available via the official CentOS mirrors that it would 
> never disappear.  That doesn''t appear to be the case.  I the 
> kernel-2.6.32-279.19.1.el6.x86_64 package installed. 
>  kernel-devel-2.6.32-279.19.1.el6.x86_64 is gone, apparently replaced with 
> kernel-devel-2.6.32-358.0.1.el6.x86_64.  I have a couple of other packages 
> that have given me problems, too, namely ngircd which was upgraded from 18 
> to 20.1. 
>
> How do I manage this problem?  Do I need to maintain my own mirrors?  That 
> seems like a horrible solution.  Is there another CentOS repository I 
> should be using?  Am I just going about this all wrong? 
>
> Thanks, 
> Brian 
>
> -- 
> Brian Lalor 
> bla...@bravo5.org <javascript:> 
>
>
>
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It''s really more about repeatability and consistency. I trust the
packagers to make reliable packages, not to do testing of the upstream software.
They should be treated as you would libraries for your software dependencies.

--
Brian Lalor
blalor@bravo5.org

On Mar 10, 2013, at 4:18 PM, Ellison Marks <gtyaoi@gmail.com> wrote:
> If you want to ensure specific versions of packages, then yes, creating
your own repo with the desired package is the best way to do it. It gives you
absolute control over what your clients see, and It''s fairly simple as
well. You also get to omit the version numbers from your package declaration up
there. Just make sure to exclude the packages you mirror from the normal repos,
so they don''t get updated anyway.
> 
> There''s not really anything horrible about it, if you''ve
already admitted to wanting out of date packages. :)
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On 03/10/2013 09:44 PM, Brian Lalor wrote:
> It''s really more about repeatability and consistency. I trust the
packagers
 > to make reliable packages, not to do testing of the upstream software.
 >  They should be treated as you would libraries for your software 
dependencies.

Actually, CentOS does behave that way.

What you observed is minor version bump. Your kernel is from CentOS 6.3 
while new devel package you mention is from CentOS 6.4

You should lock yum to version 6.3 via switching to vault.centos.org if 
you want to stay on 6.3 otherwise all your official CentOS yum repos are 
automatically switched to 6.4 in the second CentOS pushes out 6.4.



-- 
Jakov Sosic
www.srce.unizg.hr

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Thank you, Jakov. This link[1] explains the process. I should be able to use
vault to augment the current release, allowing me access to the older packages.

[1]:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070821231316/http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2005-June/007570.html

--
Brian Lalor
blalor@bravo5.org

On Mar 10, 2013, at 7:26 PM, Jakov Sosic <jsosic@srce.hr> wrote:
> What you observed is minor version bump. Your kernel is from CentOS 6.3
while new devel package you mention is from CentOS 6.4
> 
> You should lock yum to version 6.3 via switching to vault.centos.org if you
want to stay on 6.3 otherwise all your official CentOS yum repos are
automatically switched to 6.4 in the second CentOS pushes out 6.4.
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