Building Rolls

ROCKS includes the roll mechanism for packaging software for distribution. A detailed developer guide is available, it contains all the info I needed to build a roll, see http://www.rocksclusters.org/roll-documentation/developers-guide/5.4.3/

Any configuration needed on a ROCKS frontend or client can be handled via the roll mechanisms. Some things, particularly changes to the frontend may require frontend reboots during the roll install/activation. However, the roll mechanism does provide a way to easily add and remove client software packages to the frontend. Rolls are a way to modularize and thereby reduce the complexity of managing complex client configurations.

Building rolls is highly automated by tools included in ROCKS, and I found the process to "just work". However, I was surprised by a couple features.

Example of Packaging Client Software in a Roll

-- TomRockwell - 17 Mar 2012