15.3. The YaST Profile Manager

Start the YaST profile manager via the YaST control center (System+Profile Manager). On first start, explicitly enable SCPM by selecting Enable in the SCPM Options dialog, shown in Figure 15.1, “YaST SCPM Options”. In Settings, determine whether progress pop-ups should be closed automatically and whether to display verbose messages about the progress of your SCPM configuration. For Switch Mode, determine whether modified resources of the active profile should be saved or discarded when the profile is switched. If Switch Mode is set to Normal, all changes in the active profile are saved when switched. To define the behavior of SCPM at boot time, set Boot Mode to Save Changes (default setting) or to Drop Changes.

Figure 15.1. YaST SCPM Options

YaST SCPM Options

15.3.1. Configuring Resource Groups

Figure 15.2. Resource Group Configuration

Resource Group Configuration

To make changes to the current resource configuration, choose Configure Resources in the SCPM Options dialog. The next dialog, Configuration of Resource Groups (shown in Figure 15.2, “Resource Group Configuration”), lists all resource groups available on your system. To add or edit a resource group, specify or modify Resource Group and Description. For an LDAP service, for example, enter ldap as Resource Group and LDAP client service as Description. Then enter the appropriate resources (services, configuration files, or both) or modify the existing ones. Delete those that are not used. To reset the status of the selected resources—discard any changes made to them and return to the initial configuration values—choose Reset Group. Your changes are saved to the active profile.

15.3.2. Creating a New Profile

To create a new profile, click Add in the start dialog (System configuration profile management). In the window that opens, select whether the new profile should be based on the current system configuration (SCPM automatically retrieves the current configuration and writes it to your profile) or on an existing profile. If you use the current system configuration as the base of the new profile, you can mark the new profile as the new active profile. This makes no changes to the old profile and does not start or stop any services.

Provide a name and a short description for the new profile in the following dialog. For SCPM to execute special scripts on a switch of profiles, enter the paths to each executable (see Figure 15.3, “Special Profile Settings”). Refer to Section 15.2.4, “Advanced Profile Settings” for more information. SCPM runs a check for the resources of the new profile. After this test has been successfully completed, the new profile is ready for use.

Figure 15.3. Special Profile Settings

Special Profile Settings

15.3.3. Modifying Existing Profiles

To modify an existing profile, choose Edit in the start dialog (System configuration profile management). Then modify name, description, scripts, and resources according to your needs.

15.3.4. Switching Profiles

To switch profiles, open the profile manager. The active profile is marked with an arrow. Select the profile to which to switch and click Switch to. SCPM checks for new or modified resources and adds them, if necessary.

If a resource has been modified, YaST opens the Confirm Switch dialog. Modified Resource Groups of Active Profile lists all resource groups of the active profile that have been modified but not yet saved to the active profile. Save or Ignore for the currently selected resource group determines whether changes to this resource group should be saved to the active profile or discarded. Alternatively, select each resource and click Details to analyze the changes in detail. This shows a list of all configuration files or executables belonging to this resource group that have been modified. To get a line-by-line comparison of the old and new version, click Show Changes. After having analyzed the changes, decide what to do with them in Action:

Save Resource

Save this resource to the active profile, but leave all other profiles untouched.

Ignore Resource

Leave the active resource untouched. This change is discarded.

Save to All Profiles

Copy the entire configuration of this resource to all other profiles.

Patch All Profiles

Apply only the most recent changes to all profiles.

Save or Ignore All just saves or discards the changes of all resources shown in this dialog.

After confirming the changes to the active profile, leave the Confirm Switch dialog by clicking OK. SCPM then switches to the new profile. While switching, it executes the prestop and poststop scripts of the old profile and the prestart and poststart scripts for the new profile.


SUSE LINUX Administration Guide 9.3