> My best thought so far is having multiple hosts sharing a single /usr over NFS while having per-host root filesystems
HPC systems already have better systems for this sort of thing, e.g. Lmod which is modular.
I don’t think it’s a great idea to have /usr itself on NFS, given that things like /usr/bin/env is in most script shebangs and IMO should be stored locally. On some systems, many potential login shells are also stored in /usr/bin and not /bin.
Though part of me agrees that there are reliability concerns to keep in mind, the other part of me still thinks root on NFS is normal, at which point /usr seems rather minor in comparison:) I suspect some of this is cultural or a result of what you're used to.
HPC systems already have better systems for this sort of thing, e.g. Lmod which is modular.
I don’t think it’s a great idea to have /usr itself on NFS, given that things like /usr/bin/env is in most script shebangs and IMO should be stored locally. On some systems, many potential login shells are also stored in /usr/bin and not /bin.