On Wed, 23 Apr 2003, Carroll, Jim P [Contractor] wrote: > I've been meaning to do something along these lines for some time now. > I like the idea; indeed, the general concepts are espoused on > www.infrastructures.org, but it's nice to see a specific HOWTO document, > even if it's more specific to a Linux solution. > > BTW, is there anyplace one can find a cfengine RPM? Well, google turns a mdk rpm on rpmfind and elsewhere, but I assume you found that. I (we) used to use cfengine some years ago, but then pretty much stopped. The problem that it solved was mostly system inhomogeneity -- dealing with multiple slightly different systems in a network. Those same problems can also be solved with common scripting languages -- perl, python, /bin/sh -- and sysadmins are likely to be more familiar with those tools. In our environment we solve them by also eliminating as much as humanly possible of the heterogeneity that made such a tool useful. ALL our systems run RH linux, stable. ALL our systems use NIS for core DB's and use the same core DB's. ALL our systems install from dhcp/kickstart, and do %post configuration with a (fairly simple and obvious) shell script, not cfe (which would require one to learn yasl to operate). We use yum to maintain software from an rpm base, and rpm's have their own %post to manage install and deinstall automagically. We use syslog-ng to watch all the systems on a centralized system and have simple watchdogs running there to trigger warnings of impending disaster. Finally, there are scripts to run root commands on whole blocks of the network at once. So system maintenance of the sort cfengine automates just never occurs in our network, at least not under ordinary circumstances. With around 500 CPUs being maintained by just two humans (and only around half of those in a relatively controlled "cluster" environment), it can't be permitted to. Seth can reinstall any system, remotely, with a couple of commands, to whatever the "clean" and current OS/Distro image is. yum automagically updates any installed package, including its config files, to department standard. I >>like<< cfe anyway, and think it can be useful (and am glad that it is in the new HOWTO), but if you view the network as a giant freeform democracy, or better as a memetic superentity, it appears to "think" otherwise, as evidenced by the fact that cfengine isn't in major distributions anymore and google (the entity's "memory" function) struggles to find an rpm, and some of the cfengine.org mirror sites seem to be or have dead links, and yes, it doesn't even have an rpm. Not forgotten, but somehow only a memory in operation on a handful of "neural nodes" in this extended linux neural network we call the Internet. rgb > > jc > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Zouhir Hafidi [mailto:Zouhir.Hafidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] > > Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 5:30 AM > > To: kickstart-list@xxxxxxxxxx > > Cc: yum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > Subject: [Yum] deploying and maintaining linux networks howto > > > > > > Hi everybody, > > > > for those who want to autoinstall with kickstart, update > > with yum, and maintain with cfengine you can take a look > > at this howto (first draft): > > > > http://www-gat.univ-lille1.fr/~hafidi/deploy_and_maintain_howto/ > > > > it is a "step by step" document to: > > - create an installation tree > > - merge updates with a simple python script > > - install with kickstart > > - update with yum > > - maintain with cfengine > > > > any feedback is welcome, > > > > ZH > > ---------------- > > Zouhir HAFIDI > > USTL, U.F.R. de Mathematiques, Bat. M2 > > F-59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq CEDEX, FRANCE > > tel (+33) 3.20.43.45.15 fax (+33) 3.20.43.43.02 > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Yum mailing list > > Yum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > https://lists.dulug.duke.edu/mailman/listinfo/yum > > > _______________________________________________ > Yum mailing list > Yum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > https://lists.dulug.duke.edu/mailman/listinfo/yum > -- Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/ Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305 Durham, N.C. 27708-0305 Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:rgb@xxxxxxxxxxxx
