to date, I've done all my administration on a manual 1 at a time basis, as each system has been pretty much unique. its looking like I might need to setup a deployment of a dozen or 2 basically identical machines, all running pretty much the same sorts of stuff. I have zero experience with the sorts of management tools folks use to automate this type of configuration, both initial setup, and ongoing management (system updates, user application updates, configuration changes, etc). anyone care to suggest any such tools, maybe some real-world pros and cons? of course, being centos, I prefer FOSS tools. for various reasons, this environment likely will NOT be virtualized (although I may emulate a test setup with vmware). -- john r pierce N 37, W 122 santa cruz ca mid-left coast
On 7/19/2011 7:43 PM, John R Pierce wrote:> to date, I've done all my administration on a manual 1 at a time basis, > as each system has been pretty much unique. > > its looking like I might need to setup a deployment of a dozen or 2 > basically identical machines, all running pretty much the same sorts of > stuff. I have zero experience with the sorts of management tools folks > use to automate this type of configuration, both initial setup, and > ongoing management (system updates, user application updates, > configuration changes, etc). > > anyone care to suggest any such tools, maybe some real-world pros and > cons? of course, being centos, I prefer FOSS tools. for various > reasons, this environment likely will NOT be virtualized (although I may > emulate a test setup with vmware). > > >webmin is a good free option depending on your admin needs.
On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 7:43 AM, John R Pierce <pierce at hogranch.com> wrote:> to date, I've done all my administration on a manual 1 at a time basis, > as each system has been pretty much unique. > > its looking like I might need to setup a deployment of a dozen or 2 > basically identical machines, all running pretty much the same sorts of > stuff. ?I have zero experience with the sorts of management tools folks > use to automate this type of configuration, both initial setup, and > ongoing management (system updates, user application updates, > configuration changes, etc).Redhat satellite can handle it. Too bad I don't know if there is foss alternative for it.
On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 8:43 PM, John R Pierce <pierce at hogranch.com> wrote:> to date, I've done all my administration on a manual 1 at a time basis, > as each system has been pretty much unique. > > its looking like I might need to setup a deployment of a dozen or 2 > basically identical machines, all running pretty much the same sorts of > stuff. I have zero experience with the sorts of management tools folks > use to automate this type of configuration, both initial setup, and > ongoing management (system updates, user application updates, > configuration changes, etc). > > anyone care to suggest any such tools, maybe some real-world pros and > cons? of course, being centos, I prefer FOSS tools. for various > reasons, this environment likely will NOT be virtualized (although I may > emulate a test setup with vmware). > >You might want to look at automation tools like Puppet, Chef or Cfengine (in no particular order). -- Giovanni Tirloni -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20110719/ffee1596/attachment-0001.html>
On 7/19/11 6:43 PM, John R Pierce wrote:> to date, I've done all my administration on a manual 1 at a time basis, > as each system has been pretty much unique. > > its looking like I might need to setup a deployment of a dozen or 2 > basically identical machines, all running pretty much the same sorts of > stuff. I have zero experience with the sorts of management tools folks > use to automate this type of configuration, both initial setup, and > ongoing management (system updates, user application updates, > configuration changes, etc). > > anyone care to suggest any such tools, maybe some real-world pros and > cons? of course, being centos, I prefer FOSS tools. for various > reasons, this environment likely will NOT be virtualized (although I may > emulate a test setup with vmware).It doesn't take that much time to manage a server. For a dozen or two you probably can't save enough time to be worth setting up anything more than ssh keys on one that you use for management and a couple of scripts that loop over them to do things like 'ssh $host "yum -y update" that you might do frequently. For more ad-hoc things you can just open a bunch of terminal windows ssh'd to each and paste in the commands. For the install you can copy the kickstart file that the first install creates to a web server and use it to duplicate the setup on the others. You might want something like backuppc to keep a history of recent copies of at least /etc and anywhere else you have modified files. If you do any complicated programming or scripting, you'll probably want subversion or some other version control system to manage the revisions. -- Les Mikesell lesmikesell at gmail.com
On 7/19/11 6:43 PM, John R Pierce wrote:> > its looking like I might need to setup a deployment of a dozen or 2 > basically identical machines, all running pretty much the same sorts of > stuff. I have zero experience with the sorts of management tools folks > use to automate this type of configuration, both initial setup, and > ongoing management (system updates, user application updates, > configuration changes, etc). > > anyone care to suggest any such tools, maybe some real-world pros and > cons? of course, being centos, I prefer FOSS tools. for various > reasons, this environment likely will NOT be virtualized (although I may > emulate a test setup with vmware).If the server hardware is really identical including disks of the same sizes, the fastest way to roll them out is probably clonezilla, which has the big advantage of being mostly agnostic toward the target OS. You can try it out with the bootable iso, using sshfs or nfs to connect to network storage for the image. If you like it, set up the drbl server to pxe boot into it. It is rpm packaged, but I ended up using ubuntu on the server because it used to only use the server's kernel on the clients and I needed something newer than Centos provided for windows machines. Now I believe you can configure it to pxe boot the image from a current livecd even if you run it on a different server. Besides the ability to clone windows and other OS's, it also is good for snapshot backups of systems (if you can take them down for the copy) and it duplicates everything, including any local installs and config edits. -- Les Mikesell lesmikesell at gmail.cm