Puppet users - Dec 2012 - Web interface to Facter information, system config reporting?

In our department, we recently bought an install of HP''s SIM agent --
it''s
some hacky configuration reporting and management platform that also 
facilitates firmware updates, etc.   I don''t care for it.

For one, it requires root logins, but it also has agents that report -- it 
also may have the ability to change the system.

My boss is looking for information that is presented in a GUI and easily 
reportable.   I''m thinking Facter is a good candidate here - we can
tell it
what version of software (SSH, etc), OS, etc.   But, it''s all
command-line.
  I''m wondering if there is (or if someone is working on) a web-based
GUI
that can report these statistics (we don''t need the overhead of
something
like puppet-dashboard).

And for misc things, we can always write custom facts.   Of course, this 
would only apply to systems that are running puppet.  We have others that 
are not.

I''ve seen some other hacks out there that do different types of
reporting -
if there''s some better approach (open source), that would be great to
know
about.

Thanks.

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I wrote a Mediawiki bot that connects to our puppet master, grabs all of
the facter data that has been reported by clients, and shoves that into the
host''s page on our wiki.

We format the facter data in our wiki by using a custom tag: <bb
facter_key/>. Once the bot runs, it expands to <bb
facter_key>facter_value</bb>.  I have this set to run every 5 minutes
to
keep our wiki up to date.

The important code for said bot is here:

http://github.com/arusso23/bobbie     (bot framework)
https://github.com/arusso23/libpuppet (puppet rest library)

The documentation is admittedly lacking, but if you''re interested in
using
it, feel free to email me off-list.

Cheers,

Aaron Russo
IST Infrastructure Services, Unix Group
UC Berkeley
---
Desk:   510-643-5550Mobile: 510-206-1532
IM:     arusso@berkeley.edu (XMPP/Jabber)




On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 11:27 AM, Forrie <forrie@gmail.com> wrote:
> In our department, we recently bought an install of HP''s SIM agent
-- it''s
> some hacky configuration reporting and management platform that also
> facilitates firmware updates, etc.   I don''t care for it.
>
> For one, it requires root logins, but it also has agents that report -- it
> also may have the ability to change the system.
>
> My boss is looking for information that is presented in a GUI and easily
> reportable.   I''m thinking Facter is a good candidate here - we
can tell it
> what version of software (SSH, etc), OS, etc.   But, it''s all
command-line.
>   I''m wondering if there is (or if someone is working on) a
web-based GUI
> that can report these statistics (we don''t need the overhead of
something
> like puppet-dashboard).
>
> And for misc things, we can always write custom facts.   Of course, this
> would only apply to systems that are running puppet.  We have others that
> are not.
>
> I''ve seen some other hacks out there that do different types of
reporting
> - if there''s some better approach (open source), that would be
great to
> know about.
>
> Thanks.
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
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>
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On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 9:27 PM, Forrie <forrie@gmail.com> wrote:
> In our department, we recently bought an install of HP''s SIM agent
-- it''s
> some hacky configuration reporting and management platform that also
> facilitates firmware updates, etc.   I don''t care for it.
>
> For one, it requires root logins, but it also has agents that report -- it
> also may have the ability to change the system.
>
> My boss is looking for information that is presented in a GUI and easily
> reportable.   I''m thinking Facter is a good candidate here - we
can tell it
> what version of software (SSH, etc), OS, etc.   But, it''s all
command-line.
>   I''m wondering if there is (or if someone is working on) a
web-based GUI
> that can report these statistics (we don''t need the overhead of
something
> like puppet-dashboard).
>
> And for misc things, we can always write custom facts.   Of course, this
> would only apply to systems that are running puppet.  We have others that
> are not.
>
> I''ve seen some other hacks out there that do different types of
reporting
> - if there''s some better approach (open source), that would be
great to
> know about.
>
While its not limited to inventory only, Foreman [1] can generate pretty
looking graphs, and show you all of your facts (including custom) and the
ability to search and feed that to any external service via a simple api.

You can disable most of foreman functionality, and simply get facts (and
maybe puppet reports if you are interested in puppet state and not just
inventory) without all of the other nice features (enc classifications,
provisioning, vm, cloud etc).

Hope this helps,
Ohad

[1] - http://theforeman.org

>
> Thanks.
>
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Thanks for the pointers, I will have a look at it.

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Hello, the Kermit Web UI does this also. We get the facts on the nodes,
but also specific system and application inventories. We use MCollective
to trigger the inventories and push them to the Web UI.
We can also query for specific facts whenever we want them.

Here are some screenshots of this :

http://www.kermit.fr/kermit/images/Kermit-Inventory-01.png
http://www.kermit.fr/kermit/images/Kermit-Inventory-02.png

And a screencast :

http://www.kermit.fr/video/kermit-server_details.mp4

Louis Coilliot


Le 20/12/2012 10:05, Ohad Levy a écrit :
>
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 9:27 PM, Forrie <forrie@gmail.com
> <mailto:forrie@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     In our department, we recently bought an install of HP''s SIM
agent
>     -- it''s some hacky configuration reporting and management
platform
>     that also facilitates firmware updates, etc.   I don''t care
for it.
>
>     For one, it requires root logins, but it also has agents that
>     report -- it also may have the ability to change the system.
>
>     My boss is looking for information that is presented in a GUI and
>     easily reportable.   I''m thinking Facter is a good candidate
here
>     - we can tell it what version of software (SSH, etc), OS, etc.  
>     But, it''s all command-line.   I''m wondering if there
is (or if
>     someone is working on) a web-based GUI that can report these
>     statistics (we don''t need the overhead of something like
>     puppet-dashboard).
>
>     And for misc things, we can always write custom facts.   Of
>     course, this would only apply to systems that are running puppet.
>      We have others that are not.
>
>     I''ve seen some other hacks out there that do different types
of
>     reporting - if there''s some better approach (open source),
that
>     would be great to know about.
>
>
> While its not limited to inventory only, Foreman [1] can generate
> pretty looking graphs, and show you all of your facts (including
> custom) and the ability to search and feed that to any external
> service via a simple api.
>
> You can disable most of foreman functionality, and simply get facts
> (and maybe puppet reports if you are interested in puppet state and
> not just inventory) without all of the other nice features (enc
> classifications, provisioning, vm, cloud etc).
>
> Hope this helps,
> Ohad
>
> [1] - http://theforeman.org
>  
>
>
>     Thanks.
>     -- 
>     You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
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>
>
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