Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: James <wireless@×××××××××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: [gentoo-user] Re: cfengine any one?
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2006 14:51:55
Message-Id: loom.20060127T151833-390@post.gmane.org
In Reply to: [gentoo-user] cfengine any one? by Jean Blignaut
1 Jean Blignaut <jean <at> megaweb.biz> writes:
2
3 > I saw cfengine mentioned here:
4
5 http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/infrastructure/server-standards.xml
6
7 > But my searching thru the forums and cfengines website
8 > aren’t yielding the kind of result I’d expect:
9 > What are its features
10 > Screenshots?
11
12 > How to configure/setup (if its
13 > what I’m looking for)
14
15 > My goals are to try and keep multiple production servers
16 up-to-date
17 > and running with out having to manually emerge packages
18 every day and especially
19 > having to do etc-update
20
21
22 Well this is an interesting topic to me, since nobody else is
23 responding I'll give you a look at my spleen regarding cfengine
24 and gentoo.
25
26 It's long past due. Gentoo devs need to put something together to
27 allow similar gentoo systems to me managed as a group. For examble
28 here is the scheme of box and how I'd organize to use
29 Gentoo+cfengine:
30
31 First Gentoo has a core list of packages that all systems need as a
32 default baseline. Then you'd organize similar machines to all have
33 the same make.conf; /etc/portage/package.*;
34
35 Then GROUP the machines that are smilar enough to locial groupings:
36
37 Servers core (all server get the same kernel, security and basic apps)
38 Workstations
39 firewalls/routers
40 Instrusion Detection/Stealth monitors
41 embedded products categroy A (yes running embedded gentoo x86)
42 embedded products categroy B (embedded gentoo arm*)
43 other distros that need file and executables push to them via
44 cfengine.
45
46
47 Then you'd need provisions to run a remote daemon on each system to
48 update the packages on the system that were not in the groups.
49
50 Then you'd need to select how different clusters or hosts to perform
51 all updates and push binaries to the other group members. Also,
52 used distcc wherever it is stable.
53
54 It be best to manages this a meta package with lots of different
55 logical groupings. That way us ordinary folks could just select
56 the logical groups they need, and everyone would be operating off
57 of a large schema that could easily add new logical groupings and
58 yet via daemons upgrade the individual systems that have unique
59 packages.
60
61 Makes tons of sense to me, but, when I inquired (persistenly) about
62 this quite some time ago, I was lectured as to why it's a bad idea.
63
64 My prediction is when this is put together, Gentoo is going to
65 explode in the Corporate world, and the Gentoo hacks that accomplish
66 this are going to get rich and famous. Add in openmosix for
67 distributed processing, and Gentoo rapidly becomes the number
68 1 operating system in the world.........
69
70 Lots of guys that build 'hotrods' in their garage, never want to
71 mass produce hotrods......
72
73 Hell, I'd even be willing to send some cash to the young hotrod that
74 creates this meta-ebuild! say $500 USD to start?
75
76 Any takers? ........go figure...
77
78
79 James
80
81
82
83
84 --
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