[nycbug-talk] New Setup Questions

[Matt Juszczak]

I wasn't able to find this anywhere..

On Sat, 18 Apr 2009, riegersteve at gmail.com wrote:

> Check out rubix
> We use it here at ticketmaster to manage over 10k servers from a central location
>
> Will even install oracle, sap, tomcat, etc...
>
> If you need more info let me know
>
> --
> Sent via Blackberry
> I can be reached at 310-947-8565
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Matt Juszczak <matt at atopia.net>
>
> Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:30:40
> To: David Lawson<dave at donnerjack.com>
> Cc: <talk at lists.nycbug.org>
> Subject: Re: [nycbug-talk] New Setup Questions
>
>
> When you say you know several admins using "it" and quite happy with "it",
> are you referring to CFEngine or Puppet?
>
> On Fri, 17 Apr 2009, David Lawson wrote:
>
>> Actually, if puppet has good BSD support, the package management,
>> particularly across multiple hardware architectures and the like, seems like
>> a really good fit for it.  From what I recall of the (quite old at this
>> point) presentation I saw about it, that was a big advantage.  I'm not sure
>> how CFEngine works with package management, I'm sure it has a facility for
>> it, but I know a couple admins, several of whom are BSD users, who are using
>> it and quite happy with it.  Fifty boxes is kind of small for that level of
>> administrative overhead, but what you pay in effort up front, you get back in
>> the long term.
>>
>> --Dave
>> On Apr 17, 2009, at 11:01 PM, Matt Juszczak wrote:
>>
>>> That's what I'm trying to figure out.  These two questions sort of
>>> intertwine themselves.  If we decide to go the "ports scripted" route,
>>> we'll most likely have scripts like this in SVN:
>>>
>>> ./webserver-setup.sh -h<option1> -i<option2>
>>>
>>> which will basically do a cvsup /etc/ports-supfile, install necessary ports
>>> (all the same version of course), install php, etc.  Then, we'd push the
>>> configuration files via svn as well.
>>>
>>> If we decide to go a package route, we might even put the packages in SVN,
>>> so that you can "check out" the repository of packages.
>>>
>>> I've looked at puppet, and I've looked at CF engine: puppet seems limited,
>>> and CF Engine seems complex.  Seems like it's a pick your poison.
>>>
>>> On Fri, 17 Apr 2009, Brian Gupta wrote:
>>>
>>>> Not to start up the cfengine vs puppet debate again, but one question. How
>>>> do you plan to handle package installation?
>>>> That's one thing where CMS can really help.
>>>> -Brian
>>>> On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 1:42 PM, Matt Juszczak <matt at atopia.net> wrote:
>>>>     We're launching an entirely new setup across FreeBSD boxes - about 50
>>>>     servers total.  I have two things which I'm still somewhat debating,
>>>> and
>>>>     thought I'd get a second opinion.
>>>>
>>>>     First, instead of using CFEngine to manage the boxes, I was thinking
>>>> of
>>>>     using an SVN-based setup.  Each server would checkout their
>>>> appropriate
>>>>     files via SVN, and I would "trigger" each server when it needs an
>>>> update
>>>>     via config files that would be fetched often via either ftp or svn.
>>>> This
>>>>     is neat and flexible, but not as complex as CFEngine.  Thoughts?
>>>>
>>>>     Second, I'm trying to decide how to do packages.  Across the 50
>>>> servers
>>>>     we'll have about 6 or 7 different hardware sets.  Some will be Dell,
>>>> some
>>>>     IBM, etc.  Most will be 64 bit boxes (to address larger memory
>>>> ranges).
>>>>     Should I set up a single server for each class (and do make package to
>>>>     create packages for each box), or should I just compile ports from
>>>> source
>>>>     on each box, verifying that I'm installing the same package version
>>>> each
>>>>     time (which will allow each box to take advantage of the benefits of
>>>> its
>>>>     specific hardware).
>>>>
>>>>     Those are my two questions, and I'd appreciate any input anyone can
>>>>     provide.  Thanks!
>>>>
>>>>     -Matt
>>>>     _______________________________________________
>>>>     talk mailing list
>>>>     talk at lists.nycbug.org
>>>>     http://lists.nycbug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
>>>> --
>>>> - Brian Gupta
>>>> New York City user groups calendar:
>>>> http://nyc.brandorr.com/
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