On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 9:43 PM, Lawrence K. Chen, P.Eng. <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Bonus points: We don't currently use any config management, but >> absolutely >> should be. If you have experience retrofitting CM into a legacy >> environment and want to do it, send us an email! >> >> Experience in any of these is awesome. Ideal volunteers have at least 2 >> years experience as a Linux admin. Commitment time is about 2-3 hours a >> month. You should also be awesome at documentation. > > So, I was mulling this LOPSAGram item.... I'm going to weigh in too, because I've fought/wrestled with this bear before, and it drives me a bit crazy every time. :) > Don't most site deploying a CM, start with a legacy environment? Or sites > with long running/legacy servers considered an outside case for CM > deployments. If it was a 'new' site - say, a startup that's being rapid launched by Mt. Dew and too little sleep - it's even MORE likely to start with quickly-generated cruft and technical debt than something that someone rebuilt at a point of slightly more organizational maturity. I hate this. It bothers me, a lot. The place where we expect that we should be able to get things 'right' - is almost always the place where things go completely upside down and off the rails. > And, at first he would break legacy systems, including systems that he > shouldn't be touching (or especially...) While another SA it was routine for > him to destroy all the systems he was responsible for with it. Retrofitting configuration management into a legacy site is very, very hard. Getting people to not fuck up the majority of the things you're carefully trying to build is also very hard. Getting people to STOP MAKING MANUAL CHANGES, while simultaneously asking them to learn version control tools and how to use your configuration management framework's DSL -- this is nearly impossible. It takes a sea change in attitude and the way you see fit to manage things. It cuts your velocity as an organization way down - and hopefully you come out the other side with a better 'stance' on the ball. ;-) That whole middle period where you're in the position of building out CM-managed versions of all your core infrastructure bits - is just a pain in the neck. On the other side, once you've fought some of these demons back, you get to place where you can iterate, pivot, and generally be much more nimble than you ever thought was possible before. > At first, it was because I wanted something better than the cron/rsync scripts > I was using to synchronize configurations on Ubuntu and work on breaking some > of the bad habits I had picked up from some of my now former colleagues. As > well as learn other things on my own. It's a good place to be, when you start being able to make one-touch deploys to new boxes, and start trying to think of ways when you can eliminate even those touches. ;-) I love it, actually. > Now, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about helping with these things > at LOPSA...but unfortunately, I'm barely handling my life now.... I think a lot of us (as sysadmin types) live our lives in a burdened sort of way - where there's always something else to do. :/ The queue, it's never empty. --e _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
