When it comes to scripting, it's difficult to do much automation outside of a platform. For example, I can write a bash or perl script to accomplish a task on Linux, FreeBSD, and UNIX, but it's hard to make that script work well in a Windows environment, or vice-versa (even with some of the nifty perl modules).
Yet, I've been asked to talk about this very thing. In your mind, how do you see writing administrative scripts (e.g., provisioning a user) with interoperability in mind? Certainly, we can write scripts that call a lower layer to do the actual grunt work based on platform (e.g., by creating an entry in LDAP, /etc/passwd, or AD when creating a user), but is it still too painful to write scripts that are truly cross-platform? What can you do? What can't you do? Why should or shouldn't you do it? I'd like to start up a discussion on this! --- Puryear Information Technology, LLC Baton Rouge, LA * 225-706-8414 http://www.puryear-it.com Author: "Best Practices for Managing Linux and UNIX Servers" "Spam Fighting and Email Security in the 21st Century" Download your free copies: http://www.puryear-it.com/publications.htm
