See: www.infrastructures.org John
Riku Meskanen wrote: > Howdy, > > Does anybody know if there exist a project(s) or effort(s) > to create a proper centralized management system for Linux? > > None of current Linux (OSS) MGMT systems I've heard¹ > or tried have not gone into the direction wich would > try to implement centralized installed software, > configurations and policies from database in MGMT station. > > ¹) can't claim that I have heard from all, propably. > > I'm talking more about "Zero Adminstration" style solutions > than just bare installation time support tools like kickstart. > > The idea in the MGMT-system is the ability to group hierarcially > systems (servers, workstations, etc) to the classes and > subclasses by the functionality of the server, department, > domain or whatever and the possibility to maintain and edit > single configuration in the tree view and let systems in classes > inherit these settings (installed program packages, > configurations and policies) to the whole tree unless it's > need to override some configurations locally under the host > settings. > > The centralized class view with the proper reporting cabapilities > from SQL db, installation and update log files and with used > configurations version history the system would scale with ease > from the needs of departemental up to the large Enterprise level. > > This kind of tools are becoming or already are very important to > many managing from few dozens of systems up to hundred or even > thousands of systems with ease and to be able to penetrate > mainstream corporate culture where every effort to keep systems > up to date and running smoothly is appreciated. > > The key is not to bother the users of the systems with > administrative tasks but to be able to stay in control of > the situation from backgrund. Hence it is necessary to lift > the view from desktop oriented thinking to centralized view > which would provide the 'big picture' what's in the systems > now and enable the planning of the upgrades or new software > generally etc. > > Thougths about the Management System operation: > > Think client as of having a Red Hat Linux, where you just > drop in thin MGMT-agent software package, which by the first > time run would confirm the join to MGMT system and few > simple questions to configure what is the MGMT system > (a hint would be got from DNS SRV records or like) then > what is the shared secret etc. > > After having configured the MGMT-agent daemon would connect > to MGMT over the SSL (XML-RPC preferrably) and get the rest > of the configuration and by the schedule defined there it > would start applying, installing new packages of software, > removing packages that were not defined to be part of this > configuration and copying configurations from MGMT-station > etc. > > The existing package managers etc. tools in the system would > be used to pull in, verify the consistency, and install the > software like the up2date does. The agent would commit the > actions to local packet manager db and log file, but in additon > to centralized database and log files too so that the comparisons > between the systems centrally, doing difs and version reports > and possibly the version history would be acheivable. > > The theory of the operation isn't really too hard. I know > it would be quite a bit of work designing the database and > creating the CLI/Web/GUI management tools, but AFAIK most of > the component pieces underneath and technologies are already > there. And better yet if it would be designed from the start > to support different (read supports evolution of) package > managers. > > Any thougts or hints if anybody working on it for Linux already? > > :-) riku > > -- > [ This .signature intentionally left blank ] > > _______________________________________________ > Redhat-devel-list mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-devel-list _______________________________________________ Redhat-devel-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-devel-list
