CIS 527
Configuration Management
Manual Configuration
Pros:
- Hands-on management
- Customize each computer
- Others?
Manual Configuration
Cons:
- Labor intensive
- Inconsistent configuration
- Updates are applied per-machine
- Others?
How do you make system configuration easier?
Make
- Tool for automatically building software
- Allows definition of different build environments and outputs
- Helps users manage large software projects
Defined Configuration
- Reduce the configuration to a list
- Make each item a high-level idea
- System-agnostic
- A sysadmin could follow the list
Defined Configuration
- Reduce the configuration to a list
- Make each item a high-level idea
- System-agnostic
- A sysadmin could follow the list
- Or, a piece of software could, too
What is Configuration Management?
Configuration Management
- Create a Defined Configuration
- Use automated tools to apply configuration
- Think of a system configuration as "software"
- 40% of IT downtime due to sysadmin errors
Configuration Management
Tools:
- CFEngine
- Chef
- Bcfg2
- Puppet
- Ansible
- Salt
CFEngine
- Started in 1993
- Created by post-doc researcher Mark Burgess in Norway
- Used to automate management of workstations
- He realized there was very little work done in that area
CFEngine
- Burgess continued research for the next 20 years
- Ideas such as "Computer Immunology" and "Promise Theory"
- Many other competing products today
Puppet
- System components defined as "resources"
- "Manifest" files define a "state"
- Puppet enforces that state on each machine
- Puppet can also report "facts" about each machine's configuration
Installing Puppet
- Download Puppet Enterprise
- https://puppet.com/download-puppet-enterprise
- You'll need to use Ubuntu 16.04 or another supported Linux distribution
- Latest Windows Enterprise is supported (agent only)
Installing Puppet
- For Lab 2, you only need to install Puppet Agent
- Create a manifest file to enforce a defined state for each machine
- You may create 2 separate files for each OS
Learning Puppet
Learning Puppet
- Download their learning VM to test it for yourself
- Use VMWare snapshots to help with testing
DevOps
- Collaboration between development and sysadmin staff
- Since software development is "agile," make deployment and testing "agile" too
- Software today is often deployed as a service, not distriubted to be installed (think GitHub)
DevOps Tools
- Jenkins
- Docker
- Nagios
- Travis
- Git / GitHub
- Heroku
Assignments
- Lab 2 - Configuration Management with Puppet: Due Monday Feb 13th by 10:30 AM