[clug] version control for config files

[Andrew Janke]

2008/8/27 jm <jeffm at ghostgun.com>:
>> Still it does have an evil steep learning curve so I dont blame you
>> for skipping it! :)
>
> Yeah. that learning curve is a bit of a killer. Are you using cfengine any
> where?

short answer: lots.

I use FAI and cfengine to install and manage linux clusters for Biomed
Computing.   But then I have been using cfengine for nigh on 5 years
now...

I also maintain a few clusters remotely and what is most attractive to
me in this instance is that it means these clusters can be behind
VPN's NAT, firewalls, etc (and a lot are) and all I have to do to
update things on them is modify my own local SVN repo, test on a
Virtualbox Image locally and then push the changes into the SVN repo
on my home machine. The remote cluster then picks up these changes
(pull) and "does the deed" on the cluster itself.

I then get notification that it is all working (or not!) via email
from cron and the likes. It certainly makes my life a lot easier as I
dont have to login to the remote machine itself in order to mess with
it.  (and yes there are checks/keys/etc in place that should stop most
shenanigans that might be played).

To me it is all about being able to add something like this to
cfagent.conf in my local repo and having it happen across all machines
without me having to worry.  (this for example to handle the case of
apt-get upgrades with an autofs mounted repository).

editfiles:
   { /etc/default/autofs
      AppendIfNoSuchLine "AUTOFS_DONT_RESTART_ON_UPGRADES=1"
      }



-- 
Andrew Janke - andrew.janke at anu.edu.au
Department of Geriatric Medicine, ANU
(a.janke at gmail.com || http://a.janke.googlepages.com/)
Canberra->Australia +61 (402) 700 883