[clug] Distributed Administration

[Alex Satrapa]

Dear list,

In addition to looking for virtual machine host software, I'd like to  
hear about your favourite way of managing multiple (ie: 2 or more)  
hosts in a collection.

In my specific case, I want to be able to take a bare bones (Insert  
Distribution Here) install and automagically configure it to:
  - be running avahi (the mdns part at least),
  - have MySQL 5 (or PostgreSQL, or whatever) installed,
  - have my custom /etc/resolv.conf,
  - configure the avahi to advertise SSH, other services
  - install some documentation from a web site, and
  - install and configure a firewall

Some ideas I've seen are:
  - Cluster SSH (http://sourceforge.net/projects/clusterssh/) *
  - Puppet      (http://reductivelabs.com/trac/puppet/)
  - Chef        (http://wiki.opscode.com/display/chef/Home)

Thanks in advance,
Alex

* Cluster SSH gives me a cold sweat. It just replicates keystrokes to  
multiple terminals. How could anything possibly go wrong?