From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Nov 11 14:24:07 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6C180764 for ; Mon, 11 Nov 2013 14:24:07 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from atte.peltomaki@iki.fi) Received: from filtteri1.pp.htv.fi (filtteri1.pp.htv.fi [213.243.153.184]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 28E182AC3 for ; Mon, 11 Nov 2013 14:24:07 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by filtteri1.pp.htv.fi (Postfix) with ESMTP id EF6F121BAF4; Mon, 11 Nov 2013 16:23:59 +0200 (EET) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at pp.htv.fi Received: from smtp5.welho.com ([213.243.153.39]) by localhost (filtteri1.pp.htv.fi [213.243.153.184]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id RnEU7Anissfg; Mon, 11 Nov 2013 16:23:54 +0200 (EET) Received: from kameli.org (cs181030192.pp.htv.fi [82.181.30.192]) by smtp5.welho.com (Postfix) with SMTP id E29375BC039; Mon, 11 Nov 2013 16:23:48 +0200 (EET) Received: by kameli.org (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Mon, 11 Nov 2013 16:23:48 +0200 From: "Atte Peltomaki" Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 16:23:48 +0200 To: Kamil Choudhury , "hackers@freebsd.org" Subject: Re: pkgng for configuration management? Message-ID: <20131111142348.GB2584@ass.pp.htv.fi> References: <20131106164807.GW11443@kiwi.coupleofllamas.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: <20131106164807.GW11443@kiwi.coupleofllamas.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 14:24:07 -0000 On Wed, Nov 06, 2013 at 08:48:07AM -0800, R. Tyler Croy wrote: > On Sun, 03 Nov 2013, Kamil Choudhury wrote: > > > I've been setting up a private pkgng repository to push software to > > a family of about 20 different hosts. > > > > One command software deployment is pretty awesome, so I got to > > thinking: why not go one step further and start pushing > > configurations for each of these hosts via pkgng as well (either by > > putting the config files into the initial software pkg, or via a > > separate pkg that installs only the configurations)? > > > > Has anyone else tried going down this rabbit hole? If so, what has > > your experience with the system been? > > I highly recommend going the Puppet route instead of attempting to use the > packaging system for configuration. There's lots of horror stories in the Linux > community of people wrapping everything in the world into debs or rpms, and > regretting it later. I've done this on Linux in the past. It's a handy trick to distribute small configuration pieces for clients which are not under same administration (eg. users workstations). I used it to create meta- packages like 'company-dev-environment' which includes all basic packages for dev workstation, and packages like 'company-krb5-conf' which installs and configures a proper /etc/krb5.conf for accessing intranet services. This hack is certainly not scalable to sanely extend into a real configuration management system. In fact, I see little merit in doing it at all in any environment where I have root on the target system. -- Atte Peltomäki atte.peltomaki@iki.fi <> http://kameli.org "Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you"