From owner-freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Apr 14 15:13:52 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 91E0810657B9 for ; Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:13:52 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dlangille@myyearbook.com) Received: from mail-qy0-f132.google.com (mail-qy0-f132.google.com [209.85.221.132]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 567CF8FC16 for ; Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:13:52 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dlangille@myyearbook.com) Received: by qyk38 with SMTP id 38so1911033qyk.3 for ; Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:13:51 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.224.80.208 with SMTP id u16mr7431245qak.357.1239722031780; Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:13:51 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <1239718230.2192.19.camel@mp.virtual-earth.de> References: <6dd019370904140548n783825f6ub53c205dfd152689@mail.gmail.com> <1239718230.2192.19.camel@mp.virtual-earth.de> Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:13:51 -0400 Message-ID: <6dd019370904140813t6f567903x42a35d56eef03f31@mail.gmail.com> From: Dan Langille To: Mathias.Picker@virtual-earth.de Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Subject: Re: inventory / configuration management tools X-BeenThere: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Internet Services Providers List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:13:55 -0000 On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 10:10 AM, Mathias Picker wrote: > For configuration I'm using puppet and looking into controltier, I have > not yet found a real use for inventory. Our goal: buy a new box, rack it. It starts up, boots, and configures itself. We do nothing. How does this happen? We already have that new box in our configuration managmenet system. The boot server looks up the box in the inventory and says, oh, you're going to be a web server, here's your details, and connect to this load balancer please. Two weeks later, we can reconfigure that box to be an app server, reboot it, and as it boots up, it gets the new details and self configures. I call it an inventory system not because it is an inventory, but because it's the most appropriate name I can think of. The objective: a list of everything we have. Every part of the system box life cycle goes through this system. We buy: the box gets added to the system. That prompts the configuration etc. Then, when its racked, it's power on and forget. In theory... ;) -- Dan Langille myYearbook.com