[Spacewalk-list] Automation of configuration deployment

[Rick van der Linde]

On Tue 05 Nov 2013 06:54:09 AM EST, Rick van der Linde wrote:
> Automation of configuration deployment
>
> Hi all,
>
> I;ve managed to setup Spacewalk in suc a manner it allows me to use it
> for deploying different configuration to some level. But to me it's
> somewhat to restricted. Let me first explain what I;ve setup:
>
> First of all spacewalk deploys a base level installation of any EL
> (RHEL, CentOS and OEL). this sets up a box with ip configuration but
> no applications. so in fact the installation has no "role" yet.
>
> I use activation keys (as you can register the system with multiple
> activation keys). This allows me to setup some activation keys that
> installs several RPMs allowing me to install applications and deploy
> some configuration files by letting the system join the specified
> configuration channels. This allow me to deploy applications en
> configuration related to it with a simple rhnreg_ks command form CLI.
>
> The thing I cant do yet is to automate (unless I develop custom RPM's)
> some manual handlings I need to do now: For example add FW
> rules, activate deamons to start automatically and some other
> things. It would be nice to be able to have a script or equiv.
> executed when a activation key gets registered that allows me to
> arrange this last step of automation.
>
> Has anyone else ran into the same issue and got it resolved in some
> way? Or should I raise a feature request.
>
> In my opinion this setup allows one to setup en deployment environment
> that is quite generic and allows one to configure (multiple)
> applications (next to platform). For example, dns, dhcp, postgresql,
> spacewalk, zarafa, postfix, juna, eclipse etc.etc. on RHEL.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
>
>
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Rick,

it sounds to me that your are at the natural progression of automated 
provisioning/configuration, where the first reaction is to start 
deploying "post" kickstart scripts, to "automate" more specific 
service/application level configuration.

but what you, in most cases (others can speak up if they have opinions) 
want to do is, start looking at a configuration management tool; 
puppet, chef, cfengine, etc.

the idea is that you use the same configuration management to configure 
"new" servers as you do in "production" so that you have the same 
process.

how you deploy that will be based on your needs/resources.  best 
practices would suggest that all configuration goes in revision control.

the next step is to figure out what your needs are for deployment.

for various reasons, we use puppet and role those into rpm's to be 
deployed with satellite/spacewalk without a puppet master.

this provides a very flexible solution for our needs.

regards,

--
Aaron Prayther
 
Thanks for your response.

 
I have tried this before with kickstart profiles but, to me that was a no way to go as this gives to many profiles and gets unmanageable.

 
Advantages of the approach I have done now is more manageability and more control. As the system gets registered and therefor jois a set of pre-configured groups it allows me to get a better overview ot the servers (IT landscape). I will cenrtainly look at puppet or equiv. but will centainly need to look at the manageability side of the story.

 
I certainly like the package control and configuration channel parts of spacewalk. I am aware I;m trying to fit lifecycle of servers into spacewalk and might not be the best fit. Until now I quite satisfied.

 
Is there a directory (like /etc/profile.d.) that can consist scripts that get executed at startup. It's easy to let a script find out if a configuration has already been setup or not. By adding the script to the configuration channel allows me to solve what I want. In that case I would deploy a base config. Fire 1 command (activation keys) .. reboot the box and tadaaa.. It;s registered and configured the way I want and allows me to manage it. (mid life of server).

 
Rick

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