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Re: need some ideas concerning cfengine


From: Hermann Biller
Subject: Re: need some ideas concerning cfengine
Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 11:05:22 +0200 (MES)

Mark.Burgess@iu.hio.no wrote:
> 
> On  3 Oct, Hermann Biller wrote:
> > dear cfengine community,
> > 
> > i'ld like to use cfengine for the following purpose:
> > 
> > part 1: detect changes in defined files
> > e.q.
> > all_machines: ( all_suns all_hps all_linux )
> > all_machines.checkfiles: ( /etc/hosts /etc/resolv.conf ... )
> > all_suns.checkfiles: ( /etc/vfstab /etc/dfs/dfstab ... )
> > on each host these files could be different. 
> > a change of content should be found out by checksum.
> > a change of permissions should also be monitored.
> > in case of a change a duty system administrator should be mailed.
> > 
> > part 2: reconfigure defined files
> > just do a cfengine job like append a line in /etc/services
> > if a change was done by a cfengine script the system should recognize
> > that it is a desired change and not inform the sysadmin about this change
> > 
> > part 3: log all changes of cfengine scripts in a cvs database
> > (trivial but neccessary)
> > 
> > is this plan realizable with cfengine? any recommendations?
> > 
> > thanks for help,
> > hermann
> > 
> 
> These are all trivially acoomplished except for the last one.
> I'm not sure exactly what you mean, -- you mean your own changes
> to the config or the changes to /etc/services etc..? If you
> come to LISA2001  there is a paper about a front-end to cfengine
> which uses a CVS repository / database things.

even if i can i don't try to reinvent the wheel. cfengine is just a
toolchest. but it'ld  more powerful if it can be combined with organisation
examples. it would be nice, to have a directory on the cfengine web-server 
containing examples for common admin tasks.

even though i'm experienced with a cfengine version 2 years ago,
to me the solution of my task is not trivial. e.q. to detect changes in 
a file can be solved by having a copy of each host and each file on a 
different place. it also can mean to save md5 checksums in a repository. 
having each configuration file of 100 hosts somewhere in a repository 
means a lot of redundance i'ld avoid if it's not neccessary.
... so it would save quite a lot of time to have a solution or a
similar solution nearby, which can be taken as a starting position.


> 
> Recommendations - if you're starting up now, make sure you use
> cfengine 2.0.a14 or later. It will save you lots of time
> later.

when do you expect the new version will be in a final state?
i'ld like to finish this work in about 2 weeks 


the following informations would be nice to be part of the INSTALL document.
(e.q. a new section prerequisites at the beginning of the document) 
it will save some hours of time for those doing installations:

tools needed to compile cfengine 1.6:
gcc 2.95 (solaris Workshop does not compile properly, and Irix C resp.)
glibc
gmake
autoinst
autoconf
texinfo

this parts needed to be installed on each host running cfengine:
berkley db 3.x
ssl
(to be completed)


regards, hermann



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