Re: Bootstrapping

[Luke A. Kanies]

On Wed, 18 Feb 2004, John Sechrest wrote:

> Nate Campi <nate@campin.net> writes:
>
>  % A surprising amount of configuration could be shared across sites,
>  % enabling networks to get up quickly, and run better. Consultants could
>  % come into networks they've never been on before, but quickly solve
>  % problems and roll out new services, since he/she already understands the
>  % cfengine setup.
>
>  Yes, but to do this, the cfengine community needs to start abstracting
>  the (global practices) from the (local issues).

That's a really good idea, but I'm not totally convinced this will be very
easy with cfengine.  Mark and I have had long discussions about this, but
my opinion has not changed:  It is very difficult to use cfengine for
abstraction, which means it's very difficult to create
location-independent cfengine configurations.

>  % This is what I'd want the community-contributed cfengine configs to come
>  % from - actual use, practices proven on real networks. It would need to
>  % be it's own project, with active contributers. I plan on starting it on
>  % my own, then seeing if people want to join in once I have something
>  % working to get at least a small network up from scratch. It would
>  % probably need to be a custom debian distro on a CD, to bootstrap the
>  % whole process from a gold server.
>
>  This brings up many questions for me...
>
>  A) Why would this not work as a component of the CFengine work that
>     is already going on?

Because it's essentially separate from cfengine itself.  It's a lot more
than just cfengine.

>  B) Why would it need to be a seperate project?

Because it involves about 15 other packages and all of their
configurations.

>  C) Do you care that there already is an ongoing project working
>     on the same issue? (We got our sourceforge project approved recently)

Heh. :)  When it rains it pours.

I'm certainly willing to work with others, and I bet Nate is also.

Luke

-- 
I never think of the future.  It comes soon enough.  --Albert Einstein