Re: Tutorials etc at LISA

[Timothy Sven Nelson]

On Fri, 24 Sep 2004, Volker Wiegand wrote:

> Hi,
>
> unfortunately I will not be able to attend the conference, but nevertheless I 
> would like to raise a "strategic" question.
>
> This is in connection with a question that has been posted to this list 
> recently but went unanswered: "What about SuSE?" Problem is that SuSE has 
> always been special, with YaST(1|2), with their very own use of 
> /etc/sysconfig, with the differential SysV init logic and so on. The 
> authoritative source of configuration often has not been the /etc file but 
> some meta file plus SuSEconfig. Thus, in my former company (SuSE) I consulted 
> only on using cfengine for limited, "non-intrusive" use. In my current 
> occupation (Deutsche Bahn, German Railway) I haven't even been able to 
> introduce cfengine at all (though I'd love to).
>
> So, here is my question: has anyone ever been thinking of using WBEM as the 
> execution layer between cfengine and heterogenuous systems (SuSE and Novell 
> are moving to WBEM with SLES9, IBM is using CIM in Tivoli or with the SBLIM 
> project, and even Microsoft has an implementation called WMI)?
>
> I'd be willing (and probably be able) to contribute giving it a try, provided 
> it does not conflict with the direction cfengine is meant to go. Any interest 
> in discussing that any further???

 	From what I can see of SBLIM (which appears to be the Linux 
implementation of WBEM) which before your e-mail I'd heard of, but didn't 
know what it was), it seems to be attempting to accomplish the same thing 
as most of cfengine, but in a different way.

 	Cfengine, in my mind, is in two parts: classes (which are the 
high-level decision making), and everything else.  From what I can see 
(and obviously I'd be happy for people to correct me), SBLIM attempts to 
perform the same tasks as the "everything else", except at a slightly more 
abstract level.

 	As an example, SBLIM has modules for specifically managing each 
part of the system.  cfengine makes do with generic sections like "copy" 
and "editfiles".  To get the equivalent of SBLIM (but entirely 
separately), we'd need to have a common set of configuration files for 
each "module", eg. cf.syslog, and then use those from cfengine.

 	To summarise what I've said, cfengine can to SBLIM style things, 
but is much more generic.

 	Now, since I've only commented on SBLIM here, I've presumably 
misunderstood the whole WBEM thing :), so I personally would be quite 
happy to see Volker refute me, and the discussion which would ensue :).


--
Tim Nelson
Server Administrator
WebAlive Technologies Global
Level 1 Innovation Building, Digital Harbour
1010 LaTrobe Street
Docklands, Melbourne, 
Vic, 3008
Phone: +61 3 9934 0812
Fax: +61 3 9934 0899
E-mail: tim.nelson@webalive.biz
http://www.webalive.biz/