Re: [Fwd: Re: ${clientip} ?]

[Tod Oace]

On Oct 21, 2004, at 16:12, Ed Brown wrote:

> I assume you are talking about 'remote methods'?

Yep!

> There's not much info in the documentation about it yet, but it sure 
> sounds complex, if not to say convoluted.

Possibly. I don't have any opinion on that yet.

> For one, I'm guessing it requires that cfservd be running everywhere.

I don't think so. If I understand it correctly the method call contacts 
a cfservd which then runs cfagent, runs the method and then returns 
results back to the caller. I just want to collect information on my 
cfengine servers which are already running cfservd. I don't think the 
method call tries to contact a cfservd on the client system.

I haven't tried the remote stuff yet. I'm just doing local calls while 
I develop my module. And right now I'm trying to figure out why this 
isn't matching infotype = syslog (to prevent "../filename"):

classes:
        valid_infotype = ( Regcmp("^[A-Za-z0-9]*$","${infotype}") )

"^.*$" works but anything I try with "^[...]*$" doesn't. But...this is 
a separate issue.

> When I've considered data gathering schemes, I always end up back at 
> the idea of scp-ing info back to the server, or somewhere, an idea 
> with its own limitations and problems.  I'd be interested in hearing 
> if you are able to use cfengine for this.

Yeah, I'll probably have to do that if I can't make remote methods 
work. It still looks to me like it will, although I'm noticing ReadFile 
produced a bunch of nul padding. So I'll have to figure that out too. 
But aside from that I was able to copy up a file. Locally anyway.  -Tod

> -Ed
>
>
> On Thu, 2004-10-21 at 16:02, Tod Oace wrote:
> > > (Dang, I don't understand lists that don't set the reply-to field to 
> > > go
> > > to the list.  To me, that's the whole point of a list, the 
> > > discussion,
> > > not to get private answers to questions, unless appropriate for some
> > > reason...)
> >
> > Oh, and that case here's my reply to the list:
> >
> > > From: Ed Brown <ebrown@lanl.gov>
> > > Date: October 21, 2004 14:56:55 PDT
> > > To: Tod Oace <tod.r.oace@intel.com>
> > > Subject: Re: ${clientip} ?
> > >
> > >
> > > Where I get stuck right away when considering something like this is
> > > the
> > > question of how to get information from the client to the server.  
> > > It's
> > > backwards to the normal flow of cfengine.  Did you already have a
> > > mechanism for this in mind?
> >
> > Yeah... A Cfengine method call. There's even an example in the
> > reference manual passing the first part of /etc/passwd:
> >
> > http://www.cfengine.org/docs/cfengine-Reference.html#methods
> >
> > search for: ReadFile("/etc/passwd"
> >
> > So I *think* that takes care of the communication mechanism. I'm 
> > toying
> > with it now. But I'm also thinking about the step after that.  -Tod
> >
> >
> > > -Ed
> > >
> > >
> > > On Thu, 2004-10-21 at 15:41, Tod Oace wrote:
> > > > I'm hoping to create a method to collect small bits of information
> > > > from
> > > > systems onto my cfengine servers. It seems like this will work fine
> > > > but
> > > > I'd also like to prevent systems from being able to clobber each
> > > > others' bits of information.
> > > >
> > > > I think what I want is to stash information into files named
> > > > .../somedirectory/${clientip}/${infotype} where ${infotype} comes 
> > > > from
> > > > the client and ${clientip} is defined on the server end. But I'm
> > > > unable
> > > > to find a variable like ${clientip}. I see forcereplyto but that's
> > > > defined by the client.
> > > >
> > > > I would like this in order to collect and analyze files before I put
> > > > them under central cfengine control. I don't really need information
> > > > sandboxes for that kind of temporary information, but there is some
> > > > other system information I would like to protectection for. Stuff
> > > > defined on the systems that I want persistent across system builds.
> > > > Any
> > > > ideas?
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Help-cfengine mailing list
> > > Help-cfengine@gnu.org
> > > http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-cfengine
--
Tod Oace, Intel Corporation <tod@intel.com>