Re: Querying clients

[Tim Nelson]

On Fri, 8 Dec 2005, bern wrote:

> Is there a way to query clients from a cfengine server?   What I would
> like to be able to do, is to query clients to know about specific
> configurations of their systems.  For example, before I take any
> actions on a client, I might like to know the content of a file before
> trying to do modification to it.
>
> I feel lile shooting in the dark when using cfengine without knowing
> the exact state of a system.

	Just in case you missed the point of cfengine, you define the 
configuration on the server, but then each client machine downloads its 
own copy, and it runs cfagent on the client machine.  For example, if you 
want to know whether a file exists on the client, and then take action 
based on that, you use the FileExists function.  The client downloads the 
config before the FileExists function gets run.

	So basically, I'm saying you probably don't need to get the system 
state information back to the central location.  If you still think you 
do, then give us an example problem, and see if we can think of a better 
way to solve it :).

        Hope this helps,

--
Kind Regards,
 
Tim Nelson
Server Administrator
 
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