configuration management tool for Linux

[blu at vl.com (Tom Metro)]

Jerry Feldman wrote:
> ...using a source control system like CVS or Subversion. The
> procedure would be to set up a repository, then import the current
> values of the files you want to maintain centrally.
>
> The advantage of the source control approach is that you have a record
> of your changes, and the changes are imported to each system without
> the system admin person needing to touch all the systems. 

As I've mentioned on the list before, I use RCS to manage config files 
on individual systems. It provides the first benefit you list. Comes in 
real handy after distribution upgrades when you need to sort out local 
changes from the package updates.

A logical extension to that would be using a central repository, as you 
suggest, if you're managing several similar machines. I could see this 
working really well for syncing up changes among a collection of 
near-identical virtual machine guests, where each has a slight bit of 
customization.


Matthew Gillen wrote:
> Another great aspect of this approach is that you can have local modifications
> on each server, and they won't get overwritten by an update...
> 
> (you just have to be careful about which machine you do commits from...)

Actually, if you were taking full advantage of the repository, you'd 
want to check in local modifications from every machine, so you'd likely 
create branches for each machine.

In that case, if you wanted to to make a global change, you'd do it on 
any of the machines, test it, commit it to the repository, and then 
merge just that change to the other branches (followed by executing an 
update on each machine, as Jerry suggests).

Managing the merges could get cumbersome, but as long as you kept your 
"local change" commits separate from your "global change" commits, a bit 
of scripting could take care of it.

  -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/

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