Configuration and change management with Bcfg2

Documentation Imminent

The lively developer community that surrounds Bcfg2 integrates new designs with the system almost every week. Just recently, a new team that will be focusing on improving the documentation was founded on the mailing list [8]. Documentation is absolutely vital because Bcfg2 requires that you know so many details of the system.

Administrators will also appreciate the tool's support for gradual migration, which removes the need for drastic changes and allows step-by-step specification of the configuration. All told, the use of Bcfg2 to configure and validate clients is a very powerful tool for anyone who is undaunted by its high level of abstraction.

Infos

  1. Argonne National Library, Mathematics and Computer Science Division: http://www-new.mcs.anl.gov/new
  2. Bcfg2: http://www.bcfg2.org
  3. Bcfg2 Encap packages: http://trac.mcs.anl.gov/projects/bcfg2/wiki/EncapPackages
  4. Bcfg2 packages on the openSUSE Build Service: http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/markojung:/bcfg2
  5. Bcfg2 annotated examples: http://www.bcfg2.org/wiki/AnnotatedExamples
  6. Bcfg2 probes: http://trac.mcs.anl.gov/projects/bcfg2/wiki/Probes
  7. Cheetah template engine: http://www.cheetahtemplate.org
  8. Bcfg2 mailing list: mailto:<U>bcfg-dev@mcs.anl<U>.gov

The Author

Marko Jung is an IT consultant who advises small to mid-sized businesses on migration projects and the deployment of free software.

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