open source configuration automation
While looking at some open source projects in the area of configuration management and automation, I stumbled upon several projects and links, which I think might be useful to the community.
Bcfg2, developed in the Argonne National Laboratory. Licensed under 2-clause BSD-style license
Bcfg2 allows you to describe and deploy complex configurations across pools of GNU/Linux and Unix systems, leading to a consistent, reproducible, and verifiable description of your environment. Bcfg2's visualization and reporting tools aid in your day-to-day administrative tasks. Its unique analysis features help you cope with the ever-increasing complexity of your networks.
Cfengine developed by Mark Burgess from the Oslo University College, Norway. Licensed under GPL2
It is used to implement policy-based configuration management on open systems (Unix-like environments), through the interpretation of it's own declarative language.
The program focuses on a few key areas that scripts tend to mishandle. From a single configuration files (or set of files) you specify, using classes, your network configuration; cfengine then parses the file and carries out the instructions, warning you about errors (or fixing them) as it goes.
You can think of cfengine as a very high level language, higher than Perl or shell: a single command can result in many hundreds of operations being performed on multiple hosts. You can also use it as a net-wide front end for 'cron.'
Puppet developed by Luke Kanies, who founded Reductive Labs. Licensed under GPL
Puppet lets you centrally manage every important aspect of your system using a cross-platform specification language that manages all the separate elements normally aggregated in different files, like users, cron jobs, and hosts, along with obviously discrete elements like packages, services, and files.
LCFG developed by Paul Anderson from the University of Edinburg. Licensed under GPL.
LCFG is a system for automatically installing and managing the configuration of large numbers of Unix systems. It is particularly suitable for sites with very diverse and rapidly changing configurations.
For a discussion of the merit of each, see this post on The Changelog.
For some more information on the Large Scale System Configuration Workgroup, see the lssconf website.
Or the following article: Automating Network Administration, by Luke A. Kanies.
Technorati Tags: bcfg2, configuration management, datacenter management, opensource, cfengine, puppet
Compuware acquire Proxima Technology
Compuware announced yesterday that it has acquired Proxima Technology.
Proxima is the maker of Proxima Centauri, a Service Level Management tool with interesting capabilities, specially in the way they aggregate key performance indicators into business service metrics.
Proxima has also a unique way to combine Six Sigma methodology and ITIL, to, for example, normalize the events generated by the monitoring of KPIs into Defects Per Millions of Opportunities, rolling them up into service metrics as Sigma numbers.
I don't know how Compuware is going to use this technology, but one issue with the Proxima approach is that the service impact relationships, defining how IT components are contributing to a service, is defined within Centauri, using rules instead of model relationships .
Without a tight integration with a CMDB, SLM/BSM tools are required to duplicate the CMDB items and relationships, sometimes using two different models, providing a weak synchronization.
As a comparison, BMC Service Impact Manager is using the BMC Atrium CMDB as the model repository, adding service impact relationships on top of the exiting items, making sure that there is a tight synchronization between assets and business services. And since Compuware does not have a real CMDB, or a discovery solution (they use the Collation/IBM solution), it's unlikely that they will be able to provide this level of integration.
Technorati Tags: BSM, Business Service Management, ITIL, M&A, SLM