pkg integration spacewalk question

[Jason Unovitch]

On 09/23/2013 10:58 AM, Jason Helfman wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 19, 2013 at 10:51 PM, Jason Helfman <jgh at freebsd.org 
> <mailto:jgh at freebsd.org>> wrote:
>
>     On Thu, Sep 19, 2013 at 5:54 PM, Jason Unovitch
>     <jason.unovitch at gmail.com <mailto:jason.unovitch at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>         Hi Jason,
>         Some of the functionality looks similar to what is in Puppet.
>         I've been working on finalizing a "how to" running Puppet open
>         source with its Dashboard on an Nginx/Ruby on Rails/MariaDB
>         back-end. Unfortunately I haven't tried any FreeBSD clients
>         yet and only have experience with Linux clients talking to the
>         Puppet on a FreeBSD server. If the pkg integration works as
>         well as integration with the Linux package mangers, declaring
>         having the latest versions of packages would be enough to
>         ensure everything got updated. With a private pkg repo that
>         gets vetted and updated when security issues come up I could
>         see this working rather well for ensuring tight configuration
>         control. Once I get around to testing some FreeBSD clients
>         I'll see how well pkg integration works out.
>
>         If Puppet doesn't work for you, other options to look into are
>         Cfengine, Chef, and Salt. I've just stuck with the first tool
>         for the job that I tried as it worked well. I'd be more than
>         happy to point you to the how to guide when I'm done as I'm
>         planning on putting it up on the forums for anybody who can
>         benefit from it.
>
>         Cheers,
>         Jason Unovitch
>
>
>     Hi Jason.
>
>     I've run puppet for years, but have never run the 'dashboard,'
>     however I have run it recently taking advantage of 'pkg'
>     repositories. This is a different request, though. This is
>     on-demand. So I check a group of servers. I can work with that
>     group of servers, and proactively see how many packages are
>     out-of-date. I can then select those servers, and upgrade packages
>     of those specific systems.
>
>     I believe part of this can be done in 'puppet,' but puppet is very
>     good at configuration management, and trigger based actions. I
>     have not found any part of puppet that shows it is a good tool for
>     patch management, or massive pkg deployment/upgrades.
>
>     I may have missed where you can do this efficiently with puppet.
>     However, I would be happy to discover this, as well :)
>
>     I've worked slightly with the others you had mentioned, but still
>     am unsure if they are as what I described what I am looking for.
>
>     Nonetheless, I look forward to reading your forum post.
>
>     -jgh
>
>
> With a bit more investigation, it seems that the Puppet Enterprise 
> Edition, which is non-free, seems it would be a good fit and has what 
> I was looking for. It would just be a matter of making sure the pkg 
> piece works with it. I would assume it does, as I've had that working 
> on the standard edition. Thanks for your ideas, and I appreciate your 
> time.
>
> -jgh
>
> -- 
> Jason Helfman          | FreeBSD Committer
> jgh at FreeBSD.org     | http://people.freebsd.org/~jgh 
> <http://people.freebsd.org/%7Ejgh> | The Power to Serve
Jason,
Even with the Dashboard it still is more for visibility rather than an 
on demand ability to make changes.  I'm still learning the interface, 
and while it isn't as fully featured as the Enterprise Edition, it is 
nice.  I've dropped my guide on the forum at 
http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=42071. I hope you can find a 
solution for what you are looking for.
-Jason Unovitch

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: smime.p7s
Type: application/pkcs7-signature
Size: 3758 bytes
Desc: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
URL: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-pkg/attachments/20130923/59ee94c4/attachment.bin>