[olug] System management tools

[Cale Lewis]

I was going to say that although It may sound lame to those with more 
experience, I use Webmin occasionally. Not having a lot of experience under 
my belt, it often eases the pain of differing config file organization 
between OSes, and works on almost everything I've got running. The one 
weakspot for me has been IRIX, which isn't quite 'there yet' in Webmin.

Since Webmin is Python-based IIRC, I wonder if much of it (ie: the modules) 
couldn't be used to fill gaps in something else that comes close to doing the 
job via a script. At least as far as info gathering that should help, even if 
you occasionaly have to use other means to change a setting. I'll see if I 
can find the piece I was reading on reusing the modules. Pretty sure I filed 
it away for future reference. 

That said, my lack of experience is why I came to OLUG, so I could learn 
more. I'd be interested in what you find that works or comes close so I can 
give it a look.

Cale Lewis 

>
>Webmin is a good tool for managing a single or small number of machines.
>However, I wouldn't want to slap a web interface like webmin on the front
>of a few dozen machines that are all slightly different. Webmin is
>especially good for beginners. I've used it on FreeBSD and Linux in the
>past, though I am more of a CLI person. I like to know the exact details of
>what is being done to my machines.
>
>I am looking for something like cfengine, or even example cfengine
>configurations that people are using in real environments.
>
>For those not familiar with cfengine, I would suggest checking it out. It
>seems quite nice in concept, though I've never used it. Basically the idea
>is you have a single set of configuration files, binaries, etc and they are
>pushed out to various machines based on their class, OS, etc...
>
>-- 
>Sean Kelly         | PGP KeyID: D2E5E296
>smkelly at zombie.org | http://www.zombie.org

>You made mention of cfengine, so is it safe to assume that you or your
>company is using it? Did you look into anything else? My goal is to find
>the best cfengine-like tool out there that works with:
> * Solaris (8, 9, 10)
> * Linux (RHEL AS 3, RHEL ES 3, various other distributions)
> * HP-UX (10.20, 11.0, 11.11)
> * FreeBSD (4.x, 5.x)