rudder - getting everyone on board the configuration management express!
DESCRIPTION
As a Configuration Management [CM] "champion", trying to gain traction in your environment can be challenging when the level of expertise necessary is in short supply. We built Rudder so that CM champion would not need to clone themselves. Instead, the CM champion is able to use a tool to manage configuration data, expose key parameters to the rest of their team, reduce complexity of configuration changes, and put in place role-based workflow for change control. Rudder is an open source configuration management solution, using lightweight agents (based on CFEngine) controlled via a central management point. Using Rudder, I will show how this approach enables the team to fully participate in the practice of Configuration Management, keep track of changes and history, exploit change access / control, and facilitate knowledge sharing (sharing intentions in design via desired configuration state, maintaining a record of preferred configurations) without intervention of CM champion.TRANSCRIPT
Normation – CC-BY-SAnormation.com
Getting everyone on board the configuration management express!
Nicolas CHARLES – [email protected]
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Who am I ?
● Nicolas CHARLES
● Job: Co-founder and “COO” at Normation
● Free software:
– Co-creator of Rudder
– Contributor to CFEngine since 2009
– CFEngine Community Champion
Contact infoEmail: [email protected]: @nico_charles
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Context
Configuration Management
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Configuration Management
The proper way
to manage systems
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How to start?
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How to start?What are the requirements?
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How to start?What are the requirements? Which tool(s)?
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How to start?What are the requirements?
Which architecture(s)?
Which tool(s)?
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Getting startedProject leader(s) evaluate and choose
tool(s), learn its basic, and create PoC(s)
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Getting startedProject leader(s) gets experience and confidence.
Becomes the Configuration Management Hero
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AdoptionWith enough work and effort, the project is a
success!
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AdoptionIt does thingsIt is deployedIt is useful!
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The dark side
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The dark sideChange habits
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The dark sideChange habits
I was modifying a file, andeverything I did was erased!
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The dark sideChange habits
Get in the way of people
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The dark sideChange habits
Can be complex to tame
Get in the way of people
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The dark sideChange habits
Can be complex to tame
Get in the way of people
It's too hard to use,I've always changed things via the terminal
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The darker side
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The darker side● Config Management Hero becomes a bottleneck
→ He is the only one to really push the use of the CM
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The darker side● Config Management Hero becomes a bottleneck● Config Management Hero becomes critical ressource:
→ He is the only one to really know how the CM works
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The darker side● Config Management Hero becomes a bottleneck● Config Management Hero becomes critical ressource● Config Management Hero gets to answer to everyone's
questions
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The darker side● Config Management Hero becomes a bottleneck● Config Management Hero becomes critical ressource● Config Management Hero gets to answer to everyone's
questions
Hi, this is the supervision team.I'm sorry to disturb you at night, but we've got this error
in production, and I think it's related to a change in the CM tool,but I don't understand it. Can you help me?
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The darker side
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The darker side
People joining the team/company have a lot to learn:● How to work with a new set of people● The processes● Architecture of IT systems● Possibly new tools● The current CM implementation
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The darker side
People joining the team/company have a lot to learn:● How to work with a new set of people● The processes● Architecture of IT systems● Possibly new tools● The current CM implementation
AND THAT'S A LOT TO LEARN
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Reporting?Share the knowledge with:
● The team: what happens, on which systems, and why
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Reporting?Share the knowledge with:
● The team● The managers: to show that everything is running fine
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Reporting?Share the knowledge with:
● The team● The managers
Are we compliant ? Compliant to what ?
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Reporting?Share the knowledge with:
● The team● The managers
Are we compliant ? Compliant to what ?● To the company rules?
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Reporting?Share the knowledge with:
● The team● The managers
Are we compliant ? Compliant to what ?● To the company rules?● To the legal reglementation?
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Reporting?Share the knowledge with:
● The team● The managers
Are we compliant ? Compliant to what ?● To the company rules?● To the legal reglementation?
Coding yourself the reporting???
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Looks grim :/
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How to welcome everyone in
configuration management??
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Introducing Rudder
Rudder
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Introducing Rudder
Rudder
Cfgt Express !
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Rudder
Rudder
Directly usable by a larger population
ManagementExpert Sysadmins with no previous CM
knowledge
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Rudder
Built-in reporting
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Rudder
Built-in reporting
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Rudder
Simplified configuration
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Rudder
Peer-review and validation
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Rudder
Peer-review and validation
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Rudder
Complete tracability
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Rudder
Complete tracability
Easy to restore previous configuration
policy
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Rudder
Complete tracability
?????
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Rudder
Complete tracability
Every changes made by users are stored.
All policies are commited into Git
● To have easy to track changes
● To archive/restore between Rudder servers
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Rudder
Complete tracability
Every checks and changes on nodes are traced and stored
● Predefined reports in the Techniques
● Reports centralized on the server for historization
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Architecture
Rudder server
Node Node Node
TCP - port 5309File metadata and files
Authentication and encryption (SSL)
TCP ports 80 and 514HTTP and syslog
Node Node
Isolated networkRelay server
Download info
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Rudder
Continuous checking
Pre-packaged for allsupported OSes
Open Source
Simplified user experiencevia a Web UI
Graphical reportingBased on CFEngine 3
http://www.rudder-project.org/
Vagrant config to test:https://github.com/normation/rudder-vagrant/
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Rudder - workflow
Management
Definesecurity policy
Changes(fixes, upgrades...)
c c
Community Expert
Sysadmins
Configureparameters
Configuration agent
Initial applicationContinuous verification
REP
OR
TIN
G
Technical abstraction(method vs parameters)
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Conclusion
What happens?With Rudder, the Configuration Management Hero is still an hero.
But with much more peace of mind, as the whole team is supporting him
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Conclusion
What happens?With Rudder, the Configuration Management Hero is still an hero.
But with much more peace of mind, as the whole team is supporting him
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Rudder stats
Key links :● Community website : http://www.rudder-project.org● Source code : http://github.com/Normation/● Mailing-list : [email protected] ● IRC : #rudder on Freenode● Twitter : @RudderProject
Ohloh.net statistics
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Questions?
Follow us on Twitter: @RudderProject
Nicolas CHARLES - [email protected]