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Introduction
For over twenty years the configuration of CSE's servers and lab computers has been managed by a home-grown product called conform. conform micromanaged the entire filesystem of each computer and handled the copying in of all configuration files, binaries, scripts, libraries, data files, etc, from a central repository called "the conformary". Very powerful, but also very labour intensive and very limiting. This is the Old World.
The New World grew out a HoS-supported project to move as much CSE infrastructure as possible out of CSE's K17 data centre and into "the cloud", specifically Amazon's AWS. Early on, a decision was made that conform would be left behind and that all new servers and hosts set up in AWS would be managed some other way. This other way ended up being -- after a review of configuration management tools -- a split between cfengine and Debian's apt family of package manager utilities (apt, dpkg, apt-get, apt-file, etc.) In this split, apt handles all Debian package management (mainly installs and updates) and cfengine handles the rest, mostly configuration files.
Debian was chosen because CSE's existing teaching platform was heavily based on Debian and the principle of least surprise was applied.
A bit more specifically, each New World host's filesystem is handled thusly:
| Path | Handled by |
|---|---|
/etc
|
Jointly managed by apt which mostly provides default versions of configuration files, and cfengine which installs CSE-specific versions of configuration files
|
/usr/local/extrafiles/usr/local/extrapackages/usr/local/debpkgs_lists
|
cfengine
|
/proc/sys/dev
|
The kernel |
/tmp/var
|
Whatever processes are running on the host |
/export
|
The kernel's nfsd (i.e., NFS server)
|
/import/home
|
The automounter |
| Everything else | apt
|
The light-touch approach
There's a philosophy behind the way New World is set up. This is the "light touch approach" and goes like this:
- Leave Debian defaults alone unless there is an actual operational or functional need to be addressed. Thus changes for cosmetic reasons = no. Changes for management or administrative convenience = no. Etc.
Debian package management (apt)
Configuration management (cfengine)
The cfengine hub.
The split between CSG's and teaching's bailiwicks
Differences between conform and cfengine
MediaWiki installation leftovers
MediaWiki has been installed.
Consult the User's Guide for information on using the wiki software.