Systems Configuration Management
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There are a bunch of configuration management tools, like these:
So far BCFG2 looks really nice because of its use of XML and because it is written in Python.
I've also used csync2 to synchronize configuration files.
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Configuration File Formats
There are many different types of configuration files with various syntax and formats.
ini files
These are pretty straight forward:
key value
XML-ish
These ones make me cringe - especially the Apache and Djabberd configuration files. They are kind-of XML, but not really.
Programming Language Syntax
These are OK with me, but they can get confusing quite easily.
XML Configuration Files
My favorite! :-)
Infrastructure Configuration Files
Across an infrastructure, you may have configuration files that are the same on every machine, vary slightly from machine / network, or are completely different or only present on certain machines / networks. For this reason I feel it makes sense to use both a synchronization program like csync2 ( for consistent files) as well as a configuration management system like bcfg2 (for use with varied or unique files).
Why Not LDAP?
Good question. I have tried using LDAP for hosts as a test but wasn't pleased with the results. To make LDAP have better performance, a tool like nscd is used, and I figure a synchronization tool might as well be used. I like the idea of storing configuration data in LDAP (as I continue to do with hosts data), but I'm not convinced of regularly accessing it over the LDAP protocol.