Bulk updating dozens of (not identical) servers

[Paul Nuffer]

I agree with the others on the boon of config management systems. I use puppet to manage the configuration of around 30 Linux servers.

For once-off commands (checking the version of all running kernels, etc), I use the Fedora Unified Network Controller (func). It's written in Python, so if that's your forte, a few moments with python-apt to write a new func module may be all you need. I'm going to get around to it some day, but maybe someone already has?

Thanks,

Paul

On 2011-01-27 23:35:30 Thu, Carlos A. Carnero Delgado wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> the number of servers we have in my organization -- both physical and
> virtual -- is slowly increasing at a steady pace, and the trend will
> continue for the foreseeable future. It has come to the point that
> apt-get upgrading && updating each one individually, and manually, is
> really time consuming and prone to errors. We're looking into stuff
> like Puppet and Cfengine, and it seems that either will do fine, but
> we have this "feeling" or notion that they're a little bit heavyweight
> for our needs. Not to mention the learning curve.
> 
> So, in the context of *only* dealing with installed packages updates
> in an automated way[1] and having 8.04 and 10.04 LTS releases in
> service, do you guys recommend anything? Did you write custom code?
> Has anyone seen Fabric in the context of systems administration?
> 
>   [1] Please note that automated here really means "bulk updating" started
>        from a command (or thingie) given by an administrator. It should not
>        be interpreted as autonomously contacting repos.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Carlos.
> 
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