11
votes
Accepted
Does load balancer F5 support CasC (Configuration as Code)?
Yes, F5's do support Configuration as Code. Historically, F5 has made an appliance to manage Configuration as Code called "Enterprise Manager" which pragmatically managed client endpoint F5s (LTMs, ...
- 3,724
10
votes
Accepted
Are configuration management tools appropriate to use as deployment tools?
In such context the typical advice should be immediately applicable: use the right tool for the job.
But then you also cannot ignore nowadays the almost virulent tendency of software tools to extend ...
- 6,730
10
votes
A comparison of idempotence and immutability
The two terms are very different.
Let us start with immutability, which literally means "no mutations" or "no changes". In the DevOps sense, it means that once you created an artifact, be that a ...
- 8,963
8
votes
Does full automation still provide a better ROI at small scales?
There is definite value in automating manual tasks and placing systems under configuration management that is done using code, not using paper and human intervention.
One huge benefit is the ...
- 8,963
8
votes
Artifactory vs Git for Infrastructure Version Control / Configuration Management
This is a simple thumb rule one could follow
Use version control (git, svn, cvs) for the work product created by humans
Use artifact management tool (artifactory, nexus, apache archiva) for the ...
- 426
7
votes
Accepted
Artifactory vs Git for Infrastructure Version Control / Configuration Management
Version Control (using say Git) and Artifact Management (using Artifactory) are complementary. Version control is useful for easily browsing the historical changes and who made them. Artifact ...
- 745
7
votes
Assertions and constraints
In Ansible: you can use assert or fail module.
- name: "Make sure web_sites is dictionary"
fail: msg="web_sites should be dictionary"
when: web_sites is not dict
- name: "cluster_name should ...
- 256
6
votes
Tool for storing per environment configuration
There are many tools that can do something like this, including configuration management tools like Chef, Ansible, or Puppet; and KVS tools like Consul and etcd. You could also integrate it as a build ...
- 783
6
votes
Are configuration management tools appropriate to use as deployment tools?
Configuration management tools are used to get a system into a known state. Deployment tools deploy new program files and program data to a system. At the end of the day, both types of tools do some ...
- 161
6
votes
Accepted
how is software defined infrastructure related to devops?
if I setup automate deployment of code, is this considered devops?
Sure, automating everything is a big part of DevOps.
I tried ansible but I prefer writing my own code for learning
Now, this is ...
- 4,866
6
votes
Accepted
What should I use for configuration management on AWS?
A good way to find comparison information about things like this is googling for "X vs Y", e.g. "Chef vs AWS stacks", "Chef vs Puppet" or something like that. That does turn out subjective information,...
- 4,866
6
votes
Accepted
Best practices for CI for embedded platforms (ESP32/Arduino)
Since "deployment" to the IoT device, especially in bulk, will not be done using the CI system. Then the purpose of the CI system is mostly to make sure that it will work okay.
This means that you ...
- 8,963
6
votes
Accepted
Why is developing Ansible Playbooks using Roles a best practice?
There are many reasons that using roles is better than using long playbooks, and very few reasons that using a single long playbook is better than using a role. These are almost always clear only at a ...
- 3,570
5
votes
How are declarative distros different than Kickstart?
AFAIK Kickstart is only usable for the initial installation of the OS, but not for subsequent package maintenance upgrades/downgrades.
Unless I miss something (quite possible, I don't have much ...
- 6,730
5
votes
Accepted
Using requisite injection to order states
This turns out to be a known issue:
The require_in requisite does not support everything that require does, mainly id does not support sls or state_id without specifying a state module.
So by ...
- 1,045
5
votes
Accepted
Why not use configuration management tool instead of Dockerfile?
The tool you need is Packer using Docker as the "builder" and Chef as the "provisioner". Then you can add the resulting image to your repo and reuse it without having to pack again, until your recipes ...
- 1,086
5
votes
Why not use configuration management tool instead of Dockerfile?
These strategies have nothing to do with one another.
Containers (like Docker) are a methodology for deploying and isolating applications. Containers are well liked because they're transportable. ...
- 272
5
votes
Accepted
Does Ansible have component akin to PuppetDB?
The direct answer is "no".
Ansible does not have any database, because it is supposed to be run by different operators from different computers and it's purpose is to be sure that target systems are ...
- 1,093
5
votes
How do you handle the huge number of possible permutations of Dockerfiles / Teraform files?
So let's imagine you have 20 microservices, each in a separate repository. Each microservice needs to be deployed into 5+ environments: dev local, dev cloud, test, staging, prod. Understandably all ...
- 151
5
votes
Kubernetes on k3s can't resolve domains from custom dns server (fritz.box with dnsmasq)
ibuildthecloud9 gave me the right hint. Since the github issue doesn't describe how to midify the dns, I figured it out and want to document it here in case someone need to change it, too. It's stored ...
- 191
4
votes
Are configuration management tools appropriate to use as deployment tools?
TL;DR: Just use Ansbile, it is both configuration and deployment tool :)
There are several types of deployment:
Application based (files, archives packages)
Container based (includes VMs, Habitat, ...
- 5,807
4
votes
Does full automation still provide a better ROI at small scales?
The main advantage to automation isn't just automation itself, but also that it provides you with an identical configuration across all of your resources.
Say, for example, you stand up a webserver ...
- 676
4
votes
Accepted
How to insert a minion Powershell variable into Salt Pillar or Mine?
You can only insert the return into the mine.
Just specify the cmd.run (or possibly cmd.script) in your mine_functions and you will get the whole return back.
If you want to have a script that sets ...
- 311
4
votes
Does full automation still provide a better ROI at small scales?
One of the things I have the hardest time getting across to people is that the man-hours saved doing repetitive tasks is often only a small part of the value of automation. The bigger part is often ...
- 783
4
votes
Accepted
How to Chef things that don't exist yet
I'd go with node.run_state to store a transient variable in a run and define it in a ruby_block so it happens at converge time, something like this:
yum_package 'somepackage'
ruby_block 'set myvar' ...
- 11.3k
4
votes
Does load balancer F5 support CasC (Configuration as Code)?
James, you are correct in that BIG-IQ replaced Enterprise Manager. However, like Enterprise Manager, BIG-IQ is for 'device/feature' management. For integrating via REST APIs directly, or to 3rd party ...
4
votes
Accepted
Docker vs CMS - related or a different thing?
Something like puppet would help automate and configure the Docker Container. CMS is configuration/provisioning and Docker is like you said a virtualization platform. You're trying to compare two ...
- 391
4
votes
Tool to collect developer environment parameters
Instead of trying to watch, how about working together to define a scripted way of defining environments that is scm managed. Having the configuration for deployment in the SCM insures they are ...
4
votes
Accepted
Is there a common name for describing "spans" of versions?
I have never heard of a common name for what you describe; and rarely, if ever, have I seen a notation where someone references to something which has a "begin" and "end" version. It just is not that ...
- 4,866
4
votes
How do configuration management tools deal with someone messing up configuration files manually?
If the file is marked as being managed by a configuration management tool, it deals with someone messing up a configuration file manually being messed up by a hapless admin by clobbering the ...
- 3,724
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible