配置管理软件(configuration management software)介绍

因为现在管理的实验室,采用了linux系统，使用cfengine作为管理软件，使每台机器都具备相同的配置（不管硬件配置如何）。这个体系是前任管理员设置的，至今还没有好好消化好。而cfengine已经发布3.0版本了，要加油了。
关于cfengine的一些网站和资料：http://www.cfengine.org/, http://www.cfengine.org/docs/cfengine-Tutorial.html

这篇文章介绍了目前的开源软件：http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_open_source_configuration_management_software
Arusha Project (ARK)Manage package and configuration specification of hosts via a custom XML description language. Can be used as a front end for Cfengine or PIKT. Provides some collaboration features between administration 'teams'. The last commit dates from April 2007.Bcfg2Software to manage the configuration of a large number of computers using a central configuration model and the client-server paradigm. The system enables reconciliation between clients' state and the central configuration specification. Detailed reports provide a way to identify unmanaged configuration on hosts. Generators enable code or template based generation of configuration files from a central data repository.CfengineManages configuration of a large number of computers using the client-server paradigm. The server has the authoritative version of configuration: any client state which is different from the server is always reverted to the authoritative version. Configuration state is specified via a declarative language.ISconfTool to execute commands and replicate files on all nodes. The nodes do not need to be up; the commands will be executed when they boot. The system has no central server so commands can be launched from any node and they will replicate to all nodes. It implements many of the ideas in "Why Order Matters: Turing Equivalence in Automated Systems Administration".LCFGLCFG manages the configuration with a central description language in XML, specifying resources, aspects and profiles. Configuration is deployed using the client-server paradigm. Appropriate scripts on clients (called "components") transcribe the resources into configuration files and restart services as needed.OCS Inventory NG with GLPIOCS Inventory NG, when integrated with GLPI, provides inventory and asset management scans/database, package deployment, distributed script execution, and via plugins permissions management and other configuration management functions. Here is a good diagram of its architecture.PCfengineThis tool aim to be a better Cfengine written in Python. It uses Python directly as a language to describe configuration files. In contrast to Cfengine, it determines automatically the order in which actions are applied in the client. You can read about its concepts and api.PIKTPIKT is foremost a monitoring system that also does configuration management. "PIKT consists of a sophisticated, feature-rich file preprocessor; an innovative scripting language with unique labor-saving features; a flexible, centrally directed process scheduler; a customizing file installer; a collection of powerful command-line extensions; and other useful tools."[12]PuppetPuppet consists of a custom declarative language to describe system configuration, distributed using the client-server paradigm (using XML-RPC protocol), and a library to realize the configuration. The resource abstraction layer enables administrators to describe the configuration in high-level terms, such as users, services and packages.Quattor"The quattor information model is based on the distinction between the desired state and the actual state. The desired state is registered in a fabric-wide Configuration Database (CDB), using a specially designed configuration language for expressing and validating configurations, composed out of reusable hierarchical building blocks called templates. Configurations are propagated to and cached on the managed nodes." [13]RadmindRadmind manages hosts configuration at the file system level. In a similar way to Tripwire (and other configuration management tools), it can detect external changes to managed configuration, and can optionally reverse the changes. Radmind does not have higher-level configuration element (services, packages) abstraction. A graphical interface is available (only) for Mac OS X.SmartFrogJava-based tool to deploy and configure applications distributed across multiple machines. There is no central server; you can deploy a .SF configuration file to any node and have it distributed to peer nodes according to the distribution information contained inside the deployment descriptor itself.STAF"The Software Testing Automation Framework (STAF) is an open source, multi-platform, multi-language framework designed around the idea of reusable components, called services (such as process invocation, resource management, logging, and monitoring)." [14] There are STAF plugins to perform a variety of common configuration management functions, such as distributed scheduling, execution, and file copying.