The classification problems: challenges and solutions

I have 20 minutes to try to give you an idea of why classification in configuration management is critical, why it is difficult, and how you can make it sane.

Transcript

1. The classification problem:
   challenges and solutions
   Marco Marongiu (@brontolinux)
   

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2. Acknowledgements
   All the images and logos used in this presentation are shown
   for didactic purposes only, in the belief that it constitutes a
   fair use of these resources. I don't claim any right on the
   images and products shown in this presentation.
   If you are the owner of any material used in this presentation
   and you believe that I am abusing it, please let me know and
   I'll promptly remove it from all my sources.
   

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3. Agenda
   ➔
   Why classification is critical
   ➔
   Why classification is difficult
   ➔
   How we can make it sane
   ➔
   Final take-aways
   

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4. Part 1:
   the problem
   

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5. !!!
   !!!
   !!!
   !!!
   !!!
   !!!
   !!!
   

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6. Configuration management
   «Configuration Management is the process of
   identifying and defining the items in the system,
   controlling the change of these items throughout
   their life-cycle, recording and reporting the status
   of items and change requests, and verifying the
   completeness and correctness of items»
   -- IEEE Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology (Standard
   729-1983)
   

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7. Configuration management
   «Configuration Management is the process of
   identifying and defining the items in the system,
   controlling the change of these items throughout
   their life-cycle, recording and reporting the status
   of items and change requests, and verifying the
   completeness and correctness of items»
   -- IEEE Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology (Standard
   729-1983)
   

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8. In configuration management
   you don't apply a
   configuration to
   a system, you
   rather apply it
   to classes
   of systems!
   

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9. Part 2:
   challenges
   

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10. Exceptions
    are the rule
    

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11. Generic settings, the same for all systems
    Amsterdam
    DNS server NTP server Syslog server SSH configs
    Oslo
    Other random exceptions
    Seattle Iceland
    

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12. Internal classification doesn't scale
    definitions
    explosion
    difficult
    reporting
    «The business should define what systems
    belong in which classes. The Cfengine
    administrator should build policy. Once
    the Cfengine administrator is left to
    manually defining classes within policy,
    you become a bottleneck»
    -- M.Svoboda, LinkedIn
    human
    bottleneck
    

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13. Part 3:
    Solutions
    

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14. Infrastructure complexity
    low complexity high complexity
    Technical skills
    well versed
    non technical
    Basic interface
    &
    basic backend
    Basic interface
    &
    sophisticated
    backend
    Sophisticated
    interface
    &
    sophisticated
    backend
    Sophisticated
    interface
    &
    basic backend
    

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15. The LinkedIn solution
    M.Svoboda - LinkedIn
    "Leveraging In-Memory Key Value Stores for Large-Scale Operations"
    

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16. our implementation: hENC
    power &
    simplicity
    config info
    in plain
    text files
    module
    protocol
    a simple
    Perl script
    

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18. CFEngine's module protocol
    +activated_class
    -cancelled_class
    =my_var=my value
    =@my_list={ 'list','of','4','values'}
    =my_array[element]=value
    @my_array[list]={ 'list','of','4','values'}
    

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19. #!/bin/sh
    /bin/egrep -h ^[=@+-] $* 2> /dev/null
    

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20. #!/usr/bin/perl
    use strict ;
    use warnings ;
    my %class ; # classes container
    my %variable ; # variables container
    # Silence errors (e.g.: missing files)
    close STDERR ;
    while (my $line = <>) {
    chomp $line ;
    my ($setting,$id) =
    ( $line =~ m{^\s*([=\@+-])(.+)\s*$} ) ;
    # line didn't match the module protocol
    next if not defined $setting ;
    # add a class
    if ($setting eq '+') {
    # $id is a class name, or should be.
    $class{$id} = 1 ;
    }
    # undefine a class
    if ($setting eq '-') {
    # $id is a class name, or should be.
    $class{$id} = -1 ;
    }
    # define a variable/list
    if ($setting eq '=' or $setting eq '@') {
    # $id is "variable = something", or should be
    my ($varname) = ( $id =~ m{^(.+?)=} ) ;
    $variable{$varname} = $line ;
    }
    # discard the rest
    }
    # print out classes
    foreach my $classname (keys %class) {
    print "+$classname\n" if $class{$classname} > 0 ;
    print "-$classname\n" if $class{$classname} < 0 ;
    }
    # print variable/list assignments, the last one wins
    foreach my $assignment (values %variable) {
    print "$assignment\n" ;
    }
    

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21. read
    general
    defaults
    read
    location
    defaults
    read
    environment
    defaults
    read
    node
    settings
    

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22. oslo_public::
    "enc_subdir"
    policy => "overridable",
    string => "$(enc_basedir)/pub" ;
    on_private_net_only::
    "enc_subdir"
    policy => "overridable",
    string => "$(enc_basedir)/priv" ;
    oslo::
    "henclist"
    policy => "overridable",
    slist => {
    "$(enc_basedir)/_default_",
    "$(enc_basedir)/_oslo_",
    "$(enc_subdir)/_oslo_",
    "$(enc_subdir)/$(sys.domain)/$(sys.fqhost)",
    } ;
    }environment-
    dependent
    settings
    } general defaults
    } location defaults
    } environ. defaults
    

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23. methods:
    "ENC"
    comment => "External node classification",
    usebundle => henc("site.henclist") ;
    vars:
    "motd_file"
    string => "$(henc.motd_file)",
    policy => "overridable" ;
    

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24. final take-aways
    smart
    classification
    is crucial...
    ...but doesn't
    need to be
    complicated...
    ...unless your
    infrastructure is.
    sometimes,
    even plain text
    is good enough!
    

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26. comments?
    @brontolinux
    mmarongiu@tiscali.it
    http://syslog.me
    http://no.linkedin.com/in/marcomarongiu/
    

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27. THANK
    you
    

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