Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo XML Database

[Vano D <gentoo-dev@europeansoftware.com>]

On Fri, 2003-02-07 at 19:46, Yannick Koehler wrote:
> On February 7, 2003 01:41 pm, Vano D wrote:
> > Sorry for double posting.
> >
> > If that idea is extended and assuming that you have different machines
> > with different specs in a big organisation you want to deploy
> > gentoo clients to, you can in effect have a
> > "configuration management center" server to configure and
> > manage software in all of the gentoo machines in that organisation.
> >
> > Ofcourse if all machines have the same specs you can still use this system
> > but without the need to compile software for each machine.
> >
> > I think the idea is very interesting and can be usefull.
> 
> Which brings up a ver old idea that I again posted on gentoo last summer about 
> having a script exporting all config file in an xml database/tree and have 
> utilities developped to display/present/change this information and then make 
> that information transform back into the original /etc files.
> 
> One could then export the xml and re-import it inside another system.  Even 
> better, would be that you could configure more than simply linux because the 
> notion of "users" can easily exists in other system and using xslt on an xml 
> could help converting it to another similar format for the target platform.

It is interesting that this issue came up because I have a friend whose
end of year university project was the management and configuration of
software using tools which interacted with xml templates. Each software
configuration file (such as proftpd's config files or samba's) is
configured via xml with the use of xml schema defining the config files.

You then make "software modules" for each software package you want (or
in another words make the xml schema for the configuration file(s),
default values, dependencies between directives and values, and a set of
default/secure rules)

He then developed GUI tools to modify the xml parameters locally and
remotely. The whole system also includes dependencies and security
(originally the whole idea was for security, so say if you define an XYZ
directive in Samba it won't compromise the system because you also had
an ABC directive somewhere else.. etc. So in effect the whole system
with its dependencies and default/set rules takes care of security and
as a side effect: easy configuration). 

Just thought to let you know about that project since you seem to be
interested in the same topic. I think if Gentoo is used with such a
system and with the ideas discussed in previous posts, you could have
one powerfull ((semi)auto) configuration management system with all its
bells and whistles.

Check http://inseguro.org/ it's all in Spanish unfortunately. You have
some screenshots of his GUIs for the configuration management. Also rpm
binaries for RedHat. He intends to release the code for everything when
it reaches 1.0.

-- 
Vano D <gentoo-dev@europeansoftware.com>


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