cfengine tutorial

Edition 5.1 for version 1.5.4

1 AUTOMATED SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION

Kirk: "I'm curious, Doctor, why is it called the M5?"

Daystrom: "Well you see, M1 to M4 were not entirely successful. This one is. M5 is ready to take control of your ship."

Kirk: "Total control?"

Daystrom: "That is what it is designed for."

Kirk: "There are some things that Men have to do to remain Men, your computer takes that away."

Daystrom: "The computer can do your job ... One machine can do all those things that Men do now. Men can go on to do greater things..."

--ST: The ultimate computer

• 1 AUTOMATED SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION
• 2 Overview
  • 2.1 What is cfengine and who can use it?
  • 2.2 Site configuration
  • 2.3 Key Concepts
    • 2.3.1 Control files
    • 2.3.2 Network interface
    • 2.3.3 Network File System (NFS) or distribution?
    • 2.3.4 Name servers (DNS)
    • 2.3.5 Monitoring important files
    • 2.3.6 Making links
  • 2.4 Functionality
• 3 Getting started
  • 3.1 What you must have in a cfengine program
  • 3.2 Program structure
  • 3.3 Optional features in cfengine
  • 3.4 Invoking cfengine
  • 3.5 CFINPUTS environment variable
  • 3.6 What to aim for
• 4 More advanced concepts
  • 4.1 Classes
  • 4.2 Variable substitution
  • 4.3 Defining classes and making exceptions
    • 4.3.1 Command line classes
    • 4.3.2 actionsequence classes
    • 4.3.3 shellcommand classes
    • 4.3.4 Feedback classes
    • 4.3.5 Writing plugin modules
  • 4.4 The generic class any
  • 4.5 Debugging tips
  • 4.6 Access control
  • 4.7 Wildcards in directory names
  • 4.8 File sweeps
  • 4.9 Log files written by cfengine
  • 4.10 Quoted strings
  • 4.11 Regular expressions
  • 4.12 Iterating over lists
• 5 Designing a global system configuration
  • 5.1 General considerations
  • 5.2 Using netgroups
  • 5.3 Files and links
  • 5.4 Copying files
  • 5.5 Managing processes
  • 5.6 Cfengine's model for NFS-mounted filesystems
    • 5.6.1 NFS filesystem resources
    • 5.6.2 Unique filesystem mountpoints
    • 5.6.3 How does it work?
    • 5.6.4 Special variables
    • 5.6.5 Example programs for mounting resources
  • 5.7 Using the automounter
  • 5.8 Editing Files
  • 5.9 Disabling and the file repository
  • 5.10 Running user scripts
  • 5.11 Compressing old log files
  • 5.12 Managing ACLs
• 6 Using cfengine as a front end for cron
  • 6.1 Structuring `cfengine.conf'
  • 6.2 Splaying host times
  • 6.3 Building flexible time classes
  • 6.4 Choosing a scheduling interval
• 7 Cfengine and network services
  • 7.1 Cfengine network services
  • 7.2 How it works
    • 7.2.1 Remote file distribution
    • 7.2.2 Remote execution of cfengine
    • 7.2.3 cfrun
    • 7.2.4 Spamming and security
    • 7.2.5 Some points on the cfd protocol
    • 7.2.6 Deadlocks and runaway loops
  • 7.3 Configuring cfd
    • 7.3.1 Installation of cfd
    • 7.3.2 Configuration file `cfd.conf'
    • 7.3.3 TCP wrappers
• 8 Security and cfengine
  • 8.1 Security hints
  • 8.2 Checksum Databases
  • 8.3 Who do you trust?
  • 8.4 Firewalls
• Variable Index
• Concept Index
• FAQ Index

This document was generated on 2 April 2000 using the texi2html translator version 1.51a.