On 11/04/2009 01:39 PM, Les Mikesell wrote:
How well do any of these tools work when the hosts are widely distributed or distributed with groups in different locations?
yes.
And how do they handle IP assignment on multiple NICs? Do you need DHCP capability on all segments or do you need to know all the MAC addresses and the cable connectivity starting out?
You only need that for the initial provisioning setup, once the machine is running - neither of the tools need any info on network stacks ( but you are welcome to plumb in whatever you need / want ). DHCP isnt ideal when setup in smaller clusters over a widely spread out, geographically, setup .
Also, do they provide a version-controlled history with a way to easily find when a change was made and undo it?
You dont really need that with platform / state - but its a must for policy and role control - All the major tools in that space encourage use of a VCS backed with layered ACL's if need : puppet/cfengine/chef/bcfg2
- KB