On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 9:32 AM, Lamar Owen lowen@pari.edu wrote:
On 04/29/2014 03:05 PM, Les Mikesell wrote:
There are two sides to this. On the one hand you want to be able to nail down server configurations - and probably anything that is going to stay wired.
Ok, I'll bite on this one.
*Why* do we want a server configuration to be nailed down? Is it due to a real need, or is it due to the inadequacies in the tools to allow fully dynamic and potentially transparently load-balanced dynamic configuration? Or is it due to the perceived need to control things manually instead of using effective automation? I do say 'effective' automation, yes, since ineffective or partially effective automation is worse than no automation. But one of the cornerstones of good sysadmin practice is to automate those things that should be automated.
You forgot to mention interoperable along with effective and complete. When a network can run perfectly without a human controlling the names and addresses precisely at some level or another regardless of what you plug into it, I'll happily agree that automation would be an improvment. Right now I can't even dream of that as a possibility. And so each component needs to configured by a human - and stay that way - or it isn't going to work with the rest of the world.
Dynamic DNS and/or mDNS with associated addresses deals with the need for a static IP;
Is that secure?
SRV records in the DNS can deal with the need for a static name, as long as you have a domain; and something like (but different from!) Universal PnP can deal with that.
Is that a standard that is universal?
NetworkManager (and similar automation) has application in cloud-based things, where the server needs to be as dynamic as the device accessing the server.
You just pushed the management somewhere else - you didn't eliminate it.
It also has application in embedded things, where you want to plug in an appliance to a network and have its services available regardless of the network environment (maybe no DHCP, maybe no DNS, maybe dynamic addresses, and maybe static; it really shouldn't matter).
Your argument makes sense for devices that don't provide a reasonable interface for their own configuration. But how does that apply to a server with a full Linux distribution?