Long ago when I was an AIX admin we had a script we ran every 6 months or so and it created what we called the "System Book". It had every possible configuration option. While acknowledging that on a whole it was overkill documentation, if we ever had to rebuild the systems we knew *exactly* how the old one was set up to compare it to if we had problems.
I'm looking to do something similar for my CentOS boxes. Or better yet, see if someone has already done something similar. I've poked around google and sourceforge on and off for a couple of months but haven't found much. The discussion lately about 'hwinfo' jogged my memory. Anyone know of something like this? A template, even? An old project that hasn't been updated but could be brought up to date?
Thanks for any suggestions. Dave
On Mon, 29 Dec 2008, David Miller wrote:
Long ago when I was an AIX admin we had a script we ran every 6 months or so and it created what we called the "System Book". It had every possible configuration option. While acknowledging that on a whole it was overkill documentation, if we ever had to rebuild the systems we knew *exactly* how the old one was set up to compare it to if we had problems.
I'm looking to do something similar for my CentOS boxes. Or better yet, see if someone has already done something similar. I've poked around google and sourceforge on and off for a couple of months but haven't found much. The discussion lately about 'hwinfo' jogged my memory. Anyone know of something like this? A template, even? An old project that hasn't been updated but could be brought up to date?
man sosreport man sysreport
On Mon, 29 Dec 2008, Barry Brimer wrote:
man sosreport man sysreport _______________________________________________
I second the recommendation. sos/sysreport will collect all kinds of stuff, generate a static html page for it, then tar it all up. Trivial to wrap a shell script around it to provide the inputs, email it off, stash it away, etc, etc.
Plus its the first Python program I ever modified (did I mention that it is dead simple to extend?).
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Wildman, CISSP, RHCE jim@rossberry.com http://www.rossberry.com "Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." Thomas Paine
Thanks Barry. Yeah that looks pretty close to what I'm looking for. Funny how that slipped by me. Putting combinations of "system" "audit" "report" "config" etc don't make for useful google results. And here I should have tried apropos.
On Mon, Dec 29, 2008 at 8:09 PM, Barry Brimer lists@brimer.org wrote:
On Mon, 29 Dec 2008, David Miller wrote:
Long ago when I was an AIX admin we had a script we ran every 6 months or so and it created what we called the "System Book". It had every possible configuration option. While acknowledging that on a whole it was overkill documentation, if we ever had to rebuild the systems we knew *exactly* how the old one was set up to compare it to if we had problems.
I'm looking to do something similar for my CentOS boxes. Or better yet, see if someone has already done something similar. I've poked around google and sourceforge on and off for a couple of months but haven't found much. The discussion lately about 'hwinfo' jogged my memory. Anyone know of something like this? A template, even? An old project that hasn't been updated but could be brought up to date?
man sosreport man sysreport _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
On Mon, 29 Dec 2008, David Miller wrote:
Long ago when I was an AIX admin we had a script we ran every 6 months or so and it created what we called the "System Book". It had every possible configuration option. While acknowledging that on a whole it was overkill documentation, if we ever had to rebuild the systems we knew *exactly* how the old one was set up to compare it to if we had problems.
This is funny, we created a similar thing at a previous company I worked. It was written in Perl and called sysbook (for System Book). It also outputted a "documented" DocBook document that was converted to HTML and available to all system engineers.
I'm looking to do something similar for my CentOS boxes. Or better yet, see if someone has already done something similar. I've poked around google and sourceforge on and off for a couple of months but haven't found much. The discussion lately about 'hwinfo' jogged my memory. Anyone know of something like this? A template, even? An old project that hasn't been updated but could be brought up to date?
I wrote "dconf" in memory of the sysbook project. The aim here was not to create indexed, human-readable documentation, but rather a file that contains all hardware, software and latent configuration. That allows you to backup a system's configuration, diff 2 configurations (whether that is from 2 different timestamps, or 2 different identical systems is irrelevant) and helps comaintaining systems (since it can send changes via email or allows to trace back in time when something was modified and by whom).
This is perfect for support issues, as you can go back to a customer and tell him that you did not leave the system behind like that and point out the individual changes they have made to their configuration (even hardware changes).
You can find dconf at:
http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/dconf/
It can use some love of system administrators to complete the database of configurations files and commands. I also have less extensive configurations file for AIX, Solaris, Debian and SLES that can use some love...
On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 7:32 AM, Dag Wieers dag@centos.org wrote:
On Mon, 29 Dec 2008, David Miller wrote:
Long ago when I was an AIX admin we had a script we ran every 6 months or so and it created what we called the "System Book". It had every possible configuration option. While acknowledging that on a whole it was overkill documentation, if we ever had to rebuild the systems we knew *exactly* how the old one was set up to compare it to if we had problems.
This is funny, we created a similar thing at a previous company I worked. It was written in Perl and called sysbook (for System Book). It also outputted a "documented" DocBook document that was converted to HTML and available to all system engineers.
I'm looking to do something similar for my CentOS boxes. Or better yet, see if someone has already done something similar. I've poked around google and sourceforge on and off for a couple of months but haven't found much. The discussion lately about 'hwinfo' jogged my memory. Anyone know of something like this? A template, even? An old project that hasn't been updated but could be brought up to date?
I wrote "dconf" in memory of the sysbook project. The aim here was not to create indexed, human-readable documentation, but rather a file that contains all hardware, software and latent configuration. That allows you to backup a system's configuration, diff 2 configurations (whether that is from 2 different timestamps, or 2 different identical systems is irrelevant) and helps comaintaining systems (since it can send changes via email or allows to trace back in time when something was modified and by whom).
This is perfect for support issues, as you can go back to a customer and tell him that you did not leave the system behind like that and point out the individual changes they have made to their configuration (even hardware changes).
You can find dconf at:
http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/dconf/It can use some love of system administrators to complete the database of configurations files and commands. I also have less extensive configurations file for AIX, Solaris, Debian and SLES that can use some love...
-- -- dag wieers, dag@centos.org, http://dag.wieers.com/ -- [Any errors in spelling, tact or fact are transmission errors] _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Thanks - I'll check it out. Looks like sysreport / sosreport will do a lot of what I'm looking for, but I'm always looking for things like this. Things that help me sleep better at night.
Our System Book script was written in perl as well, with the output in LaTeX markup so we could generate a pdf for it as we were the only UNIX guys in a Windows shop. They were RS/6000 M80s with SSA trays and boy was that book thick when we printed it out. Ah, the good old days....
Dave
David Miller wrote:
I wrote "dconf" in memory of the sysbook project. The aim here was not to create indexed, human-readable documentation, but rather a file that contains all hardware, software and latent configuration. That allows you to backup a system's configuration, diff 2 configurations (whether that is from 2 different timestamps, or 2 different identical systems is irrelevant) and helps comaintaining systems (since it can send changes via email or allows to trace back in time when something was modified and by whom).
This is perfect for support issues, as you can go back to a customer and tell him that you did not leave the system behind like that and point out the individual changes they have made to their configuration (even hardware changes).
You can find dconf at:
http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/dconf/It can use some love of system administrators to complete the database of configurations files and commands. I also have less extensive configurations file for AIX, Solaris, Debian and SLES that can use some love...
Thanks - I'll check it out. Looks like sysreport / sosreport will do a lot of what I'm looking for, but I'm always looking for things like this. Things that help me sleep better at night.
Our System Book script was written in perl as well, with the output in LaTeX markup so we could generate a pdf for it as we were the only UNIX guys in a Windows shop. They were RS/6000 M80s with SSA trays and boy was that book thick when we printed it out. Ah, the good old days....
Ocsinventory-NG (http://www.ocsinventory-ng.org/) has agents for linux and windows boxes that periodically report their hardware and software configuration to a server that maintains it in a database. The companion GLPI (more extensive inventory) program will also track the history of changes. However, it only tracks the installed rpm packages, not local configuration changes other than windows registry settings.
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Barry Brimer -
Dag Wieers -
David Miller -
Jim Wildman -
Les Mikesell