The docs to installing cfengine refers to /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root That doesn't exist. Nor does /etc/crontab. Heck I remember that from the "old days", now there are lots of cron entries, in /etc but no crontab. Not installed by default. So, I'm hunting that one down. Nate, what did you wind up doing?? Ric
Hi,
On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 15:23, Ric Moore wayward4now@gmail.com wrote:
The docs to installing cfengine refers to /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root That doesn't exist.
In RedHat/CentOS, this file is here: /var/spool/cron/root
But you should not write to it directly, instead you should run the "crontab -e" command as root. See "man 1 crontab". This command is also distribution-agnostic, so it will work even on other distributions.
Nor does /etc/crontab.
Yes it does. It is a file. Could you check this again on your system? If it really does not exist, do you have the "crontabs" RPM installed? If you don't, maybe something went wrong with your system's installation.
Heck I remember that from the "old days", now there are lots of cron entries, in /etc but no crontab. Not installed by default. So, I'm hunting that one down. Nate, what did you wind up doing?? Ric
Check again, because so far I've never seen a system without an /etc/crontab.
HTH, Filipe
on 9-11-2008 12:23 PM Ric Moore spake the following:
The docs to installing cfengine refers to /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root That doesn't exist. Nor does /etc/crontab. Heck I remember that from the "old days", now there are lots of cron entries, in /etc but no crontab. Not installed by default. So, I'm hunting that one down. Nate, what did you wind up doing?? Ric
You usually edit crontab with "crontab -e", or you can drop scripts in the various cron.[daily|weekly|hourly] directories.
Ric Moore wrote:
The docs to installing cfengine refers to /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root That doesn't exist. Nor does /etc/crontab. Heck I remember that from the "old days", now there are lots of cron entries, in /etc but no crontab. Not installed by default. So, I'm hunting that one down. Nate, what did you wind up doing?? Ric
The file that the document is probably referring to is root's crontab which by default is in /var/spool/cron/root I believe, if the file isn't there then the root account has no crontab.
But what I assume the docs are talking about is scheduling cfengine through crontab, something I've never done. I use the cfengine daemons themselves to do the scheduling(by default once an hour), just make sure cfexecd, cfenvd and cfservd are running on all systems and it should be fine.
nate
On Thu, 2008-09-11 at 12:55 -0700, nate wrote:
Ric Moore wrote:
The docs to installing cfengine refers to /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root That doesn't exist. Nor does /etc/crontab. Heck I remember that from the "old days", now there are lots of cron entries, in /etc but no crontab. Not installed by default. So, I'm hunting that one down. Nate, what did you wind up doing?? Ric
The file that the document is probably referring to is root's crontab which by default is in /var/spool/cron/root I believe, if the file isn't there then the root account has no crontab.
But what I assume the docs are talking about is scheduling cfengine through crontab, something I've never done. I use the cfengine daemons themselves to do the scheduling(by default once an hour), just make sure cfexecd, cfenvd and cfservd are running on all systems and it should be fine.
Thanks Nate. I'm googling for simple setups, found one that was SuSe oriented, another that is written for CentOS. The latter one being better. I'm still getting the "Deer in the headlights" syndrome, I'm not getting this: $ cd ~/src $ mkdir admin $ chdir admin $ mkdir info build cfengine $ <create a svn repo for your cfengine configurations> $ svn import -m "Initial import" . <newly created svn repo URL>/trunk
I tried svn import -m "Initial import" . and that last bit stumps me about <newly ... Ric
Ric Moore wrote:
The file that the document is probably referring to is root's crontab
This looks informative:
http://www.cfengine.org/AutonomicCfengine.pdf
And of course the full reference guide
http://www.cfengine.org/docs/cfengine-Reference.html
It'll take time to learn, though before you go much further think about whether it's the right tool for you, it's good if you have at least a dozen or more systems that share a fairly common configuration. Not knowing what your environment is like I can't advise for/against a tool like cfengine.
My environment here is about 300 systems, and my cfengine config is about 8000 lines(I'll admit it's a fairly advanced config in my opinion at least, been using cfe for about 3 years now). Replacing the mess that was built by the people before I started this job. What a mess!
nate
On Thu, 2008-09-11 at 13:36 -0700, nate wrote:
Ric Moore wrote:
The file that the document is probably referring to is root's crontab
This looks informative:
http://www.cfengine.org/AutonomicCfengine.pdf
And of course the full reference guide
http://www.cfengine.org/docs/cfengine-Reference.html
It'll take time to learn, though before you go much further think about whether it's the right tool for you, it's good if you have at least a dozen or more systems that share a fairly common configuration. Not knowing what your environment is like I can't advise for/against a tool like cfengine.
My environment here is about 300 systems, and my cfengine config is about 8000 lines(I'll admit it's a fairly advanced config in my opinion at least, been using cfe for about 3 years now). Replacing the mess that was built by the people before I started this job. What a mess!
Part of our prisons project will be to set up centers with several servers and about 20 client machines each, in various locations. I'm on a steep learning curve here. I'm using Project Wonderland (Java) and picking up pieces here and there (jdk, jetty, or possibly Tomcat, etc.) when the edges don't match, needs a solution like cfengine. But, it bombed out with the "Danger! Will Robinson" test from the get-go. <sighs> That install example was written for Suse. So much for that one. Starting over again. Ric
Ric Moore wrote:
Thanks Nate. I'm googling for simple setups, found one that was SuSe oriented, another that is written for CentOS. The latter one being better. I'm still getting the "Deer in the headlights" syndrome, I'm not getting this:
If that is the level of deployment you are at, I would recommend very sincerely too, that you atleast look at puppet and bcfg2 as alternatives to cfengine.
cfengine is, imho, well past its use by date. And the development inertia on that project leaves much to be desired. Some might argue that 'it does what it says on the tin', but then - it doesnt really say a lot on the tin, does it ?
On Fri, 2008-09-12 at 00:25 +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote:
Ric Moore wrote:
Thanks Nate. I'm googling for simple setups, found one that was SuSe oriented, another that is written for CentOS. The latter one being better. I'm still getting the "Deer in the headlights" syndrome, I'm not getting this:
If that is the level of deployment you are at, I would recommend very sincerely too, that you atleast look at puppet and bcfg2 as alternatives to cfengine.
cfengine is, imho, well past its use by date. And the development inertia on that project leaves much to be desired. Some might argue that 'it does what it says on the tin', but then - it doesnt really say a lot on the tin, does it ?
Which of the two do you prefer and/or recommend to a relative newbie at this? I'm looking for the least headache route that can do some of the basics that CFengine is supposed to do. I'd even take one with a gui. <grins hugely> Namaskar, Ric
Ric Moore wrote:
Which of the two do you prefer and/or recommend to a relative newbie at this? I'm looking for the least headache route that can do some of the basics that CFengine is supposed to do. I'd even take one with a gui. <grins hugely> Namaskar, Ric
puppet has a much lower learning curve than bcfg2, also it makes you NOT look at xml.
On Fri, 2008-09-12 at 03:00 +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote:
Ric Moore wrote:
Which of the two do you prefer and/or recommend to a relative newbie at this? I'm looking for the least headache route that can do some of the basics that CFengine is supposed to do. I'd even take one with a gui. <grins hugely> Namaskar, Ric
puppet has a much lower learning curve than bcfg2, also it makes you NOT look at xml.
I just got it dnloaded. Thanks! Ric
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Filipe Brandenburger -
Karanbir Singh -
nate -
Ric Moore -
Scott Silva