[CentOS] From Networkmanager to self managed configuration files

Thu Mar 9 09:45:00 UTC 2017
Giles Coochey <giles at coochey.net>


On 09/03/17 09:28, John Hodrien wrote:
>
> I'll obviously argue I wasn't scaremongering.  You can start with 
> CentOS, and
> do anything you like with it, and as I've said, you're absolutely free 
> to do
> that.  But at some point, you have to accept that what you've got left 
> isn't
> CentOS.  If you don't use what the distribution provides, what you're 
> doing
> isn't the distribution.  Given you're getting no formal support on 
> this, that
> possibly means little to you, but don't be surprised by the community 
> backing
> away from providing unofficial support to something that's no longer 
> CentOS.
>
> You see this sort of thing in a more extreme way with things like cPanel.
Well, let's put it this way, the more someone argues that I need to run 
some software that I clearly don't need, the more I become suspicious of 
what that software is doing. The network configuration of my servers is 
static, it doesn't need to be changed once the server has booted up. So 
it doesn't need some piece of software running away doing goodness knows 
what... I'm just going to be waiting for it to bug or error out and 
leave me high and dry without a network config.

I am not trying to suggest of encourage people to emulate what I have 
done, I have just been making a point that if you want to run something 
to manage your network configuration, and your network configuration is 
clearly not going to change, then it might be simpler to hardcode that 
configuration.

In any case, two alternatives have come out of this thread, the networkd 
alternative, and the configure-and-exit parameter to NetworkManager.

I think it best we leave this thread to die, and accept that others will 
not always do things your way and/or the Redhat/Centos way, but go on 
their own path, and they will probably be happy to accept that this is 
their own creation and the risks associated with that (no support / 
unknown behaviour in certain circumstances etc...). Their creation may 
address things that NetworkManager doesn't do in the future, and if 
adopted everyone will benefit.

Is this the Catherdral or the Bazaar?

-- 
Regards,

Giles Coochey
+44 (0) 7584 634 135
+44 (0) 1803 529 451
giles at coochey.net