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Agile Systems Admin

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Julian Simpson
Julian Simpson

This document discusses Agile systems administration using tools like Puppet, Rake, Ruby, Subversion, and CruiseControl. It summarizes how these tools can be used together in an iterative and collaborative manner to continuously test and deploy system configurations from a versioned code repository. Key benefits include always deploying tested configurations, versioning infrastructure configurations, visibility of project status, and enabling continuous integration practices for system administration work.

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Agile Systems Administration Julian Simpson, ThoughtWorks Ltd.
Who the hell are you? ● I am Julian Simpson ● I've been a Solaris Admin since 1997 ● Now that I work on software projects I need excuses to do interesting things like this
And what's this Agile business? ● Agile is an iterative and incremental (evolutionary) approach to software development ● which is performed in a highly collaborative manner ● with "just enough" ceremony ● that produces high quality software ● which meets the changing needs of its stakeholders. (Scott W Ambler)
Programming before Agile ...
Otto, since you checked in that last change, I can't deploy the application ... it works on my machine ...
And after ...
Otto, you broke the build ... Oh, I didn't check in FooBarImpl.java ... thanks
CruiseControl helps us in Agile software projects ...
Agile Systems Admin
But is it any use in an infrastructure context? ...
So I decided to find out: by building a web and mail server using Puppet, Rake, Ruby, SVN and CruiseControl
Ruby ● Dynamic Language like Perl ● Object oriented ● has a good testing framework ● big in Japan
Puppet ● Sysadmin framework ● Very open ● Declarative ● Developed by a sysadmin for sysadmins
Rake ● Make, for Ruby
Subversion ● favourite source control
cruisecontrol ● Continuous Integration tool ● listens for Subversion commits and executes Rake ● available in Java, .NET and Ruby versions
How does it all work then? ● all configuration is in source control
How does it all work then? ● changes are picked up by cruisecontrol
How does it all work then? ● Cruise runs rake to run tests against the config
How does it all work then? ● Puppet applies the config if the tests pass
How does it all work then? ● Other puppet clients in your network can now retrieve the tested version of your configuration and apply it.
What is the benefit? ● you always apply configuration that is tested ● you can version your configuration
What is the benefit? ● status is visible to everybody ● and you can even drive a lava lamp off of it
Short Film
What do you think?
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- Share Alike 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

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Agile Systems Admin

  • 1. Agile Systems Administration Julian Simpson, ThoughtWorks Ltd.
  • 2. Who the hell are you? ● I am Julian Simpson ● I've been a Solaris Admin since 1997 ● Now that I work on software projects I need excuses to do interesting things like this
  • 3. And what's this Agile business? ● Agile is an iterative and incremental (evolutionary) approach to software development ● which is performed in a highly collaborative manner ● with "just enough" ceremony ● that produces high quality software ● which meets the changing needs of its stakeholders. (Scott W Ambler)
  • 5. Otto, since you checked in that last change, I can't deploy the application ... it works on my machine ...
  • 7. Otto, you broke the build ... Oh, I didn't check in FooBarImpl.java ... thanks
  • 8. CruiseControl helps us in Agile software projects ...
  • 10. But is it any use in an infrastructure context? ...
  • 11. So I decided to find out: by building a web and mail server using Puppet, Rake, Ruby, SVN and CruiseControl
  • 12. Ruby ● Dynamic Language like Perl ● Object oriented ● has a good testing framework ● big in Japan
  • 13. Puppet ● Sysadmin framework ● Very open ● Declarative ● Developed by a sysadmin for sysadmins
  • 14. Rake ● Make, for Ruby
  • 15. Subversion ● favourite source control
  • 16. cruisecontrol ● Continuous Integration tool ● listens for Subversion commits and executes Rake ● available in Java, .NET and Ruby versions
  • 17. How does it all work then? ● all configuration is in source control
  • 18. How does it all work then? ● changes are picked up by cruisecontrol
  • 19. How does it all work then? ● Cruise runs rake to run tests against the config
  • 20. How does it all work then? ● Puppet applies the config if the tests pass
  • 21. How does it all work then? ● Other puppet clients in your network can now retrieve the tested version of your configuration and apply it.
  • 22. What is the benefit? ● you always apply configuration that is tested ● you can version your configuration
  • 23. What is the benefit? ● status is visible to everybody ● and you can even drive a lava lamp off of it
  • 25. What do you think?
  • 26. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- Share Alike 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.