cdist-web/src/extra/manual/6.9.5/cdist-why.html

311 lines
12 KiB
HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<!--[if IE 8]><html class="no-js lt-ie9" lang="en" > <![endif]-->
<!--[if gt IE 8]><!--> <html class="no-js" lang="en" > <!--<![endif]-->
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>1. Why should I use cdist? &mdash; cdist 6.9.5 documentation</title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="_static/js/modernizr.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" id="documentation_options" data-url_root="./" src="_static/documentation_options.js"></script>
<script src="_static/jquery.js"></script>
<script src="_static/underscore.js"></script>
<script src="_static/doctools.js"></script>
<script src="_static/language_data.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="_static/js/theme.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="_static/css/theme.css" type="text/css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" />
<link rel="index" title="Index" href="genindex.html" />
<link rel="search" title="Search" href="search.html" />
<link rel="next" title="2. Features" href="cdist-features.html" />
<link rel="prev" title="cdist - usable configuration management" href="index.html" />
</head>
<body class="wy-body-for-nav">
<div class="wy-grid-for-nav">
<nav data-toggle="wy-nav-shift" class="wy-nav-side">
<div class="wy-side-scroll">
<div class="wy-side-nav-search" >
<a href="index.html" class="icon icon-home"> cdist
<img src="_static/cdist-logo.jpeg" class="logo" alt="Logo"/>
</a>
<div class="version">
6.9.5
</div>
<div role="search">
<form id="rtd-search-form" class="wy-form" action="search.html" method="get">
<input type="text" name="q" placeholder="Search docs" />
<input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" />
<input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" />
</form>
</div>
</div>
<div class="wy-menu wy-menu-vertical" data-spy="affix" role="navigation" aria-label="main navigation">
<ul class="current">
<li class="toctree-l1 current"><a class="current reference internal" href="#">1. Why should I use cdist?</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#known-language">1.1. Known language</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#powerful-language">1.2. Powerful language</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#more-than-shell-scripting">1.3. More than shell scripting</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#zero-dependency-configuration-management">1.4. Zero dependency configuration management</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#push-based-distribution">1.5. Push based distribution</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#highly-scalable">1.6. Highly scalable</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-features.html">2. Features</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-os.html">3. Supported operating systems</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-install.html">4. How to install cdist</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-upgrade.html">5. How to upgrade cdist</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-support.html">6. Support</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-quickstart.html">7. Quickstart</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-real-world.html">8. Dive into real world cdist</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="man1/cdist.html">9. cdist(1)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="man1/cdist-dump.html">10. cdist-dump(1)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="man1/cdist-new-type.html">11. cdist-new-type(1)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-bootstrap.html">12. Bootstrap</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-configuration.html">13. Configuration</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-manifest.html">14. Manifest</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-type.html">15. cdist type</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-types.html">16. cdist types</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-explorer.html">17. Explorer</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-messaging.html">18. Messaging</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-parallelization.html">19. Parallelization</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-inventory.html">20. Inventory</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-preos.html">21. PreOS</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-integration.html">22. cdist integration / using cdist as library</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-reference.html">23. Reference</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-best-practice.html">24. Best practice</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-stages.html">25. Execution stages</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-cache.html">26. Local cache overview</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-saving-output-streams.html">27. Saving output streams</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-remote-exec-copy.html">28. Remote exec and copy commands</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-hacker.html">29. Hacking</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="cdist-troubleshooting.html">30. Troubleshooting</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
<section data-toggle="wy-nav-shift" class="wy-nav-content-wrap">
<nav class="wy-nav-top" aria-label="top navigation">
<i data-toggle="wy-nav-top" class="fa fa-bars"></i>
<a href="index.html">cdist</a>
</nav>
<div class="wy-nav-content">
<div class="rst-content">
<div role="navigation" aria-label="breadcrumbs navigation">
<ul class="wy-breadcrumbs">
<li><a href="index.html">Docs</a> &raquo;</li>
<li><span class="section-number">1. </span>Why should I use cdist?</li>
<li class="wy-breadcrumbs-aside">
<a href="_sources/cdist-why.rst.txt" rel="nofollow"> View page source</a>
</li>
</ul>
<hr/>
</div>
<div role="main" class="document" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/Article">
<div itemprop="articleBody">
<div class="section" id="why-should-i-use-cdist">
<h1><span class="section-number">1. </span>Why should I use cdist?<a class="headerlink" href="#why-should-i-use-cdist" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h1>
<p>There are several motivations to use cdist, these
are probably the most popular ones.</p>
<div class="section" id="known-language">
<h2><span class="section-number">1.1. </span>Known language<a class="headerlink" href="#known-language" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
<p>Cdist is being configured in
<a class="reference external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_script">shell script</a>.
Shell script is used by UNIX system engineers for decades.
So when cdist is introduced, your staff does not need to learn a new
<a class="reference external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain-specific_language">DSL</a>
or programming language.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="powerful-language">
<h2><span class="section-number">1.2. </span>Powerful language<a class="headerlink" href="#powerful-language" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
<p>Not only is shell scripting widely known by system engineers,
but it is also a very powerful language. Here are some features
which make daily work easy:</p>
<blockquote>
<div><ul class="simple">
<li><p>Configuration can react dynamically on explored values</p></li>
<li><p>High level string manipulation (using sed, awk, grep)</p></li>
<li><p>Conditional support (<strong>if, case</strong>)</p></li>
<li><p>Loop support (<strong>for, while</strong>)</p></li>
<li><p>Support for dependencies between cdist types</p></li>
</ul>
</div></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="section" id="more-than-shell-scripting">
<h2><span class="section-number">1.3. </span>More than shell scripting<a class="headerlink" href="#more-than-shell-scripting" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
<p>If you compare regular shell scripting with cdist, there is one major
difference: When using cdist types,
the results are
<a class="reference external" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idempotence">idempotent</a>.
In practise that means it does not matter in which order you
call cdist types, the result is always the same.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="zero-dependency-configuration-management">
<h2><span class="section-number">1.4. </span>Zero dependency configuration management<a class="headerlink" href="#zero-dependency-configuration-management" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
<p>Cdist requires very little on a target system. Even better,
in almost all cases all dependencies are usually fulfilled.
Cdist does not require an agent or high level programming
languages on the target host: it will run on any host that
has a <strong>ssh server running</strong> and a POSIX compatible shell
(<strong>/bin/sh</strong>). Compared to other configuration management systems,
it does not require to open up an additional port.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="push-based-distribution">
<h2><span class="section-number">1.5. </span>Push based distribution<a class="headerlink" href="#push-based-distribution" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
<p>Cdist uses the push based model for configuration. In this
scenario, one (or more) computers connect to the target hosts
and apply the configuration. That way the source host has
very little requirements: Cdist can even run on a sysadmin
notebook that is loosely connected to the network and has
limited amount of resources.</p>
<p>Furthermore, from a security point of view, only one machine
needs access to the target hosts. No target hosts will ever
need to connect back to the source host, which contains the
full configuration.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="highly-scalable">
<h2><span class="section-number">1.6. </span>Highly scalable<a class="headerlink" href="#highly-scalable" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
<p>If at some point you manage more hosts than can be handled from
a single source host, you can simply add more resources: Either
add more cores to one host or add hosts.
Cdist will utilise the given resources in parallel.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<footer>
<div class="rst-footer-buttons" role="navigation" aria-label="footer navigation">
<a href="cdist-features.html" class="btn btn-neutral float-right" title="2. Features" accesskey="n" rel="next">Next <span class="fa fa-arrow-circle-right"></span></a>
<a href="index.html" class="btn btn-neutral float-left" title="cdist - usable configuration management" accesskey="p" rel="prev"><span class="fa fa-arrow-circle-left"></span> Previous</a>
</div>
<hr/>
<div role="contentinfo">
<p>
&copy; Copyright ungleich GmbH 2021
</p>
</div>
Built with <a href="http://sphinx-doc.org/">Sphinx</a> using a <a href="https://github.com/rtfd/sphinx_rtd_theme">theme</a> provided by <a href="https://readthedocs.org">Read the Docs</a>.
</footer>
</div>
</div>
</section>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery(function () {
SphinxRtdTheme.Navigation.enable(true);
});
</script>
</body>
</html>