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A configuration management system for computers that are pets, not cattle

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Re: A configuration management system for computers that are pets, not cattle

#61

A replacement for "pets, not cattle" could be "goldfish, not trout" [0]. Due to certain beliefs around the latter. Has that come up for anyone? Maybe unique to us? [0] Not my idea. Source: a colleague.

The alternative you provide is still speciesist to a degree. I like the suggestion in a sibling comment to this one which avoids referring to any animals, though.

Re: A configuration management system for computers that are pets, not cattle

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pets, not cattle is the general mantra for configuration management systems. Personally I use Ansible for fleet management.

You mean Cattle, not Pets is the general mantra, right? Or have things changed a lot since I was last doing Ops?

Oh you're totally right, and I should stop posting on HN from my phone while out at the bar. :)

Re: A configuration management system for computers that are pets, not cattle

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pets, not cattle is the general mantra for configuration management systems. Personally I use Ansible for fleet management.

Or rather the other way around (usually, though not here)?

Definitely the other way around, whoops!

Re: A configuration management system for computers that are pets, not cattle

#64
post #60

Shameless plug but here how I manage my personal servers with K3s (kubernetes) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33406938 I stopped using configuration management a while ago for my servers because they are too complex and fragile for a sporadic usage. My main issue is that you need to use them daily in order to keep them working and for you to keep muscle memory. For a time I tried to restrict myself to only Debi…

> I also tried Nix and really liked it, but my main issue was me having to google every time I wanted to make a change due to config file/package being awful to write/remember.

I just use it package-management-style with "nix-env" instead of using the whole configuration language. Pretty simple and easy to remember.

Re: A configuration management system for computers that are pets, not cattle

#65
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is exactly the problem. It doesn’t give me enjoyment. But why shouldn’t it?

Everyone can go and waste their time in whichever way they like. Some people like gardening, although they will never get to "sell produce" at the vegetables market. That doesn't mean gardening is bad, it just means they enjoy it and enjoy wasting their time doing gardening. Other people just go and buy vegetables at the supermarket that were grown at commercial farming. Same with doing configuration management on yo…

I think you’re missing the point. I just said I don’t enjoy it.

Re: A configuration management system for computers that are pets, not cattle

#66
In reality there are three classes of systems:

* pets

* cattle

* betsy[0][1]

The problem is that configuration management systems think everything is either cattle or pets.

[0] Betsy is a special cow. She will also be slaughtered, so she is not a pet, but she needs to be taken care of in a special way, so she is not a cattle.

[1] When the herd becomes large, you get joahna. joahna is like betsy, but not exactly like betsy so she needs a care and feeding slightly different than the betsys.

Re: A configuration management system for computers that are pets, not cattle

#67

> The idea behind Pets is that Configuration Management of individual hosts shouldn’t be harder than administering the system by hand. Just administer it by hand and back it up.

but then you dont have visibility of what changes you have made. having config management improves visibility of how something is configured

Re: A configuration management system for computers that are pets, not cattle

#68

give me this for mac os please. my home-rolled dotfiles repo is ok, but id really love some config management system that’s not ansible that i could use to bootstrap my workstations. i used to write a lot of chef and generally like ruby, but i can’t make heads or tails of whatever progress chef is. mostly seems like chef as an oss tool is dead. anybody got something else they like to configure their mac os systems wi…

I use chezmoi + homebrew.

1) Install homebrew (one-liner, easily googled) 2) Use brew to install chezmoi 3) chezmoi pulls my dotfiles, including my Brewfile 4) Say 'brew bundle' and 90-95% of the software I need is installed

Then I need to set up settings sync in VSCode and Alfred and I'm pretty much done. What few things are missing I can install manually, or update the Brewfile to match.

Re: A configuration management system for computers that are pets, not cattle

#70
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

was going to say the same thing - but for ansible. an inventory file is literally a static list of pets in its simplest form, and with some simple convention you could have a directory per-host with any playbooks required. plus you have docs, community modules, etc.

Ansible is like a fifth wheel on a car, since all of the configuration can be done inside of OS packages, and orchestration can be done via SSH (which is exactly how Ansible does it). Put those two together and Ansible is a solution to a non-existent problem.

I'd much rather use Ansible to configure a fleet of identical systems (either all at once or over time) than SSH and configure by hand thanks.
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