Re: [PLUG] Any Ideas? Corporate maintenance of Global Linux Systems?

["Paul L. Snyder" <plsnyder@drexel.edu>]

Quoting Carlos Konstanski <ckonstan@lunarlogic.com>:
[shuffle]
> On Fri, 26 Aug 2005, Alexander Birch wrote:
>
> > I would personally recommend ZenWorks. It works for Linux and windows.
> > It's extremely nice.
[shuffle]
> I second that.  We use Zen boxes too.  It's great because:
> 
>      - They're nearly as fast as "normal" builds;
>      - You can give a non-sysadmin root on a zen instance without worry
> -
>        all they can destroy is the virtual machine;
>      - You save big $$$ on hardware.

Are you perhaps conflating the Novell ZenWorks system management suite

  http://www.novell.com/products/zenworks/

with the Open Source Xen virtualization hypervisor?

  http://www.xensource.com/

Last time I looked at ZenWorks, the Linux piece was still being spun up. 
It was pretty good for coordinating distribution of RPMs to groups of
systems, but it wasn't yet on par with the management features for the
Windows ZenWorks products.  I haven't looked at it in over a year, so
it has almost certainly advanced at least somewhat.

If you don't mind scripting and want lots of power and flexibility,
consider taking a look at cfengine, which goes considerably beyond
the package management level.

  http://www.cfengine.org/

This is also the scheduled topic for the 5 October PLUG presentation.
(Xen would make a good presentation as well...anyone want to volunteer
for November?)

pls
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