Bcfg2 is a configuration management system. It helps system administrators deploy complex changes across large numbers of systems in a coherent and transparent fashion.
Bcfg2 produces a consistent, reproducible, and verifiable description of their environment, and offers visualization and reporting tools to aid in day-to-day administrative tasks.
The software is based on a client / server architecture. The client is responsible for interpreting (but not processing) the configuration served by the server, and uses almost no client side processing. It renders a declarative configuration specification, provided by the Bcfg2 server, into a set of configuration operations which will, if executed, attempt to change the client’s state into that described by the configuration specification.
The Bcfg2 server is responsible for taking a network description and turning it into a series of configuration specifications for particular clients. It also manages probed data and tracks statistics for clients.
Features include:
- Manages complete system configuration.
- Metadata based client configurations.
- Change detection.
- Improved server performance.
- 2 way configuration verification.
- Sparse configuration installation.
- Probes.
- Dry-run mode.
- Profiles.
- Configuration specifications are designed to be reusable
- Machine functionality can be easily duplicated for testing or upgrades.
- Changes are made in a single location.
- Cross-platform software – runs on Linux, AIX, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, OpenSolaris, and Solaris.
Website: bcfg2.org
Support: Documentation, GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Narayan Desai and contributors
License: BSD 2-clause License
Bcfg2 is written in Python. Learn Python with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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