path: root/doc/getting_started/index.txt

.. -*- mode: rst -*-

.. _getting_started-index:

===============
Getting started
===============

The steps below should get you from just thinking about a configuration
management system to an operational installation of Bcfg2. If you get
stuck, be sure to check the :ref:`help-mailinglist` or to drop in on
our :ref:`help-irc`.

See the `Platform-specific Quickstart Notes`_ at the end of this page
if you happen to be using one of the more common operating systems.

Get and Install Bcfg2 Server
============================

We recommend running the server on a Linux machine for ease of
deployment due to the availability of packages for the dependencies.

First, you need to download and install Bcfg2. The section 
:ref:`installation-index` in this manual describes the steps to take.
To start, you will need to install the server on one machine and the
client on one or more machines. Yes, your server can also be a client
(and should be by the time your environment is fully managed).

.. _Bcfg2 download page: http://trac.mcs.anl.gov/projects/bcfg2/wiki/Download

Set up Repository
=================

The next step after installing the Bcfg2 packages is to configure the
server. You can easily set up a personalized default configuration by
running, on the server, ::

    bcfg2-admin init

You will be presented with a series of questions that will build a
Bcfg2 configuration file in ``/etc/bcfg2.conf``, set up a skeleton
repository (in ``/var/lib/bcfg2`` by default), help you create ssl
certificates, and do any other similar tasks needed to get you
started.

Once this process is done, you can start the Bcfg2 server::

    /etc/init.d/bcfg2-server start

You can try it out by running the Bcfg2 client on the same machine,
acting like it is your first client.

.. note::

    The following command will tell the client to run in no-op mode,
    meaning it will only check the client against the repository and
    report any differences it sees. It won't make any changes (partially
    because you haven't populated the repository with any yet). However,
    nobody is perfect. You can make a typo, our software can have bugs,
    monkeys can break in and hit enter before you are done. Don't run
    this command on a production system if you don't know what it does
    and aren't prepared for the consequences. We don't know of anybody
    having problems with it before, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

And now for the command::

    bcfg2 -q -v -n

That can be translated as "bcfg2 quick verbose no-op". The output
should be something similar to::

    Loaded tool drivers:
     Chkconfig    POSIX        YUMng

    Phase: initial
    Correct entries:        0
    Incorrect entries:      0
    Total managed entries:  0
    Unmanaged entries:      242


    Phase: final
    Correct entries:        0
    Incorrect entries:      0
    Total managed entries:  0
    Unmanaged entries:      242

Perfect! We have started out with an empty configuration, and none of
our configuration elements are correct. It doesn't get much cleaner
than that. But what about those unmanaged entries? Those are the extra
configuration elements (probably all packages and services at the
moment) that still aren't managed, but have been detected by the client
tools. Your goal now is to migrate each of those plus any it can't see
up to the "Correct entries" line.

Populate Repository
===================

Finally, you need to populate your repository. Unfortunately, from
here on out we can't write up a simple recipe for you to follow to get
this done. It is very dependent on your local configuration, your
configuration management goals, the politics surrounding your
particular machines, and many other similar details. We can, however,
give you guidance.

After the above steps, you should have a toplevel repository structure
that looks like::

    bcfg-server:~ # ls /var/lib/bcfg2
    Base/  Bundler/  Cfg/  Metadata/  Pkgmgr/  Rules/  SSHbase/  etc/

The place to start is the Metadata directory, which contains two
files: ``clients.xml`` and ``groups.xml``. Your current
``clients.xml`` will look pretty close to:

.. code-block:: xml

    <Clients version="3.0">
       <Client profile="basic" pingable="Y" pingtime="0" name="bcfg-server.example.com"/>
    </Clients>

The ``clients.xml`` file is just a series of ``<Client />`` tags, each
of which describe one host you manage. Right now we only manage one
host, the server machine we just created. This machine is bound to the
``basic`` profile, is pingable, has a pingtime of ``0``, and has the
name ``bcfg-server.example.com``. The two "ping" parameters don't
matter to us at the moment, but the other two do. The name parameter
is the fully qualified domain name of your host, and the profile
parameter maps that host into the ``groups.xml`` file.

Our simple ``groups.xml`` file looks like:

.. code-block:: xml

    <Groups version='3.0'>
       <Group profile='true' public='false' name='basic'>
          <Group name='suse'/>
       </Group>
       <Group name='ubuntu' />
       <Group name='debian' />
       <Group name='redhat' />
       <Group name='suse' />
       <Group name='mandrake' />
       <Group name='solaris' />
    </Groups>

There are two types of groups in Bcfg: profile groups (``profile='true'``)
and non-profile groups (``profile='false'``). Profile groups can act as
top-level groups to which clients can bind, while non-profile groups only
exist as members of other groups. In our simple starter case, we have
a profile group named ``basic``, and that is the group that our first
client bound to. Our first client is a SuSE machine, so it contains the
``suse`` group. Of course, ``bcfg2-admin`` isn't smart enough to fill
out the rest of your config, so the ``suse`` group further down is empty.

Let's say the first thing we want to set up on our machine is the
message of the day. To do this, we simply need to create a Bundle and
add that Bundle to an appropriate group. In this simple example, we
start out by adding

.. code-block:: xml

    <Bundle name='motd'/>

to the ``basic`` group.

Next, we create a motd.xml file in the Bundler directory:

.. code-block:: xml

    <Bundle name='motd' version='2.0'>
      <Path name='/etc/motd' />
    </Bundle>

Now when we run the client, we get slightly different output::

    Loaded tool drivers:
     Chkconfig    POSIX        YUMng
    Incomplete information for entry Path:/etc/motd; cannot verify

    Phase: initial
    Correct entries:        0
    Incorrect entries:      1
    Total managed entries:  1
    Unmanaged entries:      242

    In dryrun mode: suppressing entry installation for:
     Path:/etc/motd

    Phase: final
    Correct entries:        0
    Incorrect entries:      1
    Total managed entries:  1
    Unmanaged entries:      242

We now have an extra unmanaged entry, bringing our total number of
managed entries up to one. To manage it we need to copy ``/etc/motd``
to ``/var/lib/bcfg2/Cfg/etc/motd/``. Note the layout of that path: all
plain-text config files live in the Cfg directory. The directory
structure under that directory directly mimics your real filesystem
layout, making it easy to find and add new files. The last directory
is the name of the file itself, so in this case the full path to the
motd file would be ``/var/lib/bcfg2/Cfg/etc/motd/motd``. Copy your
real ``/etc/motd`` file to that location, run the client again, and
you will find that we now have a correct entry::

    Loaded tool drivers:
     Chkconfig    POSIX        PostInstall  RPM

    Phase: initial
    Correct entries:        1
    Incorrect entries:      0
    Total managed entries:  1
    Unmanaged entries:      242


    Phase: final
    Correct entries:        1
    Incorrect entries:      0
    Total managed entries:  1
    Unmanaged entries:      242

Done! Now we just have 242 (or more) entries to take care of!

:ref:`server-plugins-structures-bundler-index` is a
relatively easy directory to populate. You can find many
samples of Bundles in the :ref:`Bundler Example Repository
<server-plugins-structures-bundler-index-examples>`, many of which can
be used without editing.

.. _getting_started-index-next-steps:

Next Steps
==========

Several other utilities can help from this point on:

:ref:`bcfg2-info <server-bcfg2-info>` is a utility that
instantiates a copy of the bcfg2 server core (minus the networking code)
for examination. From this, you can directly query:

* Client Metadata
* Which entries are provided by particular plugins
* Client Configurations

Run ``bcfg2-info``, and type help and the prompt when it comes up.

``bcfg2-admin`` can perform a variety of repository maintenance
tasks. Run ``bcfg2-admin`` help for details.

Once you have the server setup, you may be interested in
:ref:`bootstrapping <appendix-guides-bootstrap>` additional clients.

Platform-specific Quickstart Notes
==================================

* :ref:`appendix-guides-centos`
* :ref:`appendix-guides-ubuntu`