Version Control for Important System Files?

TokyoCrusaders92 asks: "Like a lot of other organizations (800 staff, 5000 students) we have a mix of Windows, Novell & Linux (primarily Linux) for our IT infrastructure. We now have a multitude of config files, firewall rule bases, shell scripts, and so forth which are managed by multiple people and groups. Recently, we started using RCS for version control of the firewall rule-base, but this doesn't seem like it would scale up to larger groups of users. While thinking about this, it would seem that the critical features would include: version control; logging; multiple users; secure authentication; and integrity checking. What are other people using to manage their config files?"

Add another box....

[williamyf]

Get an "Industry Standard OpenVMS" (that the name HP gives to that beast) and use it as your main file server and config info repository. All the features you desire are there by default.

While this response was accurate from the technical point of view, it was meant to be a joke

Re:Case insensitivity?

[Anonymous Coward]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Cont rol\Session Manager\kernel

"obcaseinsensitive"=dword:00000000

What an abortion the Windows registry is! If MS followed the *nix philosophy, the setting would be in an /etc file with a simple setting called

case_sensitive = false

This would of course be fully documented in a clear, informative man page.

Re:svn

[penfern]

I do not prefer SVN over httpd (as their website seems to recommend). I always go for it straight through ssh. Much simpler and easier to manage, as long as all your users are already ssh users.

So yes, you can easily use ssh identities, or none at all and they have to type in their username/password every time. :)

Re:cfengine

[nebulous_afterthough]

CFEngine is great for distribution and synchronization. It's not a version control system. In concert though, CFEngine with CVS is a great way to manage a lot of systems. You can even manage the CFEngine configuration within CVS for optimal control. Makes release management feasible and sane.

Re:rsnapshot

[hattmoward]

Those are snapshots, not versions. It is possible for a particular revision of a file to roll off your monthly rotation and be forgotten forever.

Re:cfengine

[doug]

I like that you're thinking outside of box. Every post I've read has tied replication with revision control. You're right that cfengine would do a great job of replicating the config files, but that doesn't remove the need for source management. At least one machine will still need rcs/svn/clearcase track the originals.

- doug