Agile Systems Administration

Julian Simpson, ThoughtWorks Ltd.

Who the hell are you?

● I am Julian Simpson● I've been a Solaris Admin since 1997● Now that I work on software projects I need

excuses to do interesting things like this

And what's this Agile business?

● Agile is an iterative and incremental (evolutionary) approach to software development

● which is performed in a highly collaborative manner

● with "just enough" ceremony● that produces high quality software● which meets the changing needs of its

stakeholders. (Scott W Ambler)

Programming before Agile ...

Otto, since you checked in that last change, I can't deploy the application ...

it works on my machine ...

And after ...

Otto, you broke the build ...

Oh, I didn't check in FooBarImpl.java ... thanks

CruiseControl helps us in Agile software projects ...

But is it any use in an infrastructure context? ...

So I decided to find out: by building a web and mail

server using Puppet, Rake, Ruby, SVN and CruiseControl

Ruby

● Dynamic Language like Perl

● Object oriented● has a good testing

framework● big in Japan

Puppet

● Sysadmin framework● Very open ● Declarative● Developed by a

sysadmin for sysadmins

Rake

● Make, for Ruby

Subversion

● favourite source control

cruisecontrol

● Continuous Integration tool

● listens for Subversion commits and executes Rake

● available in Java, .NET and Ruby versions

How does it all work then?

● all configuration is in source control

How does it all work then?

● changes are picked up by cruisecontrol

How does it all work then?

● Cruise runs rake to run tests against the config

How does it all work then?

● Puppet applies the config if the tests pass

How does it all work then?

● Other puppet clients in your network can now retrieve the tested version of your configuration and apply it.

What is the benefit?

● you always apply configuration that is tested● you can version your configuration

What is the benefit?

● status is visible to everybody ● and you can even drive a lava lamp off of it

Short Film

What do you think?

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