DACS - YACCMS version 2.0 released

Hi Folks:

Well the much promised version 2.0 of the 'Config' computer
configuration management system renamed DACS is finally released.

The home page is:

  http://www.cs.umb.edu/~rouilj/DACS

This page includes the manula in pdf and html forms as well as a tar
bundle with a starter DACS master tree.

A quick blurb from the home page:

DACS, the Distribution and Configuration System, is a tool for
maintaining system configuration on multiple computers. It is similar
to other CCM (computer configuration management) tools such as bcfg2,
lcfg, puppet and the well known cfengine. However, it has some unique
features, it integrates:

    * a host "database"
    * a version control system
    * an optional file generation system
    * a file distribution and remote command execution mechanism

The other systems I looked at in 2005 had minimal (or absent) support
for the key things I wanted in a configuration system:

    * a database of information about systems that can be queried
          o to generate configuration files (e.g. get the IP addresses
            of the local NTP servers from the database and eliminate
            hand maintainance, instead generate ntp.conf files).
          o to generate lists of computer wiring
          o to generate lists of assets
          o to select hosts running a particular OS version
          0 ... 
    * ability to track changes to the configuration system
          o Who did what change
          o When was the change made
          o What files were changed and how
          o Why was the change made
    * the ability to generate files in response to configuration
          changes to keep them in sync with changes to the network
    * the ability to quickly determine what services were lost if a
          host failed

The key element in DACS is the use of the "database" as the repository
of configuration knowledge. Once that is present it makes a lot of
other tasks easier and possible.

DACS history
------------

I authored a paper for LISA in 1994 with the assistance of Rick Martin
on "Config" which dealt with a mechanism for configuring and managing
a number of systems.

In 2005 I was looking around for a CCM (computer configuration
management) system and couldn't find anything I liked.

So I dredged up Config again and fixed some of the annoying bugs and
added some features that people had implemented in the preceeding 10
years. My boss, Todd Underwood, urged me to rename it (since using
Google to search for "Config" was a lost cause). As a result it was
renamed it to DACS.

--
				-- rouilj
John Rouillard
===========================================================================
My employers don't acknowledge my existence much less my opinions.