4 ms·

> Blame the folks demonizing/shaming having "pet" servers and pushing immutable infrastructure. Linux server administration is quite enjoyable, and with how wel

> Blame the folks demonizing/shaming having "pet" servers and pushing immutable infrastructure. Linux server administration is quite enjoyable, and with how well apps these days can scale vertically, it really takes a special kind of workload to need (and actually saturate) fleets of servers. You don't need pet servers. Puppet or Ansible make your baremetal cattle.

candiddevmike 5y ago
I think most folks would argue "cattle" means using imaging to manage/replace your fleet. Using something like puppet or ansible against a fresh install implies a level of individualism towards each system as they "may" have minute details based on when puppet/ansible ran, even if they're part of a dynamic inventory of some sort.
- notyourday 5y ago
  I'm not following, sorry. This is cattle: * PXE boot server(s) * Image contains masterless puppet bootstrap. * Server(s) asks git - "give me the bootstrap for my mac address" * Server(s) gets a list of classes to apply. * Server(s) applies classes. Done.
  - MonaroVXR 5y ago
    What kind of software do you use to configure PXE servers? Or is there anything else that I'm missing? I'm looking for a solution to make unattend installation possible. Edit: Can use Ansible to make a PXE server. (Egg or chicken thing)
    - notyourday 5y ago
      There's a single pxeboot server that bootstraps everything. It sends back a single image common among all baremetal servers regardless of what asks for it. The actual configuration is done via a git repo that contains a mapping between mac address of a server and puppet classes.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- hiptobecubic 5y ago
  I disagree. The 'cattle' vs 'pet' distinction is about replicability and replaceability. If you can spin up a new baremetal server quickly and easily in the configuration you need, then you're doing it right. The technology you choose is not relevant.

candiddevmike 5y ago

I think most folks would argue "cattle" means using imaging to manage/replace your fleet. Using something like puppet or ansible against a fresh install implies a level of individualism towards each system as they "may" have minute details based on when puppet/ansible ran, even if they're part of a dynamic inventory of some sort.

notyourday 5y ago
I'm not following, sorry. This is cattle: * PXE boot server(s) * Image contains masterless puppet bootstrap. * Server(s) asks git - "give me the bootstrap for my mac address" * Server(s) gets a list of classes to apply. * Server(s) applies classes. Done.
- MonaroVXR 5y ago
  What kind of software do you use to configure PXE servers? Or is there anything else that I'm missing? I'm looking for a solution to make unattend installation possible. Edit: Can use Ansible to make a PXE server. (Egg or chicken thing)
  - notyourday 5y ago
    There's a single pxeboot server that bootstraps everything. It sends back a single image common among all baremetal servers regardless of what asks for it. The actual configuration is done via a git repo that contains a mapping between mac address of a server and puppet classes.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
hiptobecubic 5y ago
I disagree. The 'cattle' vs 'pet' distinction is about replicability and replaceability. If you can spin up a new baremetal server quickly and easily in the configuration you need, then you're doing it right. The technology you choose is not relevant.