#mgmt ##mgmt by [James](https://ttboj.wordpress.com/) ####Available from: ####[https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/](https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/) ####This documentation is available in: [Markdown](https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/blob/master/DOCUMENTATION.md) or [PDF](https://pdfdoc-purpleidea.rhcloud.com/pdf/https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/blob/master/DOCUMENTATION.md) format. ####Table of Contents 1. [Overview](#overview) 2. [Project description - What the project does](#project-description) 3. [Setup - Getting started with mgmt](#setup) 4. [Features - All things mgmt can do](#features) * [Autoedges - Automatic resource relationships](#autoedges) * [Autogrouping - Automatic resource grouping](#autogrouping) 5. [Usage/FAQ - Notes on usage and frequently asked questions](#usage-and-frequently-asked-questions) 6. [Reference - Detailed reference](#reference) * [Graph definition file](#graph-definition-file) * [Command line](#command-line) 7. [Examples - Example configurations](#examples) 8. [Development - Background on module development and reporting bugs](#development) 9. [Authors - Authors and contact information](#authors) ##Overview The `mgmt` tool is a research prototype to demonstrate next generation config management techniques. Hopefully it will evolve into a useful, robust tool. ##Project Description The mgmt tool is a distributed, event driven, config management tool, that supports parallel execution, and librarification to be used as the management foundation in and for, new and existing software. For more information, you may like to read some blog posts from the author: * [Next generation config mgmt](https://ttboj.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/next-generation-configuration-mgmt/) * [Automatic edges in mgmt](https://ttboj.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/automatic-edges-in-mgmt/) There is also an [introductory video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVhpPF0j-iE&html5=1) available. ##Setup During this prototype phase, the tool can be run out of the source directory. You'll probably want to use ```./run.sh run --file examples/graph1.yaml``` to get started. Beware that this _can_ cause data loss. Understand what you're doing first, or perform these actions in a virtual environment such as the one provided by [Oh-My-Vagrant](https://github.com/purpleidea/oh-my-vagrant). ##Features This section details the numerous features of mgmt and some caveats you might need to be aware of. ###Autoedges Automatic edges, or AutoEdges, is the mechanism in mgmt by which it will automatically create dependencies for you between resources. For example, since mgmt can discover which files are installed by a package it will automatically ensure that any file resource you declare that matches a file installed by your package resource will only be processed after the package is installed. ####Controlling autodeges Though autoedges is likely to be very helpful and avoid you having to declare all dependencies explicitly, there are cases where this behaviour is undesirable. Some distributions allow package installations to automatically start the service they ship. This can be problematic in the case of packages like MySQL as there are configuration options that need to be set before MySQL is ever started for the first time (or you'll need to wipe the data directory). In order to handle this situation you can disable autoedges per resource and explicitly declare that you want `my.cnf` to be written to disk before the installation of the `mysql-server` package. You can disable autoedges for a resource by setting the `autoedge` key on the meta attributes of that resource to `false`. ####Blog post You can read the introductory blog post about this topic here: [https://ttboj.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/automatic-edges-in-mgmt/](https://ttboj.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/automatic-edges-in-mgmt/) ###Autogrouping Automatic grouping or AutoGroup is the mechanism in mgmt by which it will automatically group multiple resource vertices into a single one. This is particularly useful for grouping multiple package resources into a single resource, since the multiple installations can happen together in a single transaction, which saves a lot of time because package resources typically have a large fixed cost to running (downloading and verifying the package repo) and if they are grouped they share this fixed cost. This grouping feature can be used for other use cases too. You can disable autogrouping for a resource by setting the `autogroup` key on the meta attributes of that resource to `false`. ####Blog post You can read the introductory blog post about this topic here: [https://ttboj.wordpress.com/2016/03/30/automatic-grouping-in-mgmt/](https://ttboj.wordpress.com/2016/03/30/automatic-grouping-in-mgmt/) ##Usage and frequently asked questions (Send your questions as a patch to this FAQ! I'll review it, merge it, and respond by commit with the answer.) ###Why did you start this project? I wanted a next generation config management solution that didn't have all of the design flaws or limitations that the current generation of tools do, and no tool existed! ###Why did you use etcd? What about consul? Etcd and consul are both written in golang, which made them the top two contenders for my prototype. Ultimately a choice had to be made, and etcd was chosen, but it was also somewhat arbitrary. If there is available interest, good reasoning, *and* patches, then we would consider either switching or supporting both, but this is not a high priority at this time. ###You didn't answer my question, or I have a question! It's best to ask on [IRC](https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#mgmtconfig) to see if someone can help you. Once we get a big enough community going, we'll add a mailing list. If you don't get any response from the above, you can contact me through my [technical blog](https://ttboj.wordpress.com/contact/) and I'll do my best to help. If you have a good question, please add it as a patch to this documentation. I'll merge your question, and add a patch with the answer! ##Reference Please note that there are a number of undocumented options. For more information on these options, please view the source at: [https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/](https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/). If you feel that a well used option needs documenting here, please patch it! ###Overview of reference * [Graph definition file](#graph-definition-file): Main graph definition file. * [Command line](#command-line): Command line parameters. ###Graph definition file graph.yaml is the compiled graph definition file. The format is currently undocumented, but by looking through the [examples/](https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/tree/master/examples) you can probably figure out most of it, as it's fairly intuitive. ###Command line The main interface to the `mgmt` tool is the command line. For the most recent documentation, please run `mgmt --help`. ####`--file ` Point to a graph file to run. ####`--converged-timeout ` Exit if the machine has converged for approximately this many seconds. ####`--max-runtime ` Exit when the agent has run for approximately this many seconds. This is not generally recommended, but may be useful for users who know what they're doing. ####`--noop` Globally force all resources into no-op mode. This also disables the export to etcd functionality, but does not disable resource collection, however all resources that are collected will have their individual noop settings set. ##Examples For example configurations, please consult the [examples/](https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/tree/master/examples) directory in the git source repository. It is available from: [https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/tree/master/examples](https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/tree/master/examples) ### Systemd: See [`misc/mgmt.service`](misc/mgmt.service) for a sample systemd unit file. This unit file is part of the RPM. To specify your custom options for `mgmt` on a systemd distro: ```bash sudo mkdir -p /etc/systemd/system/mgmt.service.d/ cat > /etc/systemd/system/mgmt.service.d/env.conf <