<html lang="en"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">

<meta charset="utf-8">

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">

<meta name="description" content="Full Stack Python explains each layer of the web application stack, from the server up through the rendering in a user's browser.">

<meta name="author" content="Matt Makai">

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="theme/img/full-stack-python-logo-bw.png">

<title>Full Stack Python: Configuration Management</title>

<link href="theme/css/fsp.css" rel="stylesheet">

<!--[if lt IE 9]>

<style>

html,

body {

font-size: 18px;

color: #222;

background: #fefefe;

}

body {

padding-top: 30px;

}

.footer {

padding: 20px 0 30px 0;

}

a, a:hover {border-bottom: 1px dotted; color: #444;}

a:hover {text-decoration: none; color: #000;}

.logo-title {font-size: 56px; color: #403072; padding-top: 80px;

font-family: "News Cycle", "Arial Narrow Bold", sans-serif;

font-weight: bold; line-height: 30px; margin-left: 5px;}

.logo-title a, .logo-title a:hover {color: #000; text-decoration: none;

border-bottom: none;}

.logo-title a:hover {color: gray;}

.logo-image {vertical-align: top; border: none;}

a.list-group-item.active {background: #444; border: 1px solid #222;}

a.list-group-item.active:hover {background: #444; border: 1px solid #222;}

#sidebar {margin-top: 30px;}

@media (max-width: 600px) {

.logo-header-section {

margin: 20px 32px 0 0;

}

}

</style>

<script type="text/javascript">

var _gaq = _gaq || [];

_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-19910497-7']);

_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

(function() {

var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;

ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';

var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);

})();

</script>

</head>

<a href="https://github.com/makaimc/fullstackpython.github.com" class="github">

<img style="position: absolute; top: 0; right: 0; border: 0;" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/github/ribbons/forkme_right_darkblue_121621.png" alt="Fork me on GitHub" />

</a>

<div class="container">

<div class="row">

<div class="col-md-12">

<div class="logo-header-section">

<a href="/" style="text-decoration: none; border: none;"><img src="theme/img/full-stack-python-logo-bw.png" height="42" width="42" class="logo-image" /></a>

<span class="logo-title"><a href="/">Full Stack Python</a></span>

</div>

</div>

<div class="row">

<div class="col-md-8">

<h1>Configuration Management</h1>

<p>Configuration management involves modifying servers from an existing state to

a desired state. Numerous tools exist to modify the state in a controlled

way, including <a href="http://puppetlabs.com/puppet/what-is-puppet">Puppet</a>,

<a href="http://www.getchef.com/chef/">Chef</a>,

<a href="http://www.saltstack.com/">SaltStack</a>, and Ansible. Puppet and Chef are

written in Ruby, while SaltStack and Ansible are written in Python.</p>

<h1>Ad hoc tasks</h1>

<p>Configuration management tools such as Chef, Puppet, Ansible, and SaltStack

are not useful for performing ad hoc tasks that require interactive responses.

<a href="http://docs.fabfile.org/en/1.8/">Fabric</a> and

<a href="http://docs.pyinvoke.org/en/latest/">Invoke</a> are used for interactive

operations, such as querying the database from the Django manage.py shell.</p>

<h2>Ansible</h2>

<p><a href="http://www.ansibleworks.com/">Ansible</a> is an open source configuration

management and application deployment tool built in Python.</p>

<h3>Ansible Resources</h3>

<p><a href="http://docs.ansible.com/index.html">Official Ansible documentation</a></p>

<p><a href="http://www.insom.me.uk/post/pycon-talk.html">Python for Configuration Management with Ansible slides</a>

from PyCon UK 2013</p>

<p><a href="http://devopsu.com/newsletters/ansible-weekly-newsletter.html">Ansible Weekly Newsletter</a></p>

<p><a href="http://labs.qandidate.com/blog/2013/11/15/first-steps-with-ansible/">First Steps with Ansible</a></p>

<p><a href="http://red-badger.com/blog/2013/06/29/ansible/">Red Badger on Ansible</a></p>

<p><a href="http://lowendbox.com/blog/getting-started-with-ansible/">Getting Started with Ansible</a></p>

<p><a href="http://softwareas.com/ansible-and-linode-what-i-learned-about-controlling-linodes-from-ansible">Ansible and Linode</a></p>

<p><a href="http://jlafon.io/ansible-duo-security.html">Multi-factor SSH authentication with Ansible and Duo Security</a></p>

<p><a href="http://devopsu.com/blog/ansible-vs-shell-scripts/">Ansible vs. Shell Scripts</a></p>

<p><a href="http://missingm.co/2013/06/ansible-and-salt-a-detailed-comparison/">Ansible and Salt: A Detailed Comparison</a></p>

<p><a href="http://www.nickhammond.com/automating-development-environment-ansible/">Automating your development environment with Ansible</a></p>

<p><a href="http://devopsu.com/guides/ansible-post-install.html">Post-install steps with Ansible</a> </p>

<p><a href="http://lattejed.com/first-five-and-a-half-minutes-on-a-server-with-ansible">First Five (and a half) Minutes on a Server with Ansible</a> </p>

<p><a href="http://davidwinter.me/articles/2013/11/23/introduction-to-ansible/">(Detailed) Introduction to Ansible</a></p>

<p><a href="http://blog.couchbase.com/create-couchbase-cluster-with-ansible">Create a Couchbase Cluster with Ansible</a></p>

<p><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/Ansible-project/WpRblldA2PQ/lYDpFjBXDlsJ">Idempotence, convergence, and other silly fancy words we often use</a></p>

<br/>

Next read the

<a href="/web-analytics.html">web analytics</a> section.

</div>

<div class="col-md-offset-1 col-md-3" id="sidebar">

<div class="list-group">

<a href="/introduction.html" class="list-group-item ">Introduction</a>

<a href="/servers.html" class="list-group-item ">Servers</a>

<a href="/operating-systems.html" class="list-group-item ">Operating Systems</a>

<a href="/web-servers.html" class="list-group-item ">Web Servers</a>

<a href="/platform-as-a-service.html" class="list-group-item ">Platform-as-a-service</a>

<a href="/databases.html" class="list-group-item ">Databases</a>

<a href="/wsgi-servers.html" class="list-group-item ">WSGI Servers</a>

<a href="/web-frameworks.html" class="list-group-item ">Web Frameworks</a>

<a href="/application-dependencies.html" class="list-group-item ">Application Dependencies</a>

<a href="/cascading-style-sheets.html" class="list-group-item ">Cascading Style Sheets</a>

<a href="/static-content.html" class="list-group-item ">Static Content</a>

<a href="/source-control.html" class="list-group-item ">Source Control</a>

<a href="/caching.html" class="list-group-item ">Caching</a>

<a href="/task-queues.html" class="list-group-item ">Task Queues</a>

<a href="/api-integration.html" class="list-group-item ">API Integration</a>

<a href="/no-sql-datastore.html" class="list-group-item ">NoSQL Data Stores</a>

<a href="/web-application-security.html" class="list-group-item ">Web Security</a>

<a href="/logging.html" class="list-group-item ">Logging</a>

<a href="/monitoring.html" class="list-group-item ">Monitoring</a>

<a href="/configuration-management.html" class="list-group-item active">Configuration Management</a>

<a href="/web-analytics.html" class="list-group-item ">Web Analytics</a>

<a href="/best-python-resources.html" class="list-group-item ">Best Python Resources</a>

<a href="/about-author.html" class="list-group-item ">About the Author</a>

<a href="/change-log.html" class="list-group-item ">Change Log</a>

</div>

<hr/>

<div class="footer pull-right">

<a href="http://www.mattmakai.com/" class="underline">Matt Makai</a> 2014

</div>

</div>

<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.1.0.min.js"></script>

<script src="theme/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>

</body>