Bcfg2 Snapshots

New in version 1.0.0.

This page describes the Snapshots plugin. This plugin is meant to replace the older Bcfg2 Dynamic Reporting System. It stores various aspects of a client’s state when the client checks into the server.

Before you begin

Make sure you have version 0.5 or greater of sqlalchemy.

On CentOS/RHEL 5

• Download a tarball of SQLAlchemy.

• Extract and build the RPM:

  tar xzf SQLAlchemy-0.5.6.tar.gz
  cd SQLAlchemy-0.5.6
  python setup.py bdist_rpm

• Copy the RPM in SQLAlchemy-0.5.6/dist/ to your Yum repository, and rebuild the repository using createrepo.

• Clear the Yum cache:

  sudo yum clean all

• Install SQLAlchemy:

  sudo yum install SQLAlchemy

• Manage the package in Bcfg2 as you would any other package.

Configuration

• A database location needs to be added to bcfg2.conf. Three drivers are currently supported; mysql, postgres, and sqlite. When using the sqlite driver, only the driver and database lines are required.

  • For MySQL:

    [snapshots]
    driver = mysql
    database = snapshots
    user = snapshots
    password = snapshots
    host = dbserver
    

  • For SQLite:

    [snapshots]
    driver = sqlite
    database = /var/lib/bcfg2/var/snapshots.sqlite

• The database needs to be initialized.:

  $ bcfg2-admin snapshots init
  2009-03-22 21:40:24,683 INFO sqlalchemy.engine.base.Engine.0x...3e2c PRAGMA table_info("connkeyval")
  PRAGMA table_info("connkeyval")
  2009-03-22 21:40:24,684 INFO sqlalchemy.engine.base.Engine.0x...3e2c ()
  ()
  2009-03-22 21:40:24,686 INFO sqlalchemy.engine.base.Engine.0x...3e2c PRAGMA table_info("package")
  PRAGMA table_info("package")
  2009-03-22 21:40:24,687 INFO sqlalchemy.engine.base.Engine.0x...3e2c ()
  ()
  .....
  COMMIT

• The Snapshots plugin needs to be enabled for the bcfg2-server (by adding Snapshots to the plugins line in /etc/bcfg2.conf). Once done, this will cause the the server to store statistics information when clients run.

Using the reports interface

All hosts:

$ bcfg2-admin snapshots reports -a

============= ========= ========================================== ============================
Client        Correct   Revision                                   Time
============= ========= ========================================== ============================
bcfg2client   True      f46ac7773712bd3c3cfb765ae5d2a3b2a37ac9b7   2009-04-23 11:27:54.378941
============= ========= ========================================== ============================

List bad entries for a single host:

$ bcfg2-admin snapshots reports -b bcfg2client
Bad entries:
 Package:nscd
 Package:cupsys
 File:/etc/ldap.conf

List extra entries for a single host:

$ bcfg2-admin snapshots reports -e bcfg2client
Extra entries:
 Package:python-pyxattr
 Package:librsync1
 Package:python-pylibacl
 Package:gcc-4.2-multilib
 Package:nxlibs
 Package:freenx-session-launcher
 Package:dx-doc
 Package:dirdiff
 Package:libhdf4g
 Package:nxclient
 Package:freenx-rdp
 Package:freenx-vnc
 Package:libxml2-dev
 Package:mysql-client
 Package:mysql-client-5.0
 Package:libxcompext3
 Package:lib32gomp1
 Package:dx
 Package:freenx-media
 Package:dxsamples
 Package:gcc-multilib
 Package:rdiff-backup
 Package:libdbd-mysql-perl
 Package:libxcomp3
 Package:freenx-server
 Package:smbfs
 Package:planner
 Package:nxagent
 Package:libc6-dev-i386
 Package:libfltk1.1-dev
 Package:freenx
 Package:libdx4
 Package:libxcompshad3
 Service:freenx-server

Detailed view of hosts for a particular date:

$ bcfg2-admin snapshots reports --date 2009 5 30
============= ========= ========================================== ============================
Client        Correct   Revision                                   Time
============= ========= ========================================== ============================
bcfg2client   False     10c1a12c62c57c0861cc453b8d2640c4839a7357   2009-05-29 10:52:34.701056

TODO/Wishlist

• Identify per-client changes in correctness over time
• Detailed view for a particular date
• Track entry changes over time (glibc updated on these dates to these versions)