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Cross-Distro Remote Package Administration?
tobiasly writes "I administer several Ubuntu desktops and numerous CentOS servers. One of the biggest headaches is keeping them up-to-date with each distro's latest bugfix and security patches. I currently have to log in to each system, run the appropriate apt-get or yum command to list available updates, determine which ones I need, then run the appropriate install commands. I'd love to have a distro-independent equivalent of the Red Hat Network where I could do all of this remotely using a web-based interface. PackageKit seems to have solved some of the issues regarding cross-distro package maintenance, but their FAQ explicitly states that remote administration is not a goal of their project. Has anyone put together such a system?"
Pirate Party UK
Look into Puppet or CFEngine (we use CFEngine but am considering switching to Puppet eventually). They're both extremely flexible management tools that will trivially handle package management, but you can use them to accomplish almost any management task you can imagine, with the ability to manage or edit any file you want, running shell scripts, etc.
The work flow goes something like this:
1. Identify packages that need update (have a cron job run on every box to email you packages that need updating, or just security updates, however you want to do it)
2. Update the desired versions in your local checkout of your cfengine/puppet files (the syntax isn't easily described here, but its very simple to learn).
3. Commit/push (note that this is the easy way to have multiple administrators) your changes. Optionally have a post commit hook to update a "master files" location, or just do the version control directly in that location.
4. Every box has an (hourly? Whatever you like) cron job to update against your master files location. At this time (with splay so you don't hammer your network) each cfengine/puppet client connects to the master server, updates any packages, configs, etc, runs any scripts you associated with those updates, then emails (or for extra credit build your own webapp) you the results.
The corporate product is http://www.canonical.com/projects/landscapeLandscape
/etc/init.d/yum start
and what do you know - the updates are installed automagically without any manual intervention
Depending on how uniform your servers are, keep one version of CentOS and one version of Ubuntu running in a VM, and have these notify you when updates are available. When updates are available, test against these VMs, and do the local repository thing suggested by another person here. Do one system at a time to make sure something doesn't kill everything at once.
Web based apps with admin privs are fine as long as they're only accessable via the intranet, strongly passworded, and no one else knows they're there. If you need to do remotely, VPN in to the site, and SSH into each box. You're an Administrtor, start administratorizing. Some things just shouldn't be automated.
1) yum -e whateveryoudontneed /etc/init.d/yum-updatesd start
2) chkconfig yum-updatesd on
3) Make sure do_update = yes, download_deps = yes, etc are set in yum-updatesd.conf
4)
This makes your yum system self-updating.
Puppet is a tool made to do exactly what you're asking for by abstracting the specific operating system into a generic interface. It might be worth checking out. Also there's a newcomer called chef. And then there's the oldies like cfengine.
Sorry to reply to my own post, but circlingthesun actually posted the name of it below!
clusterssh
It's called "dssh". Google is your "search" friend (we will ignore the evil side of Google at the moment... :-)
Never use ssh+password. Always use ssh+PKI. I think you missed "key" and focused on "[no] password"
From Ubuntu wiki SSHHowto:
If your SSH server is visible over the Internet, you should use public key authentication instead of passwords if at all possible.
IMHO, a good sysadmin is the one who sees such issues and finds or writes a script to do it for them.
(That's "you're both right")
for address in addresses; do /var/lib/triggers/update'
ssh $address 'touch
done
With an obvious job on the machines watching for such trigger files (to avoid root access, etc.)
if [ -f $TRIGGERFILE ]; then /tmp/yum_trigger.log \
yum -y update 2>&1| tee
&& rm -f $TRIGGERFILE
fi
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
Using keyfiles doesn't mean no password. Most ssh guides that talk about keyfiles actually suggest to protect them with a password. Why? Well, like the GP said (what you obviously somehow missed), as soon as one client is somehow compromised you would have root access to every server.
Using passwords doesn't mean you don't use keyfiles. And using keyfiles doesn't mean you don't have to enter passwords. The way to go is ssh+PKI+password+ssh_agent.
The internet. /var/log/messages to find the issue then google to see who else has the same or similar issue. Or troll a few web hosting forums. Seriously, you need to take more interest in what's happening to your machines. My servers send me status reports by email every morning regarding patches, rootkit detection, unauthorised accesses, tripwire incursions etc etc. I have a server which has had minimal patching since 2002 and still runs fine with no rootkits. I have had no unavoidable downtime since 2002. Yes, I run Redhat Enterprise.
Actually,
This is what disturbs me about the push for linux on the desktop. Most people can't be bothered to research and implement simple monitoring measures, then complain that everything's gone tits up. The whole point of linux is - YOU are in control, ultimate control. Use the power wisely or suffer the consequences. Don't go blaming the distro, the maintainers, the world for your inability to control something designed to react to your hand and your hand alone. A poor workman blames his tools, and GNU/linux is merely a tool.
If you have root, fucking act like it !
Exactly, the confusion here might be in the terminology. Password versus passhrase.
Anyways, just using keys doesn't magically make everything more secure, it just negates brute force password attacks. From the few high profile cases I remember the compromise was the result of somebody's private key being compromised (e.g. the Debian compromises).
The only true solution is a combination of the principle of least privilege, sandboxing (SELinux etc.), proper monitoring and a whole host of other security measures.
Perfect is the enemy of done.