Another application of Subversion

I'm in the process of implementing network configuration using
Subversion that's pretty slick... well, at least I think it's
pretty cool.

I've created separate repositories for each client and server
configuration, i.e. named, dhcp, ntp, httpd, ldap-client,
ldap-server, etc. Each repository has all the configuration
files necessary for that service and a makefile to automate
starting the service (copying/linking files into place,
starting daemons, etc.)

I've also created a repository for each host that uses the
svn:externals property to grab the services to be configured
on that host. For example, a host that is the DNS and DHCP
server would have the following for svn:externals:

   named http://svn.domain.com/svn/named
   dhcpd http://svn.domain.com/svn/dhcpd

This repository also has a makefile that just calls make in
each of its subdirectories (named and dhcpd in the above case).

To start services on a host, simply do the following:
bash> cd /var
bash> svn checkout http://svn.domain.com/svn/`hostname -s` cfg
bash> cd cfg
bash> make activate

The benefits that I see are
- All configurations are versioned controlled (obviously)
- The centralized location for all the configurations makes it
   easier to do backups
- Each service is a building block used to configure hosts
- Services can be moved by simple edits to the svn:externals
   properties and makefiles
- A 'svn update' ensures that all hosts are running the same
   configuration
- A 'svn update' propogates new configurations very easily.

I've just starting doing this but it appears to be working
quite well so far so I thought I'd share. =)

-- 
Tim Moloney
ManTech Real-time Systems Laboratory
2015 Cattlemen Road                             \     /
Sarasota, FL  34232                     .________\(O)/________.
(941) 377-6775 x208                        '  '  O(.)O  '  '
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