Coolnesses of the Arusha Project

(Disclaimer: the current ARK code doesn't do all of this cool stuff. The point is, the ARK framework and way of thinking will make this stuff possible.)

• One command builds all packages for all platforms at a site:

  % ark package reveal ALL
  

• A ``package'' that is your own sendmail config is handled the same way as a package that is the FlexLM license manager, which is handled the same way as an open-source package:

  % ark package deploy sendmail-config flexlm--6.02 apache--2.0.45
  

• You can have multiple versions of a package active at once:

  % ark package reveal xemacs--21.4.12 xemacs--21.5.11
  

• Whether a package is local to a host, or whether a single copy is shared among many hosts (e.g. by NFS) is completely configurable, and managed automatically.

• Hosts, users, ``disk chunks'', web sites, etc., can be handled within one framework; so...

  % ark user create fourth-year-class
  % ark host verify sparc-solaris7
  

• If you have ``at boot time'' actions associated with packages, users, web sites, etc., they can all be done (in the right order) with:

  # ark package  at-boot --hosts=. --quiet ALL
  # ark user     at-boot --hosts=. --quiet ALL
  # ark website  at-boot --hosts=. --quiet ALL
  

  (Similarly for ``at shutdown time'', and much the same for regular tasks to be done by `cron'...)

• Most importantly, you can collaborate with like-minded sysadmins (in `teams') on the stuff you agree about! If, for example, you agree with how team Sidai does Apache, then your total configuration effort might be:

  <package name="apache--2.0.45" xml-version="1">
  <status>revealed</status>
  <prototypes>
    <prototype team="sidai" name="apache"/>
    <prototype team="." 	  name="ALL"/>
  </prototypes>
  <hosts-supported><list>
    <item>sparc-solaris-web-server</item>
  </list></hosts-supported>
  </package>
  

  If, however, you disagreed with the Sidai folks on the `install-bits' method, you would simply override theirs by adding to the above:

  <install-bits>
  <code><![CDATA[
  # your code here: shell, Python, or Perl script
  ]]></code></method>
  </install-bits>
  

ToDo: the rest