David Lutterkort

Augeas is a configuration editing tool. It parses configuration files in their native formats and transforms them into a tree. Configuration changes are made by manipulating this tree and saving it back into native config files.

The tool, and this description, recently turned 10 years old, a milestone that I will celebrate with a stroll down memory lane, looking at Augeas' original goals and subsequent achievements over the past decade. Over that time, it has become an important building block for configuration management tools like Puppet and Salt, and is used by tools such as EFF's Let's Encrypt, OSQuery, and libvirt.

I will talk about some of the basic patterns for using Augeas to perform surgery on configuration files, share some tips on how to get the most out of its tree structure, and how to use it to perform idempotent changes. I will also talk about a few areas where Augeas can be improved, and where it's use could be simplified.

Razor is a flexible open-source provisioning tool that makes it easy to control how machines are built based on rules and policies. It maintains an inventory of nodes and their hardware characteristics, gathered by booting each node into a discovery image. Discovery information, together with user-defined policies is used to make installation decisions.

Razor can install a wide variety of operating systems, from common Linux flavors like Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, and RHEL, to operating systems known for their resistance to automated installation like ESXi and Windows. Beyond installation, Razor strives to be a tool for managing a machine's lifecycle, including power control via IPMI etc. and easy integration with external systems.

Razor is an opinionated tool that focuses narrowly on provisioning, but makes it easy to hand off a node after installation to a configuration management system like Puppet to perform more complicated setup tasks and for ongoing maintenance. This talk will give an overview of Razor's capabilities and provide some hands-on examples about its use; it will also give examples of how Razor and Puppet can be used to address common provisioning problems, like building an OpenStack cloud.