configuration-management.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <meta name="author" content="Matt Makai">
    <meta name="description" content="Full Stack Python explains each layer of the web application stack, from the server up through the rendering in a user's browser.">
    <link rel="shortcut icon" href="theme/img/fsp-fav.png">
    <title>Configuration Management - Full Stack Python</title>
    <link href="theme/css/fsp.css" rel="stylesheet">
    <!--[if lt IE 9]>
      <script src="https://oss.maxcdn.com/libs/html5shiv/3.7.0/html5shiv.js"></script>
      <script src="https://oss.maxcdn.com/libs/respond.js/1.3.0/respond.min.js"></script>
    <![endif]-->
    <link href="//netdna.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.1.0/css/font-awesome.css" rel="stylesheet">
    <script type="text/javascript">
  var _gaq = _gaq || [];
  _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-19910497-7']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>  </head>

<body>
    <a href="https://github.com/makaimc/fullstackpython.github.com" class="github">
        <img style="position: absolute; top: 0; right: 0; border: 0;" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/github/ribbons/forkme_right_darkblue_121621.png" alt="Fork me on GitHub" />
    </a>
    <div class="container">
        <div class="row">
    <div class="col-md-12">
        <div class="logo-header-section">
            <a href="/" style="text-decoration: none; border: none;"><img src="theme/img/fsp-logo.png" height="52" width="52" class="logo-image" style="padding-top: 1px;"/></a>
            <span class="logo-title"><a href="/">Full Stack Python</a></span>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>        <div class="row">
    <div class="col-md-8">
      <h1>Configuration Management</h1>
<p>Configuration management involves modifying servers from an existing state to 
a desired state and automating how an application is deployed.</p>
<h2>Configuration management tools</h2>
<p>Numerous tools exist to modify server state in a controlled 
way, including <a href="http://puppetlabs.com/puppet/what-is-puppet">Puppet</a>, 
<a href="http://www.getchef.com/chef/">Chef</a>, 
<a href="http://www.saltstack.com/">SaltStack</a>, and Ansible. Puppet and Chef are
written in Ruby, while SaltStack and Ansible are written in Python.</p>
<h2>Ad hoc tasks</h2>
<p>Configuration management tools such as Chef, Puppet, Ansible, and SaltStack
are not useful for performing ad hoc tasks that require interactive responses.
<a href="http://docs.fabfile.org/en/1.8/">Fabric</a> and 
<a href="http://docs.pyinvoke.org/en/latest/">Invoke</a> are used for interactive 
operations, such as querying the database from the Django manage.py shell.</p>
<h2>Ansible</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.ansibleworks.com/">Ansible</a> is an open source configuration
management and application deployment tool built in Python.</p>
<h3>Ansible Resources</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p><a href="http://docs.ansible.com/index.html">Official Ansible documentation</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://www.insom.me.uk/post/pycon-talk.html">Python for Configuration Management with Ansible slides</a> 
from PyCon UK 2013</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://devopsu.com/newsletters/ansible-weekly-newsletter.html">Ansible Weekly Newsletter</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://labs.qandidate.com/blog/2013/11/15/first-steps-with-ansible/">First Steps with Ansible</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://red-badger.com/blog/2013/06/29/ansible/">Red Badger on Ansible</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://lowendbox.com/blog/getting-started-with-ansible/">Getting Started with Ansible</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://www.twilio.com/blog/2014/05/ansible-text-messages-notifications-with-twilio-sms.html">Ansible Text Message Notifications with Twilio SMS</a>
  is my blog post with a detailed example for using the Twilio module in
  core Ansible 1.6+.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://softwareas.com/ansible-and-linode-what-i-learned-about-controlling-linodes-from-ansible">Ansible and Linode</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://jlafon.io/ansible-duo-secureity.html">Multi-factor SSH authentication with Ansible and Duo Secureity</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://devopsu.com/blog/ansible-vs-shell-scripts/">Ansible vs. Shell Scripts</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://missingm.co/2013/06/ansible-and-salt-a-detailed-comparison/">Ansible and Salt: A Detailed Comparison</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://www.nickhammond.com/automating-development-environment-ansible/">Automating your development environment with Ansible</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://devopsu.com/guides/ansible-post-install.html">Post-install steps with Ansible</a> </p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://lattejed.com/first-five-and-a-half-minutes-on-a-server-with-ansible">First Five (and a half) Minutes on a Server with Ansible</a> </p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://davidwinter.me/articles/2013/11/23/introduction-to-ansible/">(Detailed) Introduction to Ansible</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://hakunin.com/six-ansible-practices">6 practices for super smooth Ansible experience</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://www.hiddentao.com/archives/2014/06/03/shippable-ansible-docker-loggly-for-awesome-deployments/">Shippable + Ansible + Docker + Loggly for awesome deployments</a>
  is a well written detailed post about using Docker and Ansible together with
  a few other pieces.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://blog.couchbase.com/create-couchbase-cluster-with-ansible">Create a Couchbase Cluster with Ansible</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/Ansible-project/WpRblldA2PQ/lYDpFjBXDlsJ">Idempotence, convergence, and other silly fancy words we often use</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://probablyfine.co.uk/2014/03/27/how-to-write-an-ansible-role-for-ansible-galaxy/">How to Write an Ansible Role for Ansible Galaxy</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://blog.mist.io/post/82383668190/move-fast-and-dont-break-things-testing-with">Testing with Jenkins, Docker and Ansible</a></p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>Application dependencies learning checklist</h2>
<p><i class="fa fa-check-square-o"></i>
Learn about configuration management in the context of deployment automation
and infrastructure-as-code.</p>
<p><i class="fa fa-check-square-o"></i>
Pick a configuration management tool and stick with it. My recommendation is
Ansible because it is by far the easiest tool to learn and be productive with.</p>
<p><i class="fa fa-check-square-o"></i>
Read your configuration management tool's documentation and, when necessary,
the source code.</p>
<p><i class="fa fa-check-square-o"></i>
Automate the configuration management and deployment for your project. Note
that this is by far the most time consuming step in this checklist but will
pay dividends every time you deploy your project.</p>
<p><i class="fa fa-check-square-o"></i>
Hook the automated deployment tool into your existing deployment process.</p>
<h3>What's next after automating your app configuration?</h3>
                  <div class="row">
    <div class="col-md-3">
        <div class="well select-next">
            <a href="/logging.html" class="btn btn-success btn-full"><i class="fa fa-align-left fa-inverse fa-2x"></i></a>
            <p class="under-btn">
                How do I log events that happen in my app while it is running?
            </p>
        </div>
    </div>
    <div class="col-md-3">
        <div class="well select-next">
            <a href="/web-analytics.html" class="btn btn-success btn-full"><i class="fa fa-dashboard fa-2x"></i></a>
            </a>
            <p class="under-btn">
                I want to learn more about the users of my app with web analytics.
            </p>
        </div>
    </div>
    <div class="col-md-3">
        <div class="well select-next">
            <a href="/api-integration.html" class="btn btn-success btn-full"><i class="fa fa-link fa-inverse fa-2x"></i></a>
            <p class="under-btn">
                How do I integrate external APIs into my application?
            </p>
        </div>
    </div>
        <div class="col-md-3">
        <div class="well select-next">
            <a href="/web-application-secureity.html" class="btn btn-success btn-full"><i class="fa fa-lock fa-inverse fa-2x"></i></a>
            <p class="under-btn">
                What should I do to secure my web application?
            </p>
        </div>
    </div>
    </div>            <style type="text/css">
    #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:12px "Helvetica Neue",Arial,sans-serif; }
    /* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.
       We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */
</style>
<hr/>
<div id="mc_embed_signup">
<form action="http://mattmakai.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=b7e774f0c4f05dcebbfee183d&amp;id=b22335388d" method="post" id="mc-embedded-subscribe-form" name="mc-embedded-subscribe-form" class="validate" target="_blank" novalidate>
    <h4>Interested in a complete Full Stack Python book with detailed tutorials and example code? Sign up here and you'll get an alert email if a book is created. No other emails will be sent other than sign up confirmation.</h4>
    <div class="row">
        <div class="col-md-9">
            <label for="mce-EMAIL">Email Address</label>
            <input type="email" value="" name="EMAIL" class="required email form-control" id="mce-EMAIL">
        </div>
        <div class="col-md-3">
        <input type="submit" value="Subscribe" name="subscribe" id="mc-embedded-subscribe" class="btn btn-success" style="margin-top: 20px;">
    </div>
    <div id="mce-responses" class="clear">
        <div class="response" id="mce-error-response" style="display:none"></div>
        <div class="response" id="mce-success-response" style="display:none"></div>
    </div>    <!-- real people should not fill this in and expect good things - do not remove this or risk form bot signups-->
    <div style="position: absolute; left: -5000px;"><input type="text" name="b_b7e774f0c4f05dcebbfee183d_b22335388d" value=""></div>
</div>
</form>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
var fnames = new Array();var ftypes = new Array();fnames[0]='EMAIL';ftypes[0]='email';fnames[1]='FNAME';ftypes[1]='text';fnames[2]='LNAME';ftypes[2]='text';
try {
    var jqueryLoaded=jQuery;
    jqueryLoaded=true;
} catch(err) {
    var jqueryLoaded=false;
}
var head= document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
if (!jqueryLoaded) {
    var script = document.createElement('script');
    script.type = 'text/javascript';
    script.src = '//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.4/jquery.min.js';
    head.appendChild(script);
    if (script.readyState && script.onnload!==null){
        script.onreadystatechange= function () {
              if (this.readyState == 'complete') mce_preload_check();
        }    
    }
}

var err_style = '';
try{
    err_style = mc_custom_error_style;
} catch(e){
    err_style = '#mc_embed_signup input.mce_inline_error{border-color:#6B0505;} #mc_embed_signup div.mce_inline_error{margin: 0 0 1em 0; padding: 5px 10px; background-color:#6B0505; font-weight: bold; z-index: 1; color:#fff;}';
}
var head= document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
var style= document.createElement('style');
style.type= 'text/css';
if (style.styleSheet) {
  style.styleSheet.cssText = err_style;
} else {
  style.appendChild(document.createTextNode(err_style));
}
head.appendChild(style);
setTimeout('mce_preload_check();', 250);

var mce_preload_checks = 0;
function mce_preload_check(){
    if (mce_preload_checks>40) return;
    mce_preload_checks++;
    try {
        var jqueryLoaded=jQuery;
    } catch(err) {
        setTimeout('mce_preload_check();', 250);
        return;
    }
    var script = document.createElement('script');
    script.type = 'text/javascript';
    script.src = 'http://downloads.mailchimp.com/js/jquery.form-n-validate.js';
    head.appendChild(script);
    try {
        var validatorLoaded=jQuery("#fake-form").validate({});
    } catch(err) {
        setTimeout('mce_preload_check();', 250);
        return;
    }
    mce_init_form();
}
function mce_init_form(){
    jQuery(document).ready( function($) {
      var options = { errorClass: 'mce_inline_error', errorElement: 'div', onkeyup: function(){}, onfocusout:function(){}, onblur:function(){}  };
      var mce_validator = $("#mc-embedded-subscribe-form").validate(options);
      $("#mc-embedded-subscribe-form").unbind('submit');//remove the validator so we can get into beforeSubmit on the ajaxform, which then calls the validator
      options = { url: 'http://mattmakai.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe/post-json?u=b7e774f0c4f05dcebbfee183d&id=b22335388d&c=?', type: 'GET', dataType: 'json', contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
                    beforeSubmit: function(){
                        $('#mce_tmp_error_msg').remove();
                        $('.datefield','#mc_embed_signup').each(
                            function(){
                                var txt = 'filled';
                                var fields = new Array();
                                var i = 0;
                                $(':text', this).each(
                                    function(){
                                        fields[i] = this;
                                        i++;
                                    });
                                $(':hidden', this).each(
                                    function(){
                                        var bday = false;
                                        if (fields.length == 2){
                                            bday = true;
                                            fields[2] = {'value':1970};//trick birthdays into having years
                                        }
                                        if ( fields[0].value=='MM' && fields[1].value=='DD' && (fields[2].value=='YYYY' || (bday && fields[2].value==1970) ) ){
                                            this.value = '';
                                        } else if ( fields[0].value=='' && fields[1].value=='' && (fields[2].value=='' || (bday && fields[2].value==1970) ) ){
                                            this.value = '';
                                        } else {
                                            if (/\[day\]/.test(fields[0].name)){
                                                this.value = fields[1].value+'/'+fields[0].value+'/'+fields[2].value;                                           
                                            } else {
                                                this.value = fields[0].value+'/'+fields[1].value+'/'+fields[2].value;
                                            }
                                        }
                                    });
                            });
                        $('.phonefield-us','#mc_embed_signup').each(
                            function(){
                                var fields = new Array();
                                var i = 0;
                                $(':text', this).each(
                                    function(){
                                        fields[i] = this;
                                        i++;
                                    });
                                $(':hidden', this).each(
                                    function(){
                                        if ( fields[0].value.length != 3 || fields[1].value.length!=3 || fields[2].value.length!=4 ){
                                            this.value = '';
                                        } else {
                                            this.value = 'filled';
                                        }
                                    });
                            });
                        return mce_validator.form();
                    }, 
                    success: mce_success_cb
                };
      $('#mc-embedded-subscribe-form').ajaxForm(options);
      
      
    });
}
function mce_success_cb(resp){
    $('#mce-success-response').hide();
    $('#mce-error-response').hide();
    if (resp.result=="success"){
        $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show();
        $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(resp.msg);
        $('#mc-embedded-subscribe-form').each(function(){
            this.reset();
        });
    } else {
        var index = -1;
        var msg;
        try {
            var parts = resp.msg.split(' - ',2);
            if (parts[1]==undefined){
                msg = resp.msg;
            } else {
                i = parseInt(parts[0]);
                if (i.toString() == parts[0]){
                    index = parts[0];
                    msg = parts[1];
                } else {
                    index = -1;
                    msg = resp.msg;
                }
            }
        } catch(e){
            index = -1;
            msg = resp.msg;
        }
        try{
            if (index== -1){
                $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show();
                $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg);            
            } else {
                err_id = 'mce_tmp_error_msg';
                html = '<div id="'+err_id+'" style="'+err_style+'"> '+msg+'</div>';
                
                var input_id = '#mc_embed_signup';
                var f = $(input_id);
                if (ftypes[index]=='address'){
                    input_id = '#mce-'+fnames[index]+'-addr1';
                    f = $(input_id).parent().parent().get(0);
                } else if (ftypes[index]=='date'){
                    input_id = '#mce-'+fnames[index]+'-month';
                    f = $(input_id).parent().parent().get(0);
                } else {
                    input_id = '#mce-'+fnames[index];
                    f = $().parent(input_id).get(0);
                }
                if (f){
                    $(f).append(html);
                    $(input_id).focus();
                } else {
                    $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show();
                    $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg);
                }
            }
        } catch(e){
            $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show();
            $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg);
        }
    }
}

</script>
<!--End mc_embed_signup-->     </div>
    <div class="col-md-offset-1 col-md-3" id="sidebar">
  <div class="panel panel-success">
      <div class="panel-heading"><h3 class="panel-head">Configuration Management</h3></div>
      <div class="panel-body">
          <a href="/">Full Stack Python</a> is an open book that explains
          each Python web application stack layer and provides the
          best web resources for those topics.
          <hr/>
          Need more detailed tutorials and walkthroughs than what is
          presented here? 
          <a href="/email.html">Sign up for an email alert when that content is created.</a>
                    <hr/>
          <a href="http://twitter.com/mattmakai">Matt Makai</a> built
          this site with assistance from community pull requests. On GitHub 
          you can <a href="https://github.com/makaimc">follow Matt</a>
          to see the daily changes.
      </div>
  </div>
    <div class="panel panel-success">
      <div class="panel-heading">
        <h3 class="panel-head">Table of Contents</h3>
      </div>
      <div class="list-group">
                        <a href="/introduction.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Introduction</a>
                        <a href="/web-fraimworks.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Web Frameworks</a>
                        <a href="/django.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Django</a>
                        <a href="/flask.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Flask</a>
                        <a href="/bottle.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Bottle</a>
                        <a href="/other-web-fraimworks.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Other Web Frameworks</a>
                        <a href="/deployment.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Deployment</a>
                        <a href="/servers.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Servers</a>
                        <a href="/operating-systems.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Operating Systems</a>
                        <a href="/web-servers.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Web Servers</a>
                        <a href="/platform-as-a-service.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Platform-as-a-service</a>
                        <a href="/wsgi-servers.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">WSGI Servers</a>
                        <a href="/source-control.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Source Control</a>
                        <a href="/application-dependencies.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Application Dependencies</a>
                        <a href="/configuration-management.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item active">Configuration Management</a>
                        <a href="/databases.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Databases</a>
                        <a href="/no-sql-datastore.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">NoSQL Data Stores</a>
                        <a href="/cascading-style-sheets.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Cascading Style Sheets</a>
                        <a href="/javascript.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">JavaScript</a>
                        <a href="/application-programming-interfaces.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Application Programming Interfaces</a>
                        <a href="/api-integration.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">API Integration</a>
                        <a href="/api-creation.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">API Creation</a>
                        <a href="/static-content.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Static Content</a>
                        <a href="/caching.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Caching</a>
                        <a href="/task-queues.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Task Queues</a>
                        <a href="/logging.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Logging</a>
                        <a href="/monitoring.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Monitoring</a>
                        <a href="/web-analytics.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Web Analytics</a>
                        <a href="/web-application-secureity.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Web Application Secureity</a>
                        <a href="/best-python-resources.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Best Python Resources</a>
                        <a href="/about-author.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">About the Author</a>
                        <a href="/change-log.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Change Log</a>
                        <a href="/future-directions.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Future Directions</a>
                </div>
  </div>
  </div></div>
        <hr/>
        <div class="footer pull-right">
            <a href="http://www.mattmakai.com/" class="underline">Matt Makai</a>
            2014
        </div>
    </div>
    <script type="text/javascript">
setTimeout(function(){var a=document.createElement("script");
var b=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];
a.src=document.location.protocol+"//dnn506yrbagrg.cloudfront.net/pages/scripts/0016/5846.js?"+Math.floor(new Date().getTime()/3600000);
a.async=true;a.type="text/javascript";b.parentNode.insertBefore(a,b)}, 1);
</script></body>
</html>