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authorJoey Hess2014-04-19 15:45:27 -0400
committerJoey Hess2014-04-19 15:45:27 -0400
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-This is a configuration management system using Haskell and Git.
-
-Propellor enures that the system it's run against satisfies a list of
-properties, taking action as necessary when a property is not yet met.
-
-Propellor is configured via a git repository, which typically lives
-in ~/.propellor/. The git repository contains a config.hs file,
-and also the entire source code to propellor.
-
-You typically want to have the repository checked out on a laptop, in order
-to make changes and push them out to hosts. Each host will also have a
-clone of the repository, and in that clone "make" can be used to build and
-run propellor. This can be done by a cron job (which propellor can set up),
-or a remote host can be triggered to update by running propellor on your
-laptop: propellor --spin $host
-
-Properties are defined using Haskell. Edit config.hs to get started.
-For API documentation, see <http://hackage.haskell.org/package/propellor/>
-
-There is no special language as used in puppet, chef, ansible, etc.. just
-the full power of Haskell. Hopefully that power can be put to good use in
-making declarative properties that are powerful, nicely idempotent, and
-easy to adapt to a system's special needs.
-
-Also avoided is any form of node classification. Ie, which hosts are part
-of which classes and share which configuration. It might be nice to use
-reclass[1], but then again a host is configured using simply haskell code,
-and so it's easy to factor out things like classes of hosts as desired.
-
-## quick start
-
-1. Get propellor installed
- `cabal install propellor`
- or
- `apt-get install propellor`
-2. Run propellor for the first time. It will set up a `~/.propellor/` git
- repository for you.
-3. `cd ~/.propellor/`; use git to push the repository to a central
- server (github, or your own git server). Configure that central
- server as the origin remote of the repository.
-4. If you don't have a gpg private key, generate one: `gpg --gen-key`
-5. Run: `propellor --add-key $KEYID`
-6. Edit `~/.propellor/config.hs`, and add a host you want to manage.
- You can start by not adding any properties, or only a few.
-7. Pick a host and run: `propellor --spin $HOST`
-8. Now you have a simple propellor deployment, but it doesn't do
- much to the host yet, besides installing propellor.
-
- So, edit `~/.propellor/config.hs` to configure the host (maybe
- start with a few simple properties), and re-run step 7.
- Repeat until happy and move on to the next host. :)
-9. To move beyond manually running `propellor --spin` against hosts
- when you change their properties, add a property to your hosts
- like: `Cron.runPropellor "30 * * * *"`
-
- Now they'll automatically update every 30 minutes, and you can
- `git commit -S` and `git push` changes that affect any number of
- hosts.
-10. Write some neat new properties and send patches to <propellor@joeyh.name>!
-
-## security
-
-Propellor's security model is that the hosts it's used to deploy are
-untrusted, and that the central git repository server is untrusted too.
-
-The only trusted machine is the laptop where you run `propellor --spin`
-to connect to a remote host. And that one only because you have a ssh key
-or login password to the host.
-
-Since the hosts propellor deploys are not trusted by the central git
-repository, they have to use git:// or http:// to pull from the central
-git repository, rather than ssh://.
-
-So, to avoid a MITM attack, propellor checks that any commit it fetches
-from origin is gpg signed by a trusted gpg key, and refuses to deploy it
-otherwise.
-
-That is only done when privdata/keyring.gpg exists. To set it up:
-
- gpg --gen-key # only if you don't already have a gpg key
- propellor --add-key $MYKEYID
-
-In order to be secure from the beginning, when `propellor --spin` is used
-to bootstrap propellor on a new host, it transfers the local git repositry
-to the remote host over ssh. After that, the remote host knows the
-gpg key, and will use it to verify git fetches.
-
-Since the propoellor git repository is public, you can't store
-in cleartext private data such as passwords, ssh private keys, etc.
-
-Instead, `propellor --spin $host` looks for a
-`~/.propellor/privdata/$host.gpg` file and if found decrypts it and sends
-it to the remote host using ssh. This lets a remote host know its own
-private data, without seeing all the rest.
-
-To securely store private data, use: `propellor --set $host $field`
-The field name will be something like 'Password "root"'; see PrivData.hs
-for available fields.
-
-## debugging
-
-Set `PROPELLOR_DEBUG=1` to make propellor print out all the commands it runs
-and any other debug messages that Properties choose to emit.
-
-[1] http://reclass.pantsfullofunix.net/
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