Viper

Viper is a system for completely automated installation, configuration and monitoring of Debian GNU based systems.

The first public release was in August 2009.

Viper uses a modern approach (debian-installer, Puppet etc.), works with existing Debian packages, and does not require any custom patching of either install media, client or server.

The basis of the whole system is a LDAP server, containing all configuration data.

LDAP has the potential to be enormously successful in configuration management, but its flat data structure, absence of dynamic behavior, and heaps of duplicated data make it a mediocre tool.

To build on LDAP's great strengths while solving its deficiencies, a custom OpenLDAP backend has been implemented.

Along the way, one other crucial benefit of a custom LDAP backend became apparent -- the ability to make provisions for existing components and their use of LDAP, instead of requiring modifications to their source code.

One of the Viper design goals was to make Viper natural and easy to get results with. For that purpose, everything has been commented, with the availability of complete config files and a Quick Start guide.

If you're new to OpenLDAP or LDAP in general, first take a look at SPINLOCK Techpubs Guide "Debian GNU: Setting up OpenLDAP". You'll be interested in learning about general operation, not the specifics of the OpenLDAP installation, because Viper comes with a working config file and data set that can be used verbatim.

Viper is Free Software, distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later.

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VIPER

Quick Start

Guides

Misc info

Resources

Viper