[rt-users] Using RT to track system changes..

Glenn Sieb ges+lists at wingfoot.org
Sun Nov 3 13:30:52 EST 2002


At 11:24 PM 11/2/2002 -0600, Dustin Puryear wrote:
>We are looking at RT for use in both tracking client and internal 
>technical issues as well as tracking changes that we make to systems. The 
>first use is obviously what RT was designed to do. As for tracking system 
>changes, that is another matter altogether. Essentially, we would like to 
>have a standardized system whereby when we make a change to a server, be 
>it UNIX or Windows, we can either send an email or submit a change entry 
>via the web to a database. I'm thinking that we can RT for just this.

Hi Dustin,

This is what we do at Lumeta:

My mentor and co-worker, Tom Limoncelli, set up our systems to use 
Makefiles a lot. So we make changes to files like named.conf-master and 
dhcpd.conf and such, and do a make which then (if necessary) builds the 
actual live conf files or such, and checks things into RCS. I don't see why 
you couldn't do things like send an email to an RT queue with a copy of the 
file you just edited, or even something more advanced by tagging along the 
"diff" version of the RCS checked-in code, or what-have-you.... We run 
FreeBSD, so RCS is built-in--nothing says that CVS wouldnt' work! :)

One of the big things I've learned from Tom--Automate! Automate! Automate! 
If you have to do it once, it's a pain. If you have to do it twice, it's 
worth writing a script for! :)

Here's an example Makefile I use on my own personal server (remembering 
that tabs are necessary in Makefiles...):

$ cat /etc/Makefile


all: postfixstuff dnsstuff

postfixstuff:   /etc/postfix/transport.db /etc/postfix/aliases.db 
/etc/postfix/relocated.db /usr/local/mailman/aliases/aliases.mailman.db

/etc/postfix/aliases.db: /etc/postfix/aliases
         ci -q -l -mAliases\ update /etc/postfix/aliases
         newaliases

/usr/local/mailman/aliases/aliases.mailman.db: 
/usr/local/mailman/aliases/aliases.mailman
         ci -q -l -mMailman\ Aliases\ Update 
/usr/local/mailman/aliases/aliases.mailman
         newaliases

/etc/postfix/transport.db: /etc/postfix/transport
         ci -q -l -mPostfix\ Transport\ Update /etc/postfix/transport
         postmap /etc/postfix/transport

/etc/postfix/relocated.db: /etc/postfix/relocated
         ci -q -l -mPostfix\ Relocated\ Update /etc/postfix/relocated
         postmap /etc/postfix/relocated

dnsstuff:
         (cd /chroot/named/etc/namedb && make )

You can always add something along these lines to each of the above:

mail -s "Postfix Aliases updated" help at yourdomain.tld < /etc/postfix/aliases

Hope this helps,
Glenn


---
The original portions of this message are the copyright of the author
(c)1998-2002 Glenn E. Sieb.    ICQ UIN: 300395    IRC Nick: Rainbear

"Religion is for those who do what they are told regardless of what is right.
Spirituality is for those who do what is right regardless of what
they are told." -- unattributed





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