I haven't seen any messages yet so I have no idea who has signed up, but I
would love to hear a frank discussion of currently available network
automation/configuration management (not monitoring) tools, both $$$ and
open source.
I was interested by Brent's original NANOG posting, in which he states:
..."I'm not simply talking about [..] device configuration monitoring
systems [..] Instead I'm talking about systems that will start from a
description of how a network ought to be configured, then interact with
the various devices on that network to make it so..."
What currently available tools actually do this? IMO the $$$ tools out
there today (or at least those I have seen referenced, ie the network
world article, rendition/Opsware, etc) all are pandering to the
sarbanes-oxley scare tactics because that's where the money is. If you
really look at them and peel away the marketing fluff and hand-waving,
they are all basically a configuration monitoring systems with a stamp on
the cd that says: your sarbanes-oxley problems solved here! Is their
goal even to solve network automation problems? I find it
ironically humorous that rendition renamed true control to "network
automation". Maybe they should have renamed it: Sarbanes-Oxley BandAid.
Not to pick on rendition, but the reality is there's money in checkbox
sarbanes-oxley solutions - and that's money in the right place (execs) and
a lot of it. So are real network management solutions getting left in the
dust? And what's worse at least IMO is that these guys all claim to
provide network management solutions, but don't actually provide value to
network administrators (or that isn't their main goal, its an
afterthought if its given any consideration at all), and because the money
is already spent, the network administrators don't get tools that might
actually solve a real problem.
I hope this is just controversial enough to spur on some conversation,
because I would really like to hear everyone else's opinions and
experiences, and what else is out there that I haven't seen yet.
Can anyone recommend open source tools for configuration
management/network automation, or is there interest in starting such a
project?
Thanks!
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