The Promise of System Configuration

Google Tech Talks
November 5, 2008

ABSTRACT

In 1993 cfengine was one of the first open source configuration management systems for Unix, and the first to perform self-healing, long before IBM's autonomic computing initiative drew attention. Cfengine is now used on hundred of thousands of computers all over the world.

In the late 1990's Mark Burgess came to realize that no one was really conducting research into large scale computer behaviour and he began to work on all aspects of system administration. Recently he introduced a model now known as "Promise Theory" to describe how autonomous systems collaborate -- as there was no good model to describe how cfengine worked. In the light of this research cfengine has now been completely rewritten to take advantage of the results of this model -- resulting in big simplifications as well as much greater power. In this talk, Mark will describe the case for promises and explain why 50 years of deontic logic have been no help whatsoever in solving system management problems.

Speaker: Professor Mark Burgess, Oslo University College
Mark is professor of Network and System Administration at Oslo University College, having defected from a life of Theoretical Physics. He is the author of of numerous books and papers on Network and System Administration. He was one of the initiators of the EMANICS Network of Excellence for Universities in investigating Network and Service Management in the EU, and has recently gone back to writing cfengine 3.

• Category

  Science & Technology

[udirt]

@comments: and you guys are why it's a good thing that clueless smartassed freshmen don't get to admin servers anywhere except in internet shops and startups.

[Felisa1914]

Ayuda por favor tengo una laptop, HP mini 2133, me ha salido esto

File Security Sistem Configurations

Digame que debo hacer por favor

Felisa.

[jfm3jfm3jfm3]

Summary:

"I have renamed some basic concepts in computer science and applied them in uninteresting ways to UNIX system administration. My results are only more useful than basic linear install scripts on highly non-heterogeneous collections of systems of fewer than 100 nodes. In this talk, I cite books which have been refuted by their own author's later works, and mismatch metaphors in various irritating ways. In summary, you're crazy if you don't use my software."

[eastender74]

OMG zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz