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diff --git a/doc/intro.txt b/doc/intro.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c00108996 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/intro.txt @@ -0,0 +1,71 @@ +.. -*- mode: rst -*- + +============ +Introduction +============ + +Bcfg2 helps system administrators produce a consistent, reproducible, +and verifiable description of their environment, and offers +visualization and reporting tools to aid in day-to-day administrative +tasks. It is the fifth generation of configuration management tools +developed in the `Mathematics and Computer Science Division`_ of +`Argonne National Laboratory`_. + +.. _Mathematics and Computer Science Division: http://www.mcs.anl.gov/ +.. _Argonne National Laboratory: http://www.anl.gov/ + +It is based on an operational model in which the specification can be +used to validate and optionally change the state of clients, but in a +feature unique to bcfg2 the client's response to the specification can +also be used to assess the completeness of the specification. Using +this feature, bcfg2 provides an objective measure of how good a job an +administrator has done in specifying the configuration of client +systems. Bcfg2 is therefore built to help administrators construct an +accurate, comprehensive specification. + +Bcfg2 has been designed from the ground up to support gentle +reconciliation between the specification and current client states. It +is designed to gracefully cope with manual system modifications. + +Finally, due to the rapid pace of updates on modern networks, client +systems are constantly changing; if required in your environment, +Bcfg2 can enable the construction of complex change management and +deployment strategies. + +Bcfg2 is fairly portable. It has been successfully run on: + +* `AIX`_, `FreeBSD`_, `OpenBSD`_, `Mac OS X`_, `OpenSolaris`_, + `Solaris`_. + +.. _AIX: http://www.ibm.com/aix +.. _FreeBSD: http://www.freebsd.org/ +.. _OpenBSD: http://www.openbsd.org/ +.. _Mac OS X: http://www.apple.com/macosx/ +.. _OpenSolaris: http://opensolaris.org/ +.. _Solaris: http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/ + +* Many `GNU/Linux`_ distributions, including `Blag`_, `CentOS`_, + `Debian`_, `Fedora`_, `Gentoo`_, `gNewSense`_, `Mandriva`_, + `OpenSUSE`_, `Redhat/RHEL`_, `SuSE/SLES`_, `Trisquel`_ and + `Ubuntu`_. + +.. _GNU/Linux: http://www.gnu.org/gnu/Linux-and-gnu.html +.. _Blag: http://www.blagblagblag.org/ +.. _CentOS: http://www.centos.org/ +.. _Debian: http://www.debian.org/ +.. _Fedora: http://www.fedoraproject.org/ +.. _Gentoo: http://www.gentoo.org/ +.. _gNewSense: http://www.gnewsense.org/ +.. _Mandriva: http://www.mandriva.com/ +.. _OpenSUSE: http://opensuse.org/ +.. _Redhat/RHEL: http://www.redhat.com/rhel/ +.. _SuSE/SLES: http://www.novell.com/linux/ +.. _Trisquel: http://trisquel.info/ +.. _Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com/ + +Bcfg2 should run on any POSIX compatible operating system, however +direct support for an operating system's package and service formats +are limited by the currently available :ref:`client tools` +(new client tools are pretty easy to add). There is also an +:ref:`incomplete but more exact list of platforms on +which Bcfg2 works`. |