Open-source News

Windows 11 vs. Ubuntu Linux Performance Is Very Close On The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X

Phoronix - Wed, 10/12/2022 - 21:00
One of the leading test requests at Phoronix around my AMD Zen 4 Linux benchmarking has been some side-by-side comparisons against Microsoft Windows 11. While older, high core count AMD systems have particularly performed very well under Linux against Windows, with new hardware there is sometimes hiccups and various limitations with the at-launch support especially on the open-source Linux side. So for your viewing pleasure today are some initial AMD Ryzen 9 7950X benchmarks under Microsoft Windows 11 22H2 up against Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS and a near-final development snapshot of the upcoming Ubuntu 22.10.

Mesa 22.2.1 Released With Dozens Of OpenGL/Vulkan Driver Fixes

Phoronix - Wed, 10/12/2022 - 19:31
For those that have been holding off on upgrading to the Mesa 22.2 open-source OpenGL and Vulkan drivers until the first point release arrives with any early fixes and fallout corrections, that v22.2.1 release is now available...

Unigine 2.16 Released With Experimental Vulkan Support

Phoronix - Wed, 10/12/2022 - 18:48
The Unigine game and simulation 3D engine has released version 2.16 and with this update finally comes the much anticipated Vulkan and Direct3D 12 graphics API support...

uutils 0.0.16 Released As Rust-Based GNU Coreutils Replacement

Phoronix - Wed, 10/12/2022 - 18:03
Among the many Rust-written projects that have been gaining steam in recent years has been uutils as a Rust-based replacement to GNU Coreutils that is commonly used on Linux systems. Out today is uutils 0.0.16 as the latest step in this Rust-replacement quest...

RISC-V Adds Support For CD-ROM Images To Its Default Linux 6.1 Kernel Configuration

Phoronix - Wed, 10/12/2022 - 16:57
Not that you are likely to connect a CD/DVD drive to a RISC-V system in 2022+, but RISC-V's default kernel configuration with the upcoming Linux 6.1 kernel is adding support for CD-ROM file-systems...

Kernel Memory Sanitizer Lands For Linux 6.1

Phoronix - Wed, 10/12/2022 - 16:00
In addition to Linux 6.1 x86_64 defaulting to warning over W+X mappings and other security-minded improvements this merge window, another benefit of this next kernel is the mainlining of the Kernel Memory Sanitizer (KMSAN)...

Linux 6.1 Drops BF16 Support For Cortex-A510 Due To Hardware Bug

Phoronix - Wed, 10/12/2022 - 15:00
The 64-bit Arm (ARM64 / AArch64) architecture changes were merged last week for the ongoing Linux 6.1 merge window...

Deploy applications using Foreman ACD

opensource.com - Wed, 10/12/2022 - 15:00
Deploy applications using Foreman ACD Maximilian Kolb Wed, 10/12/2022 - 03:00

When you manage your IT infrastructure using Foreman and Katello, the smallest unit to operate on is generally a host. You can provision hosts, deliver versioned content, and set configurations. Using Foreman ACD, you can use your Foreman instance to deploy applications consisting of multiple services spanning multiple hosts. This blog post briefly introduces the Foreman ACD plugin and explains how it can help you deploy a Prometheus and Grafana stack. If you want to know more about deploying an ELK stack consisting of an Elasticsearch cluster and Kibana, look at Deploying an ELK Cluster with Application Centric Deployment.

Introduction to Foreman and Katello

You can use Foreman and Katello to manage your IT infrastructure. Using Foreman generally starts with managing content. You can import content from upstream repositories, version and filter packages, mix repositories, and make it consumable for hosts. Next, you can provision hosts based on synchronized content. Using plugins, you can deploy to the cloud and on-premises solutions. The third step is to use configuration management tools, such as Ansible, to configure hosts. Configuration includes installing packages, creating users, specifying network settings, and more.

More on Ansible 5 reasons to migrate to Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2 A quickstart guide to Ansible Ansible cheat sheet Free online course: Ansible essentials Download and install Ansible eBook: The automated enterprise eBook: Ansible for DevOps Free Ansible eBooks Latest Ansible articles

Altogether, the traditional way focuses on single hosts or groups of similar hosts. Most frequently, host details are shared using so-called host groups in Foreman. They contain provisioning and configuration information such as compute resources, Ansible roles, operating system, provisioning templates, parameters, and more. You can think of them as "blueprints" for new hosts. Deploying an additional host based on a host that you have already deployed using a host group is as easy as entering a valid hostname.

But what if you want to provide a more user-friendly way to deploy applications? What if your application relies on several services requiring one or more hosts? Enter Foreman ACD.

Foreman ACD to the rescue

Traditional deployments focus on individual hosts, which are provisioned and configured based on host groups. Foreman ACD, short for Application Centric Deployment, is a Foreman plugin to deploy applications. It's developed and maintained by ATIX AG and is completely open source.

Image by:

(Maximilian Kolb, CC BY-SA 4.0)

The screenshot above shows how to deploy a Prometheus and Grafana cluster based on an Ansible playbook and a previously created application definition. For end users, deploying their application is as easy as entering host names and selecting the number of services as part of their application. For more information on the Prometheus and Grafana example, look at Deploying a Prometheus and Grafana Cluster Using Application Centric Deployment in the orcharhino blog.

What are the differences between host and application-centric approaches?

Both the traditional host-centric and the application-centric way share some procedures. They both start by preparing Foreman with your infrastructure, importing content, and creating necessary entities such as operating systems. After everything is ready, deployment and configuration information are bundled in host groups.

Here are two different approaches.

Host-centric approach
  1. Integrate Foreman into your infrastructure
  2. Import content
  3. Set up host groups
  4. Create hosts based on host groups
  5. Configure hosts using your automation software of choice (such as Ansible)
  6. Use configuration management to install software packages and configure services such as firewalls
Application-centric approach
  1. Integrate Foreman into your infrastructure
  2. Import content
  3. Set up host groups
  4. Fetch an ACD template consisting of an Ansible playbook and an application definition
  5. Create and deploy application instances.

Foreman ACD automates application deployments consisting of multiple services using an Ansible playbook and an application definition, which connects services to host groups and optionally defines host parameters. It requires the foreman_acd and smart_proxy_acd plugins, which are open source software. Packages are available at yum.theforeman.org.

Advantages of using Foreman ACD

Foreman ACD helps you to deploy complete applications with the click of a button. Foreman provisions hosts and automatically configures them after deployment. Each service is started on the defined group of hosts.

In terms of self-service, ACD helps you split users' responsibilities: You can assign the Application Centric Deployment Manager role to users that import the Ansible playbook and define the application definitions. End users with the Application Centric Deployment User role only have permission to deploy predefined application definitions. Note that end users can still, if allowed, set variables such as user accounts, ports, or the number of hosts per service in a predefined range.

Foreman ACD ensures a seamless deployment experience by handling inter-host connectivity. You can deploy multiple hosts simultaneously, all within a self-service-capable interface. This feature allows users with less technical knowledge or access rights to scale their applications vertically and/or horizontally.

Wrap up

If you have already configured Foreman and Katello to provision hosts and already have host groups bundling deployment and configuration information, using the Foreman ACD plugin is the next step to leverage your existing setup. You can conveniently deploy complete applications without connecting hosts manually.

Foreman ACD and Smart Proxy ACD are open source plugins for Foreman developed and maintained by ATIX AG. You can find the documentation at docs.theforeman.org > Application Centric Deployment. There are also several open source ACD playbooks, such as the ACD playbook for Elasticsearch cluster and Kibana and ACD playbook for Prometheus and Grafana. If you have questions, feedback, or suggestions, please open a thread on community.theforeman.org.

Our next ACD playbook helps you deploy Kubernetes. Follow the blog to read the upcoming announcement at orcharhino.com/news.

This demo explains how Foreman ACD can be used to deploy a Prometheus and Grafana stack.

Image by:

Opensource.com

Sysadmin Ansible What to read next How to get started with the Foreman sysadmin tool Managing deb content in Foreman This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License. Register or Login to post a comment.

What Is Ubuntu? - ITPro Today

Google News - Wed, 10/12/2022 - 13:54
What Is Ubuntu?  ITPro Today

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