Re: Asset management recommendations

[Raymond Burkholder <ray () oneunified net>]

Expanding further, there are those that use ansible for network 
management.  But I don't think it does well in scaling out for 
functionality.  I have used saltstack for network config and server 
builds, as it becomes the source of truth for the infrastructure, 
allowing for consistent upgrades and additions. Combining with something 
like netbox for infrastructure source of truth, one can build to spec, 
and then use something like rancid as an independent confirmation of 
'build to spec'.

I've been able to script builds to automatically boot a blank device via 
pxeboot, get an operating system and customized modules installed, 
restarted, automatically registered to receive the starting 
configuration, register against a check_mk/nagios based monitoring 
system, and for servers, to automatically create and build containers 
and their contents.  It greatly simplifies the maintenance and upgrade 
tasks in to repeatable and reproducible build solutions.  Plus the 
source of truth configuration files can be version controlled to provide 
a history infrastructure adjustments.

What I like about saltstack and netbox, is that they are both based upon 
python, which is a relatively common skillset and a growing ecosystem.

https://netbox.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/states/


On 2019-08-24 6:05 a.m., J. Hellenthal via NANOG wrote:
> I would have to agree with this too. Unless you are looking at a 
> multifaceted approach where you can compare two different sources of 
> knowledge then use the config mgmt tools to cover that baseline is 
> pretty adequate until....
>
> You have client computers and hardware along that level to track. So 
> in that instance since everything has an IP these days then phpIPAM or 
> similar can do quite the job storing serial numbers, makes, models, 
> descriptions and tracking the on and offline status plus plenty more.
>
> https://phpipam.net/documents/screenshots/
>
>
> --
>  J. Hellenthal
>
> The fact that there's a highway to Hell but only a stairway to Heaven 
> says a lot about anticipated traffic volume.
>
> > On Aug 24, 2019, at 03:37, George Herbert <george.herbert () gmail com> 
> > wrote:
> >
> > 
> > Do you really want asset management tools, or configuration 
> > management tools with asset discovery / inventory capability?
> >
> > Juniper supports Chef configuration management pretty extensively, 
> > and is widely used for systems management and patch management on 
> > Linux.  Scales to multisite well.  There are tie-ins to be able to 
> > export monitoring and alerting tool configurations based on server 
> > and network inventories, etc.
> >
> > https://www.juniper.net/documentation/en_US/junos-chef11.10/topics/concept/chef-overview.html
> >
> > There are also Puppet, Ansible, and Saltstack in this product space, 
> > slightly less well supported with Juniper as I understand it (haven't 
> > looked extensively, someone else may have better info).
> >
> > On Fri, Aug 23, 2019 at 9:10 PM Mehmet Akcin <mehmet () akcin net 
> > <mailto:mehmet () akcin net>> wrote:
> >
> >     Hey there
> >
> >     I am looking for a tool recommendation for network and server
> >     asset management which can scale in multiple sites and integrate
> >     with other platforms like nagios, librenms. Being able to do
> >     patch management is plus. Mostly linux and juniper shop
> >
> >     Any recommendations?
> >
> >
> >     -- 
> >     Mehmet
> >     +1-424-298-1903
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > -george william herbert
> > george.herbert () gmail com <mailto:george.herbert () gmail com>