cinnion / heimdallr

A utility which creates administrative bridges systems and utilities together.

Heimdallr

A utility which creates administrative bridges between physical/virtual systems, utilities and services to bring them together.

Goal

A typical domain will have multiple servers (both physical and virtual), running some set of software servers and utilities, which we will refer to collectively as "services". Often, these services depend on each other, and information needs to be transferred between them, but either the systems do not incorporate the ability to query another because of multiple implementation options, or the information is stored statically to reduce issues with service outages. In addition, sometimes none of these systems stores the information for which the there is a desire to keep on record. Then, there is the added burden of having to do what is referred to as "swivel-chair" administration. This is where Heimdallr enters the picture. Like the Norse god of the same name, it will be a system which looks into other worlds and builds bridges between them.

While some systems like Ansible are great for performing some of this, it still does not completely cover the problem fully. It is great for connecting to systems to which SSH connectivity exists, but then there is the issue of connecting to other systems, such as those which use REST, SOAP, SNMP or other network protocols, and have their own APIs. The vision for this utility is one which allows it to be the source of truth for certain information about an administrative domain, while delegating that authority to certain other utilities as the source of truth for certain other information. In doing so, it will bridge together these utilities where those utilities do not already communicate, helping to maintain a consistent view.

Some of the few utilities and services which are intended to be brought under the umbrella of this utility include:

• Ansible --- Information gathering and task/command execution
• Cobbler --- Initial system provisioning, and maintaining DHCP
• phpIPAM --- Network/IP Address Management
• FreeNAS --- File Storage

In addition, there is the intent that Heimdallr will perform certain tasks which are complex enough that they are not readily done with Ansible. A primary example of this is migrating directories/partitions from one system to another, more securely than a simple rsync would do on its own.

For some of this, the intent is to provide the functionality via a web interface, replacing the web interfaces of services like Cobbler with a web interface with Heimdallr's own rainbow hues. And for others, the interface will initially be a command line which will perform the task, though those too are ultimately intended to be run through the web interface.