inspect — Inspect Running System

Synopsis

machinery inspect [OPTIONS] HOSTNAME

machinery help inspect

Description

The inspect command inspects a running system and generates a system description from the gathered data.

The system data is structured into scopes, controlled by the --scope option.

Note: Machinery will always inspect all specified scopes, and skip scopes which trigger errors.

Note: Tasks on Debian-like systems are treated as patterns.

Arguments

• HOSTNAME (required): The host name of the system to be inspected. The host name will also be used as the name of the stored system description unless another name is provided with the --name option.

Options

• -n NAME, --name=NAME (optional): Store the system description under the specified name.

• -s SCOPE, --scope=SCOPE (optional): Inspect system for specified scope. See the Scope section for more information.

• -e SCOPE, --ignore-scope=IGNORE-SCOPE (optional): Inspect system for all scopes except the specified scope. See the Scope section for more information.

• -r USER, --remote-user=USER (optional): Defines the user which is used to access the inspected system via SSH. This user needs to be allowed to run certain commands using sudo (see Prerequisites for more information). To change the default-user use machinery config remote-user=USER

• -p SSH-PORT, --ssh-port SSH-PORT (optional): Specifies the SSH port of the remote SSH server.

• -i SSH-IDENTITY-FILE, --ssh-identity-file SSH-IDENTITY-FILE (optional): Specifies the SSH private key what should be used to authenticate with the remote SSH server. Keys with a passphrase are not allowed here. Use the ssh-agent instead.

• -x, --extract-files (optional): Extract changed configuration and unmanaged files from the inspected system. Shortcut for the combination of --extract-changed-config-files, --extract-unmanaged-files, and --extract-changed-managed-files

• --extract-changed-config-files (optional): Extract changed configuration files from the inspected system.

• --extract-unmanaged-files (optional): Extract unmanaged files from the inspected system.

• --extract-changed-managed-files (optional): Extract changed managed files from inspected system.

• --skip-files (optional): Do not consider given files or directories during inspection. Either provide one file or directory name or a list of names separated by commas. You can also point to a file which contains a list of files to filter (one per line) by adding an '@' before the path, e.g.

  $ machinery inspect --skip-files=@/path/to/filter_file myhost

  If a filename contains a comma it needs to be escaped, e.g.

  $ machinery inspect --skip-files=/file\,with_comma myhost

  Note: File or directory names are not expanded, e.g. '../path' is taken literally and not expanded.

• --verbose (optional): Display the filters which are used during inspection.

Prerequisites

• Inspecting a local system requires running machinery as root.

• Inspecting a remote system requires passwordless SSH login as root on the inspected system. Use ssh-agent or asymmetric keys (you can transfer the current SSH key via ssh-copy-id to the inspected host, e.g.: ssh-copy-id root@HOSTNAME).

• The system to be inspected needs to have the following commands:

  • rpm or dpkg
  • zypper, yum, or apt-cache
  • rsync
  • chkconfig, initctl, or systemctl
  • cat
  • sed
  • find
  • tar

• When inspecting as non-root the user needs passwordless sudo rights. The following entry in the sudoers file would allow the user machinery to run sudo without password input:

  machinery ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

• To add a remote machinery user run as root:

  # useradd -m machinery -c "remote user for machinery"

  To configure a password for the new user run:

  # passwd machinery

Examples

• Inspect remote system myhost and save system description under name 'MySystem':

  $ machinery inspect --name=MySystem myhost

• Inspect the installed packages of your local system and save system description under the name 'localhost' (you need to become root):

  # machinery inspect --scope="packages" localhost

• Extracts changed managed files and saves them in the same way as changed configuration files are saved:

  $ machinery inspect --scope=changed-managed-files --extract-files myhost

• To inspect the remote system myhost with the user machinery:

  $ machinery inspect --remote-user machinery myhost