There’s a fairly new free software (GPLv2) project you might be interested in. As Jason Dobies mentioned, it’s nice and juicy. It’s called Pulp and it essentially makes managing software and updates on multiple systems a much simpler, less time-intensive task.
Pulp is aimed at folks who manage many systems, whether they are desktops, servers, or a mix. It serves as a single centralized repository of all of the software & updates you’d like to serve to those systems. For example, you can:
- Create mirrors of remote software repositories, routing systems on your network to your local mirror to save time & bandwidth,
- Not worry about keeping the mirrors updated, as they regularly check for updates on the remote repos and sync up,
- Create new repositories of your own custom content on the same central system alongside your mirrored content,
- Define maintenance windows for software updates to occur on your systems,
- Easily organize systems into groups of systems,
- Push security fixes out to systems in one command.
The Pulp team has quietly made several community releases, with Pulp release 4 available starting today! So if this all sounds enticing or at least intriguing, check it out! There’s a yum repo file available for download – Pulp runs on Fedora 13, Fedora 14, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
I’m really, really excited about Pulp. The folks working on it are top-notch – I’ve worked with most of them for a few years now on multiple projects. They are a great team to work with and are passionate about free & open source software and doing things in the open, the right way. If you are interested in getting involved in Pulp or simply have questions about it, here’s the places to learn more:
- Wiki: Pulp wiki
- Source code: Trac source code browser
- IRC: #pulp on irc.freenode.net
- Mailing list: pulp-list
- Documentation: Documentation & How-Tos
So what are you waiting for? GET JUICED!
Máirín Duffy 
I’m a little ignorant when it comes to systems like these – but isn’t this what Spacewalk does too?
Posted by DDevine | November 30, 2010, 8:11 pmWell, it is similar to Spacewalk but it has a smaller feature set and is lighter in size. It doesn’t require an Oracle DB. It also does not have a webui – only a CLI – and it consumes less resources on your server.
Posted by mairin | December 1, 2010, 4:00 pmIn that case it seems like something I would use. Simple features and written in Python…. Kinda like Radicale (simple, light, Python CalDAV server) vs Chandler (a big honkin, feature overloaded, Java CalDAV server).
It is interesting that it does not having a web interface because the RESTful stuff is done with web.py which from what I understand is a web framework. Maybe it is coming later, because it would be nice to statistical output in a web interface so you can have pretty charts.
As for an “Oracle DB” I wonder when MariaDB is coming to Fedora…
Posted by DDevine | December 1, 2010, 8:49 pmSo, obvious question: why it is not in Fedora?
Posted by Miroslav Suchy | December 1, 2010, 4:57 amIt’s packaged but waiting on review!
Posted by mairin | December 1, 2010, 1:55 pmWhere it is? I could not find it,
http://tinyurl.com/2bpbvt6
Posted by Miroslav Suchy | December 2, 2010, 4:17 amIt hasn’t been submitted yet – I think they are still putting together the request.
Posted by mairin | December 2, 2010, 2:24 pmCool! Fedora stay cool. And Mairin, wish good for a blogger and Fedoran like you. Let me become your blogging friend. Sorry if I’m newbie. 😀
Regards,
Ade Malsasa Akbar.
Posted by Ade Malsasa Akbar | December 22, 2010, 1:18 am