Re: Recommendations for devlopment of a new provider

[jcbollinger]

On Tuesday, January 15, 2013 9:04:39 AM UTC-6, Drew Fisher wrote:

I'm working on a new provider for puppet 3.x and Solaris 11's dladm command.  One of the subcommands is set-linkprop which is used to set various properties for networking links.  The problem is there are dozens and dozens of properties that can be set depending on the type of link (physical or virtual) or what type of physical card is slotted on the system.

I've been looking through some of the existing providers and the only thing that comes even remotely close is the ZFS provider.  The problem with that provider is the list of possible properties is a hard-coded list.  As stated above, I can't really do something like that.

How can I design this provider, especially the exists? function, to handle a dynamic list of valid properties?  I was thinking of setting the type to handle a manifest like:

linkprop { 'linkname':
    ensure => present,
    properties => { propname1 => value1, propname2 => value2, .... },
}

The exists? function would need to keep track of each individual propname to pass off to create for later use.  I'm assuming it's not an issue to keep a "processed" hash table, but is that the "right" way to do it?  Is there a better way?

Maybe you're just using the wrong terminology, but if you're truly focusing on the provider then you are starting in the wrong place.

You need to start with the the resource type.  Is it a new type or an existing one?  If new, then what target resource does it represent, and what properties does it expose for management?  What identifier(s) does the system use for the target resource?  Can the resource be created and removed, or is it always present even when unmanaged?


John

[Jakov Sosic]

On 01/15/2013 04:04 PM, Drew Fisher wrote:
> I'm working on a new provider for puppet 3.x and Solaris 11's dladm
> command. One of the subcommands is set-linkprop which is used to set
> various properties for networking links. The problem is there are
> dozens and dozens of properties that can be set depending on the type of
> link (physical or virtual) or what type of physical card is slotted on
> the system.
>
> I've been looking through some of the existing providers and the only
> thing that comes even remotely close is the ZFS provider. The problem
> with that provider is the list of possible properties is a hard-coded
> list. As stated above, I can't really do something like that.
>
> How can I design this provider, especially the exists? function, to
> handle a dynamic list of valid properties? I was thinking of setting
> the type to handle a manifest like:
>

> linkprop { /'linkname'/:

> ensure => present,
> properties => { propname1 => value1, propname2 => value2, .... },
> }
>
> The exists? function would need to keep track of each individual
> propname to pass off to create for later use. I'm assuming it's not an
> issue to keep a "processed" hash table, but is that the "right" way to
> do it? Is there a better way?

Why would you manage link property as a new resource? Why not manage it
simply as property of a resource 'link'?


--
Jakov Sosic
www.srce.unizg.hr