StackStorm – IFTTT for Ops

by spdustin • 11 years ago

158 45 11 years ago

amoghe• 11 years ago

Orchestration tools (puppet/chef) are already able to get your infrastructure to a target/desired state, and keep them in that state, and notify when deviations occur or the target state cannot be achieved. What does StackStorm do that these tools cannot?

lotyrin• 11 years ago

This is for the guy who gets a support call because of a disk getting full, and has to ssh into a box and delete old log files because logrotate is fubared by some other team but he finds out that there's a nagios monitoring everything (with yet another team ignoring the noise) so he wants to just have his bash oneliner for deleting old log files run any time the disk monitor hits critical, and all he has to do is sell someone with a purchase card a SaaS app (easy), and doesn't have to sell his entire organization the concept of not being fuckups (hard).

It's sad how big the market for this is.

bigdubs• 11 years ago

I don't like being the voice of the purist in this, but this seems like a bandaid on a bullet wound.

For most of the cases where this would seem to be useful there is probably a failure upstream of that usage that should really be fixed.

spdustin• 11 years ago

You aren't kidding.

I thought it was a clever framework for other kids of "ChatOps" in addition to all that you said. I can imagine some clever Hubot scripts taking advantage of some of the components.

Man, I sure do love my Hubot.

jamesfryman• 11 years ago

Disclaimer: I am an employee at StackStorm

Tools like Puppet and Chef are great at managing the state of a single node. However, with any piece of infrastructure that expands beyond a single node, things can get complex pretty quickly. In times where the state of the systems change, there often are a multitude of steps that need to occur to ensure that the intended state is met. However, because tools like Puppet and Chef are node-centric, you often find yourself waiting a long time for eventual convergence as a code is executed for a node, updated state data transferred to some upstream data server (Chef server, PuppetDB), and then other nodes converge with updated data. Depending on the task, this convergence time can be killer.

In contrast, StackStorm is an event-driven automation framework that will help perform the incremental tasks across many systems necessary to properly move from one state to another. Common examples include ensuring that Load Balancers are up before advertising network services, ensuring SQL standby servers are alive before enabling replication, and so forth. Each of these steps is going to require an imperative set of steps to transition between states. With StackStorm, we plug into a multitude of tools (including Puppet and Chef!) that provide event updates as actions take place, intercept these triggers, and execute workflows. In many cases, we have clients that heavily use a configuration management tool like Puppet or Chef, but rely on StackStorm to orchestrate the various runs of these tools on different nodes as checkpoints are reached. In this way, decrease the feedback loop as you have StackStorm listening for "run finished" notifications from these CM tools, and then we can go and figure out what is next by kicking off actions or workflows as necessary.

There is absolutely a ton more about StackStorm beyond this immediate answer. In addition, we include things like Role Based Access Control, ChatOps support, full audit trails, and more. I encourage you to check it out and provide feedback. We'd absolutely love to help!

helloiamaperson2• 11 years ago

You mention Puppet and Chef, but how does it compare to more holistic tools like terraform, juju, and bosh?

aaronbrethorst• 11 years ago

What's the difference between this and all of the other runbook automation suites out there? (besides the open source license)

...or am I missing something?

dzimine4• 11 years ago

Disclaimer: I work with StackStorm. In the past, I built Opalis IIS aka Microsoft SC Orchestrator. Seen both sides.

StackStorm to legacy runbook automations is what chef/puppet to legacy config management. It's open source, infra as code, and respect devops tools and mindset. Some folks on our team are devops with field experience putting their learnings in.

Our key design principles: 1) infrastructure as code, which means: workflows, rules, action metadata, and other artifacts are readable, source-controllable code (yaml)

2) integrations are "easy", which means: use python, ruby or shell, or turn any existing script into action by adding yaml meta-data. If you did an integration with something like HP OO or MS SystemCenter you appreciate the difference.

3) yes, opensource. I think it's a deal breaker, especially when it comes to integrations.

That's our perspective, how do you guys see it?

cowsay• 11 years ago

Anyone actively using this?

Seems pretty interesting and looking for any suggestions for what may be the best wow factor.

epowell2015• 11 years ago

Netflix is one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10272955

armabiz2• 11 years ago

Also Cisco, Rackspace.

But it should work well even for small startups/companies.

Own infrastructure as code, where you can control everything and tie together Monitoring/Configuration management/Issue creation/ChatOps/Auto-remediation - is really powerful thing.

kentonv3• 11 years ago

We should make it possible to run StackStorm on Sandstorm (https://sandstorm.io), mainly for the confusion factor. :)

Apparently our offices are like three blocks apart, too!

lnkmails3• 11 years ago

StackStorm developer here! Don't be surprised if I turn up at your door tomorrow :).

kentonv3• 11 years ago

In all seriousness, email me (kenton at sandstorm.io) if you want to visit us for lunch or come to a LAN party[0] sometime.

[0] http://kentonshouse.com

DevOpsDotCom• 11 years ago

We actually just posted a piece on monitoring vs. remediating about StackStorm, check it out guys, i think you may find it interesting and relevant. http://devops.com/2015/10/07/enough-monitoring-act/

StackStorm – IFTTT for Ops

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