Interview
“We currently use orcharhino for the entire lifecycle, from server configuration and patch management to deprovisioning hosts.”
– Lioh Möller, System Administrator at the HSR
Tobias Wagner (TW): “Ms Möller, why do you think orcharhino is the best solution for automated lifecycle management in the data center?”
Lioh Möller (LM): “In terms of its basic scope, orcharhino is feature complete for us and therefore meets all our current needs.”
TW: “You are talking about needs that you currently have. What features would be relevant for you in the future?”
LM: “Our entire working environment is naturally developing more and more towards an agile way of working. So integrating the Kubernetes Control Plane with a management function would of course be great.”
TW: “Can you briefly say how many servers you currently have in use and what software you use on them?”
LM: “We currently have a total of around 100 pure Linux servers in use, 99% of which run virtually on VMware. In terms of software, we mainly rely on Debian with corresponding components such as Nginx, Apache, MariaDB, Galera, etc.”
TW: “How did you find out about orcharhino?”
LM: “I became aware of orcharhino through my community activities. I was very much involved in the development of Spacewalk, the predecessor of Foreman. As a result, I naturally also followed the development of Foreman. Based on my knowledge and experience, Foreman was simply an ideal solution. In recent years, the product has also become increasingly stable thanks to the active support of ATIX. Then there was the support from Debian, which was urgently needed for us.”
TW: “Why were you looking for an automation solution?”
LM: “When I started at HSR, all servers were managed manually. Automation tools were not used at all. However, the size of our server landscape meant that we reached a limit where it was simply no longer possible to manage everything manually. We were only working as “firefighters” and were mainly occupied with fixing bugs. As a result, of course, the existing systems all developed a kind of “momentum of their own” so that our systems were no longer declarative, i.e. they no longer had a clearly defined state. In addition, the deployment of servers was no longer fast enough. As a result, we were often no longer able to react spontaneously to resource requirements.”
TW: “How has this process changed with the use of orcharhino?”
LM: “We use orcharhino almost in its entirety: we use it to automate the lifecycle in the foreman, i.e. the complete deployment directly on VMware, the system registers with the puppet master and obtains its definition, configures itself automatically and we receive the fully preconfigured system practically on demand. We currently use orcharhino for the entire lifecycle, from server configuration and patch management to deprovisioning hosts.”
TW: “With complex software products, you can never rule out the possibility of a bug occurring. How do you react to this?”
LM: “Then we turn to the ATIX support team. I am very satisfied with the cooperation. We always feel that our requests and needs are taken seriously. In our experience, this is unfortunately not always the case with large companies. At ATIX, the communication channels are simply shorter and a solution to any problems that may arise can be provided quickly thanks to the agile way of working. It is completely normal for complex software products to contain bugs from time to time. The decisive factor is how the manufacturer deals with it. And ATIX is really exemplary in this respect.”
TW: “So you’ll find a solution to the problem together with ATIX?”
LM: “Yes, I would like to mention the very reliable release cycle model. We have the opportunity to get actively involved by reporting bugs. As a rule, it is also sufficient for these to be fixed in the next release, as ATIX provides workaround processes until then.”
TW: “Ms. Möller, thank you very much for the interview!”
