Description
Automating My FreeBSD Lab: From Setup to Daily Use with Ansible & Salt
Abstract
Managing multiple FreeBSD machines can be time-consuming, but automation makes it effortless. In this talk, I will demonstrate how I use Ansible to set up my FreeBSD lab and Salt to maintain and scale it across multiple machines—including how I configured a second FreeBSD laptop with just SSH access.
Attendees will see how automation enables:
- Seamless FreeBSD system setup using Ansible.
- Automated configuration management with Salt.
- Effortless scaling to new machines, reducing manual setup to a few commands.
By the end of the talk, attendees will understand how to leverage Ansible and Salt to build a reproducible and maintainable FreeBSD infrastructure.
Intended Audience
- FreeBSD users interested in automating system setup and maintenance.
- System administrators managing multiple FreeBSD machines.
- Anyone curious about Ansible and Salt for FreeBSD automation.
Attendees should have basic FreeBSD knowledge, but no prior experience with automation tools is required.
Outline
1. Introduction (5 min)
- Why automate?
- My FreeBSD lab & laptop setup overview.
2. Building My FreeBSD Lab with Ansible (15 min)
- Bootstrapping a new system.
- Automating system installation & package setup.
- Adding a second laptop with just SSH access.
3. Maintaining & Scaling with Salt (15 min)
- Managing configs, packages, and updates.
- Enforcing system state across multiple machines.
- How I maintain consistency between multiple devices.
4. Lessons Learned & Challenges (5 min)
- Why this method works well for FreeBSD.
- Troubleshooting automation quirks.
5. Q&A (5 min)
What Attendees Will Learn
- How to use Ansible to set up FreeBSD machines quickly.
- How Salt makes long-term configuration management effortless.
- How to automate multiple FreeBSD machines with minimal manual work.
| One-line summary | How I use Ansible & Salt to automate and maintain my FreeBSD lab & laptops. |
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