Open source server automation

AutomateIt is an open source tool for automating the setup and maintenance of servers, applications and their dependencies. It provides a surprisingly simple, yet powerful, way to manage files, packages, services, networks, accounts, roles, templates and more. AutomateIt's faster, more efficient systems management helps you run circles around competitors, deliver higher-quality service, and sleep better at night. See AutomateIt in action...

Helps your technology business:
  • Turns change into a competitive advantage
  • Speeds product development
  • Improves business agility
  • Reduces risks, errors and downtime
  • Simplifies updates, migrations and recovery
Empowers engineering and operations:
  • Codifies knowledge into repeatable, maintainable recipes
  • Previews recipes safely without applying them
  • Easy-to-learn language is instantly familiar to any Unix user
  • Powerful and extensible enough to meet your unique needs
  • Open source, well-documented and includes self-test suite

News

Video of Open Source Bridge's Configuration Management Panel
July 1, 2009
The video recording of the Open Source Bridge conference's Configuration Management Panel has been posted. It features a discussion between the developers of AutomateIt, Puppet, Cfengine, Chef and bcfg2. Watch the video...
AutomateIt-related presentations at Open Source Bridge conference
May 1, 2009
The Open Source Bridge conference will feature two presentations including AutomateIt. David Brewer will be presenting Using virtualization and automation to improve your web development workflows, an updated version of his popular OSCON talk. Igal Koshevoy will be part of the Configuration Management Panel along with the developers of Puppet, Cfengine, Chef and bcfg2.
AutomateIt source code converted to Git and moved to GitHub
March 20, 2009
The source code for AutomateIt has been converted to the Git distributed version control system and hosted at the GitHub source code sharing site. This switch will make it easier for contributors to track changes, create forks, and submit patches. The Download page has been updated with new instructions and paths.
AutomateIt powers Open Source Bridge conference servers, recipes published as open source
January 27, 2009
Open Source Bridge is a community organized open source conference in Portland, Oregon starting June 17, 2009. Igal Koshevoy of Pragmaticraft, the company behind AutomateIt, has automated the conference's server setup and published the source code. The source includes a complete AutomateIt project, with a bootstrap to load the interpreter on the machine, generic "base" recipes that can be reused on other projects, custom recipes for this project, and documentation. (Source code)
David Brewer presents OSCON talk featuring AutomateIt
July 23, 2008
David Brewer works at Second Story Interactive Studios where he develops websites and interactive exhibits for museums and other cultural institutions. He was an early adopter of AutomateIt and has made major contributions to it. He will be making a presentation at OSCON in Portland, Oregon with the title "Using Ubuntu, Virtualization, and Automation to Improve Your Web Development Workflow" at 11:35am, Friday, 07/25/2008. (Presentation details)
Pragmaticraft sponsors FOSCON
July 18, 2008
Pragmaticraft, the company behind AutomateIt, is helping organize and sponsor the Portland Ruby Brigade's fourth annual FOSCON event: "a free, fun gathering of Ruby fans held during an evening of O'Reilly's OSCON conference with cool presentations, food, discussions, and a live coding competition." (Event details).
AutomateIt is alive and well
May 14, 2008
AutomateIt is in daily use at numerous firms. Although it's been a while since the last update, all the key features planned for the 1.0 release are working well and no bugs have been uncovered in months. Upcoming plans include adding support for the FreeBSD package format and providing a more generalized way to specify external programs invoked by drivers, e.g., "ruby1.8" vs. "ruby".
Pragmaticraft sponsors Ruby and OSS Evening Social
February 22, 2008
Pragmaticraft, the company behind AutomateIt, helped organize and sponsor the Portland Ruby Brigade's "Ruby and OSS Evening Social". The event featured Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto, the creator of Ruby; members of Japanese, Oregon-based organizations that use and contribute to Ruby and open source; and over 50 members of the Portland Ruby Brigade (details).
AutomateIt manages packages with Perl's CPAN, PHP's PEAR and PECL, and others
December 20, 2007
AutomateIt provides a common interface for installing, uninstalling and querying software packages. Version 0.71220 manages packages with: Debian/Ubuntu APT and DPKG, Fedora/CentOS/RedHat YUM and RPM, Gentoo Portage, Ruby Gem, Python Egg, PHP PEAR and PECL (thanks to David Brewer's driver), and now Perl's CPAN (thanks to Jesse Hallett's research).
AutomateIt resolves installation problems due to changes in third-party packages
December 19, 2007
If you had trouble installing AutomateIt on a new system, please install AutomateIt 0.71219 or newer. AutomateIt relies on third-party libraries, but a few of these recently changed and broke the installer. The new AutomateIt release features workarounds for these issues.
AutomateIt online community opens its doors
December 17, 2007
AutomateIt now has its own online community. It's a place for developers, users and evaluators to discuss AutomateIt, share best practices, request features, and report bugs at http://groups.google.com/group/automateit
AutomateIt can execute commands on groups of hosts
November 3, 2007
AutomateIt 0.71103 provides an easier way to execute commands on groups of hosts using SSH. For example, you can list Rails processes running on all hosts in the rails_servers group with: aissh -p . rails_servers 'ps -ef | grep rails'. You can also continue to use the old approach of writing a shell loop over aitag if you need greater control.
AutomateIt provides basic support for all targeted OSes
October 21, 2007
AutomateIt's compatibility has been extended. Version 0.71021 runs on all operating systems intended for the upcoming 1.0 release. AutomateIt supports 12 operating system and features 36 drivers. Effort is underway to complete the final ~12 drivers (details).
AutomateIt now supports the Rails 2.0 preview release
October 17, 2007
AutomateIt has been updated to work with the new ActiveSupport library included with the next version of the Rails framework, and continues to work with existing versions. Please upgrade to AutomateIt version 0.71017 or later so you can use it with the latest ActiveSupport library.
AutomateIt presentation on Tuesday, October 2nd
September 27, 2007
  • Topic: “Creating agile infrastructures with AutomateIt” (details)
  • Speaker: Igal Koshevoy, AutomateIt’s author
  • Audience: Technical managers, software engineers, system administrators
  • When: Tuesday, October 2nd, 7pm
  • Where: CubeSpace, 622 SE Grand Ave, Portland OR 97214 (directions)
AutomateIt is now easier to install
September 26, 2007
The AutomateIt package is now on RubyForge, so you can install it and all its gem dependencies with a single, easy-to-type command.
AutomateIt is now more user-friendly and easier to embed
September 19, 2007
User-friendly error messages make it easier to fix problems in recipes and templates, these pinpoint and show the suspect code. You can now specify packages with a more natural manifest listing that allows free-form text and comments. Embedding the Interpreter got even simpler. And JRuby can now run most commands.
AutomateIt expands cross-platform support
September 13, 2007
AutomateIt has been ported and tested on additional platforms. It now provides complete support for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS, and RedHat. It also provides basic support for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Gentoo, and FreeBSD.
AutomateIt Beta released
September 3, 2007
AutomateIt is now available for downloading. The code is feature-complete, fully-documented and tested on Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, and Gentoo.