| I don't think so. The way i see this is that Docker helps me manage /usr - i can make a Docker image with all the binaries, libraries, and static data files that my application needs, then send that somewhere to be executed. But Ansible etc help me manage /etc - i can create configuration on a machine that is appropriate to the environment (should this use the real or test payment gateway?), the purpose i'm using the application for (is this nginx container serving static files, or reverse-proxying an app server?), the current state of the rest of my infrastructure (what's the IP of the metrics server today?), etc. Configuration is the stuff which needs to be different on different machines. It doesn't make sense to bake configuration into a Docker image, and Docker doesn't give you useful tools for handling configuration any other way. Ansible etc can also be used to manage /usr, of course. But at the moment it looks like this is not the best way to do it. Now, if someone could come up with something to help me manage /var, that would be great! |
Configuration Management may help to set non default permissions under /var/ paths, or to check for default permissions status, or prepare business logic automated actions over that variable data.