Confab provides four basic functions:
- It defines a data model where hosts belong to one or more environments and are assigned to one or more roles, which can be made up of components.
- It defines a mechanism for loading configuration data based on a set of defaults and override values defined per environment, host, role, or component.
- It defines a mechanism for loading Jinja2 templates for configuration files based on a role and/or component.
- It defines Fabric tasks to faciliate publishing configuration files generated from applying the configuration data to the Jinja2 templates to hosts.
Confab’s configuration data and Templates are expected to be checked in to version control so that changes to configuration are managed through a regular versioning and release process.