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Goss - Quick and Easy server validation

posted Nov 17, 2017, 7:46 AM by Chris G   [ updated Nov 17, 2017, 7:47 AM ]

Goss - Quick and Easy server validation


What is Goss?

Goss is a YAML based serverspec alternative tool for validating a server’s configuration. It eases the process of writing tests by allowing the user to generate tests from the current system state. Once the test suite is written they can be executed, waited-on, or served as a health endpoint.

Why use Goss?

  • Goss is EASY! - Goss in 45 seconds
  • Goss is FAST! - small-medium test suits are near instantaneous, see benchmarks
  • Goss is SMALL! - <10MB single self-contained binary

Generated goss.yaml:

$ cat goss.yaml
port:
  tcp:22:
    listening: true
    ip:
    - 0.0.0.0
  tcp6:22:
    listening: true
    ip:
    - '::'
service:
  sshd:
    enabled: true
    running: true
user:
  sshd:
    exists: true
    uid: 74
    gid: 74
    groups:
    - sshd
    home: /var/empty/sshd
    shell: /sbin/nologin
group:
  sshd:
    exists: true
    gid: 74
process:
  sshd:
    running: true

Now that we have a test suite, we can:

  • Run it once
goss validate
...............

Total Duration: 0.021s # <- yeah, it's that fast..
Count: 15, Failed: 0