Orchestrate change across server clusters in near realtime with MCollective, the framework that works in concert with Puppet, Chef, and other configuration management tools. Ideal for system administrators and operations or DevOps engineers at any level, this hands-on guide teaches you how to build and test a real installation of MCollective servers and clients in your environment. Learn how to build an entire installation by hand, know where every configuration file lives, and understand every configuration parameter and what it means. Whether you manage a small environment or one that immense in scale, this book shows you how to orchestrate specific actions faster and better than you do now. Tour MCollective architecture, backbone, transport, and security controls Configure MCollective components to match your production environment Create and use collectives to handle thousands of remote MCollective agents Use ActiveMQ Network of Brokers to resolve multi-site or redundancy requirements Learn how to use community-built client and agent plugins, with concrete examples Create your own server and client plugins to perform a variety of actions Learn recommended best practices for using MCollective