SIMP is designed for use by system administrators or users with a strong background using Linux operating systems. The core applications that make up SIMP and require prerequisite knowledge are:
- Puppet - 4.0 or later
- Domain Name System (DNS) - BIND 9
- Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) - Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) DHCP
- Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) - OpenLDAP
- RedHat Kickstart (including all tools behind it) - Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP), PXELinux, etc.
- Apache
- Yellowdog Updater, Modified (YUM)
- Rsyslog Version 3+
- Internet Protocol Tables (IPtables) (Basic knowledge of the rules)
- Auditd (Basic knowledge of how the daemon works)
- Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment (AIDE) (Basic knowledge of the rules)
- Basic X.509-based PKI Key Management
SIMP does as much initial setup and configuration of these tools as possible. However, without at least some understanding, you will be unable to tailor a SIMP system to fit the desired environment. A general understanding of how to control and manipulate these tools from the command line interface (CLI) will be necessary, as SIMP does not come stock with a graphical user interface (GUI).
Knowledge of scripting and Ruby programming will also help to further customize a SIMP install but is not required for routine use.