ControlBeast is a command line based software helping FreeBSD system administrators with automatizing repetitive tasks and managing all information related to a server's configuration in one place. ControlBeast has been developed with security in mind, but also following the KISS principle – unnecessary complexity has always been one of the most common sources for security issues.

ControlBeast heavily relies on YAML to store all kinds of configuration information, making it easy to edit and also later understand them. This approach allows maintaining the whole configuration information within a version management system. Git, one of the most powerful distributed SCM systems has been chosen for this purpose, building a strong basis for many of ControlBeast's features.

Speaking of features, among many others, the following ones offered by ControlBeast are probably worth mentioning:

• Secure remote deployment mechanism via SSH ensures configuration integrity of the managed system
• Bare metal (re–)install functionality allows cloning of an existing system onto a new machine, disaster recovery, etc.
• Support of FreeBSD's jails for virtualisation purposes.

ControlBeast is licensed under the terms of the ISC License. ControlBeast is free software; you are free to change and redistribute it. However, there is no warranty, to the extent permitted by law.