An Introduction to Configuration Management

Writing the code to drive CM processes in DevOps can use either imperative or declarative programming techniques. Configuration management is crucial to collaborative and rapid software development paradigms such as DevOps. With CM, software developers can create, test and deploy builds with minimal IT oversight.

A CMS is a collection of tools, databases, and procedures used to manage configuration items throughout their lifecycle. The CMS provides central control for managing and tracking all configuration items, including hardware, software, and network components. Each object requiring configuration management is assigned a unique identifier for tracking purposes. The PM is ultimately responsible for configuration management, although someone else may maintain the items’ follow-up matrix and version control.

Configuration management in DevOps

Meanwhile, some CVCS source code repositories still in vogue include Subversion and CVS. In fact, there are no notable disadvantages with DVCS other than perhaps the storage needs on a developer’s terminal if source code contains an elongated history of changesets. However, this is not recommended because, depending on the number of builds, there can be numerous binaries and they need to be stored in a different manner.

By using a configuration management tool, the procedure necessary for bringing up a new server or updating an existing one will be all documented in the provisioning scripts. Organizations frequently undertake multiple projects, each involving myriad components and multiple developers or teams. Without some cohesive way to bring order to the process, software building and testing what is configuration control would devolve into chaos. When several developers work on the same source code at the same time, the various changes won’t integrate well and the software will essentially break. To avoid that outcome, SCM creates multiple lines of development and reconciles each line into a final source for a build, allowing many developers to work on the same code simultaneously.

How configuration management fits with DevOps, CI/CD, and agile

This procedure includes determining the project’s progression and defining its completion requirements. Thus, your team can detect when all project objectives have been accomplished. Identifiable configuration objects may comprise project documentation, test cases, requirements for the specification, and code modules.

Chef sees the infrastructure like a code and the setup machines as a “recipe,” ensuring that the infrastructure remains compliant and up-to-date. Each recipe is recorded in a “cookbook,” where it is regarded as a separate work. Chef differentiates itself as a solution that helps you build software with fewer bugs and more service resilience. The CFEngine configuration management solution automates the packaging and deployment of software into the operational IT environment of a company. Its primary purpose is to automate the setup and maintenance of large-scale computer systems, such as the administration of servers, workstations, retail and industrial devices, integrated network hardware, etc. Configuration management starts at the beginning of a project when the project management strategy is created.

How does configuration management work?

Previously, organizations utilized a configuration management database (CMDB) for data storage. A CMDB is a single repository that stores all the configuration information. The Configuration Management Database (CMDB) comes from the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) service management framework.

• For each configuration the set-points of Z2-SNO and Z2-SNH were both set equal to 1 mgN/L, p was set equal to 10 and q equal to 4.
• This baseline is usually created by reviewing the configuration of a functioning production environment and committing those configuration settings.
• The CM process ensures the content of the data repository is validated and verified.
• The origins of the configuration management discipline can be traced back to the military, particularly the United States Department of Defense, operating in the 1950s.
• “Configurability” refers to the hardware or software’s ability to be changed and customized.

The CM team tracks and manages your organization’s software and hardware assets to ensure they are working optimally and are up to date. Today we can spin up environments on the go with tools like Ansible in our scripts. When you key in the exact configuration of the production server, the environment provisioning tools create a prod-like server in a snap of a finger. A source code repository is the primary container for all versions of code. Apart from keeping all the code, it generally stores test scripts, build scripts, deployment scripts, and configuration files as well. Configuration management, however, can have many connotations, depending on who’s discussing it.

Identify config items, tasks, and deliverables

Operational requirements are also discussed along with practical system examples. The presented subsections address different aspects from control viewpoint for MMC topology, which are crucial to transfer desired power with maximum efficiency, minimum voltage and current harmonics. In addition, there is crucial need of current controller designs in order to precisely regulate an insertion indexes as well as optimize the energy variation within each converter arm. Various system modeling and modulation methods are also briefly described. Key emerging applications and future possible directions are introduced as well as corresponding technological challenges summarized.

Keeping track of the state of the board and other system variables can be just as important as knowing what version of the FPGA was loaded at the time of a specific fault or failure. In other words, when a problem occurred did it have the latest group of hardware modifications? With proper configuration management, you can minimize downtime, reduce the risk of errors and security breaches, and improve the overall performance of your IT infrastructure. Done right, the database audit validates the configuration and ensures that the current environment matches the current baseline. Your team must review and accept any changes applied to the configuration to ensure that they are consistent with the current baseline and that they do not introduce new risks or problems. Once the baseline is established, your CM team should take steps to maintain it.

What is a Blade Server? Definition & Benefits

In this phase, the objective is to plan the evolution of the software or infrastructure initiative and establish its scope. This is achieved by holding discussions and brainstorming workshops with your team to determine fundamental requirements for the remainder of the project. The configuration management procedure and strategy are defined/recorded, so everyone knows what is occurring and what is anticipated. Configuration management can drastically improve the integrity of servers over time by providing a framework for automating processes and keeping track of changes made to the system environment. In the next guide in this series, we will see how to implement a configuration management strategy in practice using Ansible as tool. Once you have your server setup translated into a set of provisioning scripts, you will have the ability to apply to your server environment many of the tools and workflows you normally use for software source code.

Some tools can have more components and moving parts, which might increase the complexity of your infrastructure, impacting on the learning curve and possibly increasing the overall cost of implementation. There are many CM tools available in the market, each one with a different set of features and different complexity levels. The first challenge is to choose a tool that is a good fit for your needs. Bookmark these resources to learn about types of DevOps teams, or for ongoing updates about DevOps at Atlassian.

Related Solutions and Products

During the CM process, there may be instances where data is duplicated or inconsistent. To tackle this, your organization should create a plan for removing duplications and merging all data in a single repository. Unauthorized changes in systems can cause security weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Plus, companies that fail to identify authorized modifications to infrastructure and systems may experience extended outages and other incidents. Yes, it is true that you cannot really do DevOps without configuration management in place. I have shared the principles and examples around the comprehensive configuration management, without which the artifacts and other useful information will be all over the place, in a disorganized manner.