Configuration management

From Free net encyclopedia

In information technology and telecommunications, the term configuration management or configuration control has the following meanings:

The management of security features and assurances through control of changes made to hardware, software, firmware, documentation, test, test fixtures and test documentation of an automated information system, throughout the development and operational life of a system. Source Code Management or revision control is part of this.
The control of changes--including the recording thereof--that are made to the hardware, software, firmware, and documentation throughout the system lifecycle.
The control and adaptation of the evolution of complex systems. It is the discipline of keeping evolving software products under control, and thus contributes to satisfying quality and delay constraints. Software configuration management (or SCM) can be divided into two areas. The first (and older) area of SCM concerns the storage of the entities produced during the software development project, sometimes referred to as component repository management. The second area concerns the activities performed for the production and/or change of these entities; the term engineering support is often used to refer this second area.
After establishing a configuration, such as that of a telecommunications or computer system, the evaluating and approving changes to the configuration and to the interrelationships among system components.
In distributed-queue dual-bus (DQDB) networks, the function that ensures the resources of all nodes of a DQDB network are configured into a correct dual-bus topology. The functions that are managed include the head of bus, external timing source, and default slot generator functions.

1 Products for software configuration management (SCM)
2 Components for software/hardware/network configuration management (CMDB)
3 Sites for configuration management
4 See also
5 External links
6 Source

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Products for software configuration management (SCM)

For a more complete list see List of revision control software.

Cfengine, administers and configures computers according to high-level language configuration files
KONFIG CM, [1]the total configuration management solution for software, hardware, data and all physical items.
LCFG, a large scale UNIX configuration system
Puppet, administers and configures computers according to high-level configuration files
ControlTieropen source configuration management and process automation tools for deploying multi-tier enterprise applications.

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Components for software/hardware/network configuration management (CMDB)

ZENmetrics, an agentless software component for collecting and integrating CMDB data with 3rd party and bespoke applications.

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Sites for configuration management

CMBoK, Site for collaboration on the Configuration Management Body of Knowledge
CmWiki, Configuration Management Wiki - A wiki web dedicated to Configuration Management
CM Community, Connecting Configuration Management Professionals around the World: An independent website which contains numerous resources on configuration management which includes CM Forum, CM Jobs Database, CM Salary Survey, CM processes and etc.
ABS Consulting, Professional SCM services company specializing in Rational ClearCase
CM Crossroads, an online community and resource center for Configuration Management featuring discussion forums, jobs board and newsletters including the CM Journal
UCMcentral, Configuration Management Coffee Break Site
Steve Easterbrook's CM Resource Guide [2]
Parallel Development Strategies for Software Configuration Management [3]
An article on Open source configuration management tools, including references to many of them, see Comments on OSS/FS Software Configuration Management (SCM) Systems
CM Magazin, a german-language online magazine for Configuration Management
Institute of Configuration Management, home of CM II [4]
Comparison chart of version control products