A Review of the Literature on Configuration Management Tools

Configuration management tools help administrators in defining and automating system configurations. With cloud computing, host numbers are likely to grow. IaaS (infrastructure as a service) offerings with pay-per-use pricing models make fast and effective deployment of applications necessary. Configuration management tools address both challenges. In this paper, the existing research on this topic is reviewed comprehensively. Readers are provided with a descriptive analysis of the published literature as well as with an analysis of the content of the respective research works. The paper serves as an overview for researchers who are new to the topic. Furthermore, it serves to identify work related to an intended research field and identifies research gaps. Practitioners are provided with a means to identify solutions to their organizational problems

A potpourri of system configuration concepts

For many reasons, large and small installations of computers can benefit from Automated Configuration Management tools. All the processes from installation, configuration, to maintenance and updating the computers can benefit from automation for the following reasons. * Consistency across all the machines. * Timeliness in maintenance and updates * Simplify the process through the use declarative instructions. Meanwhile in software configuration management, they are examining the problems of identifying, controlling, monitoring and verifying changes in software development projects. To complicate matters, some of the reasons for software configuration management * Consistency in the source code. * Timeliness in updates to the project members so that they have what is needed. * A need to simplify documentation and development of complex projects. Subsequently, the purpose of this thesis is to understand how concepts from Software Configuration Management can aid the development of the field of System Configuration. To achieve this purpose, this thesis will start with an examination of the similiarities between SCM and System configuration. This will be followed by an examination of different key concepts in System Configuration and the following three different tools that have taken different approaches to the problem. * Cfengine * ISconf * LSconf With an understanding of how System Configuration and SCM are similar and an understanding of many of the major concepts in System Configuration, the next step is to examine some of the difference between the two fields. From there, it should be possible to see how some concepts from SCM could be applied to System Configuration. It should also be possible to examine concepts from System Configuration that could be applied to SCM

Strider: a black-box, state-based approach to change and configuration management and support

AbstractWe describe a new approach, called Strider, to Change and Configuration Management and Support (CCMS). Strider is a black-box approach: without relying on specifications, it uses state differencing to identify potential causes of differing program behaviors, uses state tracing to identify actual, run-time state dependencies, and uses statistical behavior modeling for noise filtering. Strider is a state-based approach: instead of linking vague, high level descriptions and symptoms to relevant actions, it models management and support problems in terms of individual, named pieces of low level configuration state and provides precise mappings to user-friendly information through a computer genomics database. We use troubleshooting of configuration failures to demonstrate that the Strider approach reduces problem complexity by several orders of magnitude, making root-cause analysis possible

Exploring patterns for scalability of network administration with topology constraints

This thesis considers the impact of distributed network communication patterns on the scalability of dynamic systems configuration and monitoring using the software cfengine. Decentralized patterns are partially implemented as cfengine policy on topologies with node degree constraints. Experiments investigate total processing latency of patterns. Results show they provide a balanced approach to parallelization and scalability. The study of patterns on a chain topology reveals the challenge of phasing delay in deep tree structures. A time buffering method for reducing total processing latency is tested and found to be effective. Included are suggestions on new cfengine functionality and syntax to support patterns integration. As a whole, this thesis offers new perspectives in on-going patterns research as well as identifying challenges and solutions for bringing patterns to cfengine.Master i nettverks- og systemadministrasjo