IT configuration management (ITCM) configures software and systems on already provisioned infrastructure.
According to ITIL, configuration management is a process of IT Service Management (ITSM).
ITCM is also a common practice within DevOps, a movement within software development industry. You can read more about it on this post.
A technology that is related to ITCM is infrastructure as code (IaC), as it allows to apply configuration to infrastructure using code. You can read more about it on this post.
Immutable infrastructure is an approach to managing services and software deployments on IT resources wherein components are replaced rather than changed.
Description of Configuration Management
Configuration management involves the identification, control, maintenance, and verification of the items that make up an organization’s IT infrastructure.
A configuration item (CI) is a component or service that needs to be managed as part of configuration management efforts. It includes hardware, software and documentation.
ITCM is concerned with the accurate recording of CIs and their relationships within an organization in a configuration management database (CMDB) or configuration management system (CMS).
There is a complete post about CMDB and related solutions.
This helps in maintaining accurate information about the IT infrastructure, enabling efficient change management and other IT service management processes.
It often involves version control mechanisms to track changes to configurations over time, enabling rollback to previous states if necessary.
Configuration Management Process Components
Configuration management process components, according to CISSP:
- Configuration Identification
- Configuration Control
- Configuration Status Accounting
- Configuration Audit
Configuration Identification
Configuration control
Configuration control ensures that changes to software versions are made in accordance with the change control and configuration management process. Updates can be made only form authorized distributions in accordance with those policies.
Configuration Status Accounting
Configuration Audit
CMDB & Asset Management Tools
Some CMDB tools count with an autodiscovery tool.
CMDB tools:
- CMDBuild
- DATAGERRY
- ServiceNow Configuration Management Database
- BMC Helix CMDB
- Micro Focus Universal CMDB
- IBM Control Desk
- Cherwell Asset Management
CMDBuild
CMDBuild is FOSS under an AGPL license.
DATAGERRY
DATAGERRY is FOSS under a.
Configuration Automation Tools
Configuration management tools automate the process of configuring and managing endpoints and software.
Configuration management tools featured on this post:
- Ansible Automation Platform
- Chef
- Puppet
- Salt Stack
Sometimes, configuration management tools are listed together with infrastructure as code (IaC).
Take into acount that IaC tools like OpenTofu or Terraform are not included on this list, but they are in their corresponding list.
Ansible Automation Platform
Ansible Automation Platform is an automation tool that can be used for configuration management, application deployment, task automation, and more. It uses a declarative language to define tasks and playbooks.
Ansible is free and open source software (FOSS) under a GPLv3.0 license
It is developed by American company IBM.
Chef
Chef is a configuration management tool that automates the deployment and management of infrastructure. It uses Ruby-based scripts (cookbooks) to define how resources should be configured.
Puppet
Puppet is a configuration management tool that helps automate the provisioning and management of infrastructure. It uses a declarative language to define the desired state of systems.
Salt Stack
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External References
- Configuration Management Process components
- CISSP Official Study Guide 9th Edition, p. 965-966
- CMDB tools
- Reddit community; “Good Open Source CMDB?“; Reddit, 2022
- Configuration automation tools
- Red Hat; “Understanding Ansible, Terraform, Puppet, Cherry, and Salt“; Red Hat, 2023-03-01