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Configuration management is crucial to managing complex systems, ensuring consistency, and supporting various software and hardware processes. Understanding configuration management principles helps maintain process integrity, version control, and documentation across all components. This glossary comprehensively overviews configuration management's essential terms and concepts.
Configuration management helps manage complex systems, ensuring consistency and supporting various software and hardware processes. By adhering to configuration management principles, such as tracking and controlling the components and their relationships within a system to ensure it remains stable and predictable throughout its lifecycle. Configuration management is critical in various industries, including software development, engineering, and IT operations.
The key components of configuration management are:
A baseline is a fixed set of configuration items or documents that serve as a reference for future changes. It's a snapshot of a system's configuration at a specific point in time.
A CI is any software, hardware, or documentation component that needs to be managed and tracked through its lifecycle.
Change management is a systematic approach to managing changes in the configuration of a system. It involves assessing proposed changes, making informed decisions, and ensuring efficient implementation.
Version control tracks changes to source code and other files to manage different versions and ensure collaboration among developers.
A repository is a central database or storage area where version-controlled files, documents, and artifacts are stored. It provides a collaborative environment for multiple users to access, modify, and track changes.
CI is a software development practice where code changes are frequently automatically built, tested, and integrated into a shared repository. This ensures that the system is continuously updated and working correctly.
A change request is a formal proposal submitted to request system configuration modifications. This request typically includes details about the proposed change, its rationale, and its potential impact.
A version refers to a specific release or iteration of a software or hardware component. It allows developers and users to distinguish between different stages of development and deployment.
Release management involves planning, scheduling, and controlling the movement of releases, including new features, enhancements, and fixes, into production environments. It aims to ensure smooth transitions and minimise disruptions.
An audit trail is a chronological record of activities and system configuration changes. It is a valuable resource for tracking modifications, troubleshooting, and ensuring compliance with regulations.
Traceability is tracing and understanding the relationships between configuration items. It ensures that changes in one component are recognised and correctly reflected in other dependent components.
A centralised CMDB database stores information about configuration items in an IT environment. It provides a comprehensive view of the components, their relationships, and their current state.
DevOps is a set of practices that combine development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) to shorten the system’s development lifecycle. Configuration management plays a critical role in DevOps by enabling automation and collaboration.
Puppet automates server and application provisioning, configuration, and management. It allows administrators to define configurations as code.
Chef is an open-source configuration management tool for defining and deploying infrastructure as code. It automates the tasks of configuring, maintaining, and scaling IT infrastructure.
Ansible is an automation tool for configuration management, application deployment, and task automation. It uses a simple, human-readable language for defining tasks.
IaC is a practice that treats infrastructure as software. It involves defining and managing infrastructure using code and automation tools, making configuration management more efficient and scalable.
A CM plan is a formal document that outlines the strategy and approach for configuration management in a project or organisation. It defines processes, roles, responsibilities, and tools.
SCM is a subset of configuration management that controls changes to software components, source code, and related artefacts.
An item identifier is a unique label or tag assigned to each configuration item. It distinguishes one item from another and simplifies tracking and management.
Impact analysis evaluates the potential consequences of a proposed change to the configuration. It helps assess the risks and benefits of the change before implementation.
A CCB is a group responsible for reviewing and approving changes to the configuration. It ensures that changes align with organisational objectives and standards.
A deployment pipeline is a series of automated steps that code changes go through, from development to testing and production deployment. It's a core concept in continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD).
Rollback reverts a system's configuration to a previous baseline or version when a change results in unexpected issues or errors.
Infosys BPM helps companies manage complex network inventory systems by providing configuration management services. We assess IT infrastructure to identify configuration items, automate configuration management using Infrastructure as Code, and set up alerts for system administrators. We also offer consulting and training services on configuration management.
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