Configuration Management 100 Success Secrets

Transcription

1 Configuration Management 100 Success Secrets All you need to know about Configuration Management Software, Change Management, Jobs, Plans, Tools, Control, Database, Process and System Gerard Blokdijk

2 Configuration Management 100 Success Secrets Copyright 2008 by Gerard Blokdijk Notice of rights All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Notice of Liability The information in this book is distributed on an As Is basis without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of he book, neither the author nor the publisher shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the products described in it. Trademarks Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.

3 Configuration Management 100 Success Secrets Gerard Blokdijk There has never been a Configuration Management manual like this. 100 Success Secrets is not about the ins and outs of Configuration Management. Instead, it answers the top 100 questions that we are asked and those we come across in forums, our consultancy and education programs. It tells you exactly how to deal with those questions, with tips that have never before been offered in print. This book is also not about Configuration Management s best practice and standards details. Instead it introduces everything you want to know to be successful with Configuration Management.

4 Table of Contents Choosing The Best Configuration Management Tool...12 Configuration Management And CMDB...14 Configuration Management Database Of ITIL...16 Configuration Management On A Commercial Unix Platform..17 The Computer Software For Configuration Management...18 Computers Software Configuration Management Tools Subversion...19 What You Need To Know About Configuration And Management...21 Unix Configuration Management: A Great Tool To Help Your Company In Today s Technology...23 Configuration Change Management Essentials...25 The Importance Of Configuration Management...27 The Benefits Of Agile Configuration Management...29 The Importance Of Configuration Management And Network Management...31 How Configuration Management And Oracle Jive For Serving Clients...33 Configuration Management As A Cost Saving Tool...35 Understanding The Role Of A Configuration Management Builder...37

5 What Are The Configuration Management Courses That You Can Take The Exam For Configuration Management Online Configuration Management Schools In Florida What It Takes To Be A Configuration Management Librarian: The Main Responsibilities And Salary Range Configuration Management Of Drawings In The Field Of Engineering How To Devise An Effective Configuration Management Plan 48 Names And Definitions Of Different Configuration Management Procedures How To Select The Right Configuration Management Tool Free Downloads For Configuration Management Tools Configuration Management: Your Tool For EAI The Five Definitions Of Configuration Management Tools Tools Available For Configuration Management Useful Configuration Management Tool For Crystal Reports The Main Responsibilities Of The Configuration Management Engineer The Advantages Of CVS Configuration Management As A Tool The Meaning Of Data Management CDRL Configuration Management Documents On The Software Configuration Management Tool65

6 How To Control Configuration Management To Meet AS The IEEE Standard For Configuration Management...69 Benefits Of Implementing SDF Configuration Management Tool...71 The Configuration Management Of MKS...73 Key Concepts In Appropriate Network Configuration Management...74 Procedure For Configuration Management At Oracle...76 What You Need To Know About RAM Configuration Management...78 Razor Configuration Management: The Basics...79 The Complete Definition Of The Term Sasken Communications Configuration Management...80 What Software Configuration Management Can Do To Your Company...82 Software Tools For Configuration Management...84 Why You Need Tools In Configuration Management...85 Benefits Of Tools In Software Configuration Management...87 What is AS 9100 in Configuration Management...89 Websites For Configuration Management...90 What Is Configuration Management (For Newbies)...91 Configuration Management Jobs - In Demand...93 Configuration Management Analyst: Evaluating the Overall System Life Cycle...95

7 Configuration Management Definition: Controlling Adverse Effects of Changes Configuration Management Jobs: Job Opportunities For Configuration Management Professionals Configuration Management Plan: Making Use Of The Configuration Management Planning Toolkit Configuration Management Software Tools: Simplifying The Task Of Controlling System Changes Software Configuration Management: Methods To Control Software Development Projects The Job Responsibilities Of A Configuration Management Specialist Configuration Management Standards: In the Viewpoint Of IEEE And ISO Free Configuration Management Tools Available On The Internet Managing Multiple Revisions Using Configuration Management Revision Control System Tools Configuration Management Tools for Open Source Configurations Configuration Management Defined: The Crucial Task Of Managing Complex Systems Flowchart for Configuration Management: Understanding Configuration Management The Process Made Easy

8 Framework for Configuration Management: The Four Components Of Configuration Management Configuration Management Tool Descriptions Provided Software Configuration Management Tutorial: Knowing The Basics Of Configuration Management Software Configuration Management Templates: Providing The Standard Pattern To Software Configuration Management Plan Configuration Management Tools For UNIX Systems Unix Shell Scripting: Configuration Management for UNIX Platforms What Is Baseline Configuration Management Configuration Management Of Cisco All About Configuration Management Software Tools Visual.132 Your Ultimate Computer Software Configuration Management Tools Source Configuration Management Are All The Same The Important Goals In Configuration Management That You Can Apply To Your Organization Intelliden: The Leading Configuration Management Solution In The Industry Today The Report For Configuration Management Configuration Management Software Teamsite Tool Essentials...143

9 Tools For Revision Control In Configuration Management The Importance Of The Configuration Management Tutorial. 147 Harness The Power Of Configuration Management Tutorials 149 The Versions Of Configuration Management Configuration Management Wiki Cost Saving, One Of The Benefits Of Configuration Management The Definition Of Lifecycle In Configuration Management Understanding Enterprise Configuration Management To Help Your Organization How Does Configuration Management Control Project Scope 157 What You Can Learn At The Institute Of Configuration Management Logistics: A Configuration Management Teams Responsibility Configuration Service Management For NIC Meet Your Personal Objectives Through Configuration Management ITIL: Procurement And Configuration Management Online Exam For Configuration Management Project The Basics Of Python Software Configuration Management The Analyst For Software Configuration Management What are the Tasks of a Software Configuration Management Engineer

10 The Many Facets Of Software Configuration Management Tools Using Team Foundation Server As A Configuration Management Tool The Tools Used For Configuration Management The Benefits of Utilizing Avionics Configuration Management Tools Configuration Management Jobs...180

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12 12 Choosing The Best Configuration Management Tool Configuration Management is a practical and effective system, which is used to control the changes. This includes the recording of changes that are made in firmware, hardware, software and documentation during the lifecycle system. This is a disciple of maintaining development of software products. It also fulfils the quality and eliminates delays. Configuration Management tools are very important to help you maintain the computer systems that are effectively distributed in your entire organization. This will deal with your staffs need for a dependable and useful computing tool. There are several Configuration Management tools that can be used. Here is list of tools that will help you: * Subversion - One of the major goals of a Subversion project is to create a version control system that can forcefully replace the CVS in the community. It is intended to surpass CVS that is why it has almost all the CVSs features. Subversion has its own directories and renames files. * Aegis - This is transaction-based software that lends a framework to allow the developers to work on various changes within a program, both separately and independently. This tool organizes and incorporates the changes back to the program source with less interruption.

13 13 * Bazaar-NG - This is a version control system that decreases the obstacles and other barriers that may otherwise participate in your project. This tool is safe since there are no reports of data loss in the past 2 years. Bazaar is a perfect tool to carry out renaming files and directories. With this tool, you can merge effectively. These are just three of numerous software tools that can help you improve your system and satisfy your clients needs. When choosing the best tool it is imperative to know what features your company needs. That is why you need to research and check twice what tools your company requires you to have.

14 14 Configuration Management And CMDB Configuration Management is a method of controlling the infrastructure and services. It is therefore very important that a good Configuration Management policy is implemented for the creation and maintenance of documents. This is where a Configuration Management database or CMDB comes in. A Configuration Management database is a system of storing and managing knowledge and information that is related to the components of the information system. CMDB gets its roots from the Information Technology infrastructure library or ITIL and is under ITIL s Service Management process of Configuration Management. CMDB is very important in Configuration Management because it helps the organization resolve incidents and problems more easily and quickly because of the information stored on the possible causes and solutions. It is a storehouse of information that will include a matrix, a table or spreadsheet or a catalogue so that relationships between these components can be understood and their configuration easily tracked. While CMDB is very important in the management of knowledge, it is not that all- powerful database of information. You can easily start a basic CMDB through your favorite word processor or spreadsheet program. As the project grows and develops, the CMDB can be integrated and indexed so that information can be easily retrieved, updated and modified. As the organization becomes bigger, so too will the complex system of data storage that has to be federated, reconciled and synchronized. It is therefore very important that you invest in CMDB, whether you are buying a product or in the process of

15 15 developing one, make sure that the basic concept of federation, reconciliation, synchronization and modeling is being followed.

16 16 Configuration Management Database Of ITIL The framework CMDB, or Configuration Management Database, has been a very important part of the best practices of the Configuration Management of ITIL. CMDB is a standardized database plan that is created to support the IT resource management project of ITIL. The four tasks of Configuration Management according to ITIL are identification, control, status, and verification. Identification is the first of the four tasks of Configuration Management. These tasks include the identification and the specification of all of the components of IT that govern its insertion into CMDB. Control is the second task of Configuration Management. This is the supervision of each of the items for configuration that states who has the right to make some changes and improvements. The third task is status. This task is responsible for recording the status of the items for configuration in the CMDB and also the maintenance of information in the record. The fourth and the final task of Configuration Management is verification. This task includes the audits and the reviews to make sure that all the information contained in the record of CMDB is precise and accurate. A CMDB that is properly implemented can save considerable costs to the organization. However, there are existing overhead costs in the capturing of the data itself. As in all businesses, it is better to make critical decisions for the business before investing and closely examine how the assets are going to be managed. CMDB provides the necessary information that the organization needs to become more efficient and competent in the marketplace.

17 17 Configuration Management On A Commercial Unix Platform Unix has become one of the leading operating systems today. From its humble beginnings as a project-based task to its very important role in the industry, Unix has become a very strong and easy to use operating system for everyone. Since its conception more than 30 years ago, many commercial Unix variants have come up. Commercial Unix is a type of Unix program that has been modified from its original make in order to run only on specific hardware. More and more companies are using their Configuration Management on a commercial Unix platform. With the development of the X Window system, commercial Unix Configuration Management has become easier. The X Window system has become an industry standard in the Configuration Management of commercial Unix, even though there are many sophisticated Configuration Management tools available for use outside of the commercial Unix platform. Using commercial Unix in Configuration Management has many benefits for end users. One of them is the significant drop in software (and sometimes hardware) costs. Commercial Unix is rather inexpensive and very flexible because they have been specifically programmed to run on the hardware they were designed for and therefore will be very stable, secure and easily upgradeable. And since most commercial Unix-based Configuration Management programs have their roots in the original AT&T code base, they will be very portable, adaptable and are easy to mange and modify. Commercial Unix Configuration Management platforms run on the most basic desktop to the biggest mainframes. Its dependability is unmatched.

18 18 The Computer Software For Configuration Management There is a lot of computer software available for Configuration Management. The computer software is helpful in managing and controlling the configuration of a particular organization. It gives assistance to the manager for effective managing. The principles of the different computer software are reasonable for any type configuration item like delivery, documentation and other transactions within an organization. Bug Tracker is one of the thousands of computer software programs made for Configuration Management, complete with a multimedia application. It provides functionality and compatibility upon installation and gives a quality that software and video applications are tested for. There is also computer software, which is the KeepCore that offers methodologies and solutions for the different changes occurring in an organization, and it also provides testing services for the software. Iplex Technology gives electronic features regarding data interchange. It performs electronic transactions for the financial and security systems of the organization. There are a lot of other computer software programs for Configuration Management. There is KeyScape Limited, which is a quality specialist for testing performance. Other computer software companies specialize in making the software that is needed by the organization as prescribed by the manager, such as the ParaSoft Corporation, Perseus Labs, Quality Automation, Ready Test Go and many other companies. Looking for computer software for Configuration Management is quite a difficult task for the manager and it takes a lot of determination and patience on his or her part to choose what is best for the particular organization.

19 19 Computers Software Configuration Management Tools Subversion Computer software today eases the problem of computing, managing and monitoring changes within the system. One tool of Configuration Management is called subversion. This tool is a version control system that was begun in 2000 by CollabNet Inc. This lets users track the changes to whatever thy want, including automated or electronic data, web page, design document and source code. Subversion in Configuration Management today is a very popular tool that is generally used as an alternative to a Concurrent Version System (CVS). Tasks and projects that commonly use subversion involve KDE, GCC, Free Pascal, Python, Samba, Sakai, Apache Software Foundation, Mono and many more. Tigris.org and SourceForge.net use subversion tools as the host of their projects. BountySource system and Google Code are just some of the systems that use subversion exclusively. This tool is not just used in the IT industry. Subversion is making its name in the corporate world as well. It was highly praised as the solitary leader in the Standalone Software Configuration Management, Change Management and Software Configuration. Configuration Management tools are efficient if joined together with change management and CM processes within your company. This tool will allow the users to note and record the customized files. One of the advantages of subversion includes the versioned directories and file renames. Unlike in others, you are not limited to deleting the file just to move it only to add it once more. Subversion can also determine the distinctive features of a binary file and text, and it is also very efficient in both kinds of files. In Configuration Management, it is very important to have the right