Configuration Management
From Consultancy.EdVoncken.NET
The key to effective and efficient management is proper configuration management - you can't manage assets that you don't know you have.
Contents |
Asset Information
There are two approaches to gathering information about your assets:
- Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
- Dynamic Asset Discovery
Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
This database is a centralized source for all information. New servers / services are (manually) recorded in a database. It can be used to drive / configure most of the other tools in your datacenter.
Sample scenario:
- Cobbler provisioning automatically generates profiles for new hosts
- Cfengine or Puppet configuration management automatically configures new hosts
- Nagios monitoring automatically picks up new hosts
- Customer-specific reports are generated based on CMDB information
Dynamic Asset Discovery
Without a CMDB, you can attempt to discover your assets dynamically. For example, by having each server / service register itself when it is started.