DevOps concept consists of many essential primary disciplines, which are coding, building, testing, packaging, release, configuration, and monitoring. Each discipline comes with its own set of best practices. Configuration management in DevOps is crucial because it enables automation of otherwise laborious operations and increases organizational agility. Furthermore, configuration management aids DevOps holistically, and it is generally acknowledged that configuration is fundamental to the practice rather than being another element of it. We’ll look for information about configuration management in this post.
Table of Contents
What is configuration management in DevOps?
DevOps configuration management is a concept that refers to the process by which all environments hosting software are configured and maintained. When a configuration platform is utilized to automate, monitor, design, and manage otherwise manual configuration operations, configuration management has taken place. It would be accurate to say that Configuration Management is basically required for setting up a driven framework because using it is essential in DevOps infrastructures.
Determining each system’s state is a crucial component of configuration management. Organizations may assure consistency across connected systems and boost productivity by coordinating these activities with a platform. As a result, organizations can grow more easily without employing IT management personnel. By using a DevOps strategy, businesses that otherwise wouldn’t have the resources can expand.
The automation, management, and maintenance of configurations at each state is the easiest way to define configuration management. There are several tools provided to individuals seeking to implement configuration management DevOps in their organizations.
3 Elements of DevOps configuration management
Identification, control, and audit processes are the three major elements that configuration management is primarily responsible for in the DevOps transition.
Configuration Identification
It is a procedure for locating and compiling system-wide configuration requirements. Automatic configuration identification is possible with the aid of discovery tools.
Configuration Control
Configuration control demonstrates the value of change management in action. Changes in configuration requirements are almost certain to occur over time, and configuration control enables these changes to take place in a controlled manner without jeopardizing integrations and existing infrastructure.
Configuration Audit
Alterations can evade existing control procedures. Such situations are avoided by regular configuration audits. Choose a DevOps configuration management tools that enables these three tasks with the highest level of effectiveness and simplicity.
What is the role of configuration management in DevOps?
There are specific outcomes that can be anticipated when a system is configured and operated correctly. Delivering configuration-as-a-code and infrastructure-as-a-code are two of these. We shall examine each outcome’s role of configuration management in DevOps below:
IaaC
In the simplest form, infrastructure-as-a-code (IaaC) is a code or script that automates the environment required for development without manually carrying out all of the procedures involved in building the environment. The setup of all computing resources necessary to build the infrastructure for performing DevOps tasks is referred to as the “environment” when we use the phrase in this context. These resources could include servers, networks of configurations, and other things.
CaaC
Configuration-as-a-code (CaaC) standardizes configurations inside a specific resource, such as a server or network, as its name implies. To make sure the infrastructure of DevOps configuration management makes sense for the application, these configurations are implemented during the deployment phase.
Benefits of IaaC and CaaC
The following are some advantages of IaaC and CaaC:
- Standardization is provided through the infrastructure environment’s automation.
- Setups don’t contain any human error.
- Collaboration between operations and development is improved and drifting configurations are prevented
- Increases infrastructure’s adaptability and capacity
- Every step is the same for all resources.
- Version management is standard.
- Efficiency and increased agility come naturally as a result of applying these advantages to a business. Configuration management in DevOps, IaaC, and CaaC are essentially synonyms for DevOps.
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3 components of configuration management
Configuration management DevOps is dispersed among an organization’s operational and development buckets. The following are the main components of the thorough configuration management needed for DevOps:
Artifact Repository
An artifact repository is meant to store machine files. Machine files are intended to be kept in an artifact repository. Binaries, test data, and libraries can all be examples of this. In short, it serves as a database for files that are rarely used. Binaries and other artifacts are natural byproducts of continuous integration in DevOps. DevOps engineers frequently push out builds, which results in the creation of artifact files that must be stored but are not always accessible.
Source Code Repository
On the other hand, developers employ a database of source code called the source code repository. The entire working code is housed in this database. Aside from the source code, it also contains a variety of essential elements including scripts and configuration management DevOps files. Finding out what goes into the source code repository is simple. The question “are the files human-readable?” might be used as a rapid litmus test.
Source code repositories come in two flavors: distributed version control system (DVCS) and centralized version control system (CVCS) (DVCS). In a CVCS, the source code is kept in a centralized location from which it can be accessed and archived. But in DVCS, the code is spread out among several terminals that are helpful for the development process.
Configuration Management Data Architecture
An ITIL service management framework principle is the idea of a data architecture specifically devoted to configuration management. A configuration management database, often known as a CMDB, is a relational database that connects to many configuration management DevOps-related systems and applications, such as servers, services, apps, and databases, to mention a few.
Before making configuration changes, users can audit the relationships between integrated systems using the CMDB, which is useful for change management. It’s a helpful tool for provisioning as well because you can gather all of the identifying data for things like servers. A CMBD is a crucial tool for incident management as well because it aids teams in escalating problems to resolution.
Summary
Configuration management is misunderstood when it is viewed as distinct from and independent of DevOps. A DevOps organization cannot function efficiently without comprehensive configuration management, which is discussed in this article. This is because comprehensive configuration management paves the way for considerably more automation than it directly affects. We sincerely hope the information above can assist you in incorporating the appropriate DevOps configuration management perspective into your DevOps architecture.
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