Questions tagged [configuration-management]

Software configuration management (SCM) is the task of tracking and controlling changes in the software deployments

In software engineering, software configuration management (SCM) is the task of tracking and controlling changes in the software. Configuration management practices include revision control and the establishment of baselines.

SCM concerns itself with answering the question "Somebody did something, how can one reproduce it?" Often the problem involves not reproducing "it" identically, but with controlled, incremental changes. Answering the question thus becomes a matter of comparing different results and of analysing their differences. Traditional configuration management typically focused on controlled creation of relatively simple products. Now, implementers of SCM face the challenge of dealing with relatively minor increments under their own control, in the context of the complex system being developed. According to another simple definition: Software Configuration Management is how you control the evolution of a software project.

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Why do people use Puppet/Chef with Amazon Cloud Formation instead of just using CloudInit?

We're planning to use AMI EC2 instances which are not "pre-baked". I.e. when they are spun up, they are bare installs of AWS linux. Our bootstrap process will pull in the various installs that we need e.g. python, tomcat. We'll have min of 3…
BestPractices
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Displaying output of a remote command with Ansible

In an Ansible role I generate the user's SSH key. After that I want to print it to the screen and pause so the user can copy and paste it somewhere else. So far I have something like this: - name: Generate SSH keys for vagrant user user:…
Damian Moore
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Configuration Management for Windows

Are there any tools for windows like that *nix world has? I am looking for something like Chef or Puppet. I have found cfEngine but it still looks very *nix centric. Ideally it would be open source, and command line driven. The idea is to put…
Nathan Lee
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TFS vs SVN

I am about to start a project (.NET) and need to decide between TFS and SVN. I am more used to SVN(with tortoise client), CVS and VSS. Does TFS have all features available in SVN Have any of you switched from SVN to TFS and found it worthwhile? Also…
Binoj Antony
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Docker for GUI-based environments?

Problem I have a set of client machines that are a part of an enterprise web application. Each machine runs identical software, which is a PyQT-based web client that connects to a server. This client software is updated regularly and I would like to…
skanatek
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What is the difference between configuration management and version control?

Can anyone explain in simple terms what the difference is between configuration management and version control? From the descriptions I've been able to find on various websites, it seems like configuration management is just a fancy term for putting…
friedo
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Manage configuration files across environments

How do you (your company) manage the config-files of the apps/systems you build? Let me tell you how we do it, and what the problem is. I'm working at a company where we develop software with about 15 developers. We build line-of-business web apps…
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salt stack: grains vs pillars

In the Salt system there are grains and pillars. I understand how I can assign custom grains, but when would it be better to consider using pillars?
Jeff Bauer
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Official definition of CSCI (Computer Software Configuration Item)

I'm looking for the most official definition of CSCI / Configuration Item - not just what it is but what we have to deliver / can expect when a contract defines subsystems which shall be developed as configuration items. I spend some time with my…
Andreas Dolk
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What is the best way to manage configuration data

I am working on a product suite which has 4 products. Right now, all of the configuration data is either in the XML or properties files.This approach is not maintainable as we have to manage different configuration file for different environment(for…
Shekhar
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Choosing a vagrant provisioner

Question Can anyone explain why it would be better to choose the puppet or chef vagrant provisioners, rather than the shell provisioner? Background I'm in the process of getting started with Vagrant. One of the things I'm having trouble with is…
Andrew Walker
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How to pass Variables to Terraform modules via CLI or tfvars file?

(Please note: after receiving initial answers, this issue seems to not be just an issue with passing the variables, but with modularizing my configurations, note at the bottom where I hardcode the values yet the UI prompts me to provide the…
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Managing project configurations in VS 2010

I'm working on a solution with multiple projects (class libraries, interop, web application, etc) in VS2010. For the web application, I would like to take advantage of the config transformations in VS2010, so at one point I added configurations for…
Toby
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What is the point of using Azure Key Vault instead of only App Configuration?

Is there any point in using Azure Key Vault over App Configuration? Yes, yes, I know - they are complimentary, key vault for secrets, app config for... well, app config. But, considering they are both encrypted, basically for someone to see either a…
Tessaract
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Vagrant provision live output

Is there a way to get Vagrant to display the output of the provisioning tool as it runs, rather than just at the end? I'm using the Ansible plugin if that matters. Vagrant appears to run the entire config.vm.provision section collecting the output,…
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