Day 16: Introduction to configuration management

Now it’s time to check configuration management.

What is Configuration Management?

Configuration management is the process of systematically managing, organizing, and maintaining the configuration of computer systems, servers, and software applications. It ensures that the systems and applications are set up and run consistently across different environments. Configuration management tools help automate the deployment, configuration, and management of systems and applications, reducing the risk of human error and ensuring a consistent and reliable environment.

Why is Configuration Management Important?

Configuration management brings numerous benefits to the table:

• Consistency: Ensuring that your systems are consistently configured helps reduce errors and downtime, leading to a more stable environment.
• Efficiency: Automating configuration management tasks reduces manual labor, freeing up your team to focus on other important tasks.
• Scalability: Configuration management makes it easier to deploy and manage new systems, allowing your infrastructure to grow with your business.
• Compliance: Properly managing configurations can help you meet regulatory and security requirements, protecting your organization from potential legal and financial risks.

Tooling

We can take a look into some of the popular tool in the configuration management space and maybe take an example of say installing and starting an Apache server using these tools.

Ansible

An open-source automation tool that uses a simple, human-readable language called YAML to define automation tasks. Ansible uses an agentless architecture, which means it can manage remote systems without installing any software on them. Example of an Ansible playbook:

---
- name: Install and configure Apache
  hosts: webservers
  tasks:
    - name: Install Apache
      apt:
        name: apache2
        state: present

    - name: Start and enable Apache
      service:
        name: apache2
        state: started
        enabled: yes

Puppet

An open-source configuration management tool that uses a declarative language to describe the desired state of a system. Puppet uses an agent-master architecture, where agents run on the managed systems and communicate with a central Puppet master server.

Example of a Puppet manifest:

package { 'apache2':
  ensure => installed,
}

service { 'apache2':
  ensure => running,
  enable => true,
}

Chef

An open-source configuration management tool that uses Ruby-based Domain Specific Language (DSL) to define the desired state of a system. Chef uses a client-server architecture, with a central Chef server managing the distribution of configuration data to managed nodes.

Example of a Chef recipe:

package 'apache2' do
  action :install
end

service 'apache2' do
  action [:enable, :start]
end