SYNOPSIS

What is configuration management? Why do you need it in your enterprise, and how is it accomplished? Although many administrators feel that they are familiar with the topic, most have truly only scratched the surface. The IT industry in general has come a long way with configuration management in just a few short years, and the term now encompasses much more than simply building client systems by using a standardized drive image.

In The Administrator Shortcut Guide to Configuration Management for the Windows Enterprise, industry expert Don Jones will help you understand what today’s enterprise can expect from configuration management, why configuration is such a critical business need, and—most importantly—how you can add modern, enterprise-class configuration management to your network.

CHAPTER PREVIEWS

Chapter 1: Introduction

What is configuration management? Why do you need it in your enterprise, and how is it accomplished? Although many administrators feel that they are familiar with the topic, most have truly only scratched the surface. The IT industry in general has come a long way with configuration management in just a few short years, and the term now encompasses much more than simply building client systems by using a standardized drive image. In this guide, I’ll help you understand what today’s enterprise can expect from configuration management, why configuration is such a critical business need, and—most importantly—how you can add modern, enterprise-class configuration management to your network.

Chapter 2: Understanding Continuous Configuration Management

In the previous chapter, I mentioned the term continuous configuration management. It’s the word continuous, of course, that sets it apart from the configuration management you hear folks talking about these days. But what does continuous configuration management really entail? How do you implement it in your environment? In this chapter, I’ll explore what continuous configuration management really means, introduce you to some of the tools and technologies it involves, and discuss the underlying Windows technologies that make it possible.

Chapter 3: Roll-Your-Own Configuration Management

How difficult is it to create a configuration management system? As I’ve discussed in the previous two chapters, a lot of information comes into play for configuration management. A lot of that information, however, is accessible through well-defined interfaces such as Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), the Windows registry, and so forth—so why not simply create your own configuration management system? Microsoft also provides many freely available tools and utilities to form the building blocks of a configuration management system, meaning you should be able to pull these together and create a fairly effective solution.

In today's "do more with less" economy, it's certainly tempting to just roll your own configuration management system. You won’t need to buy any tools, and, with a little work, you could have all of the pieces in place. In this chapter, I'll explore the limits of what you can do entirely on your own by using entirely free tools and technologies to create a configuration management system. I'll also look at the business ramifications of doing so, and offer some insight about the gap that will exist between your homegrown solution and the available commercial offerings.

Chapter 4: Automated Continuous Configuration Management

In the previous chapter, I showed you how to create a very basic, home-grown configuration management system. I also pointed out some of the shortcomings associated with a home-grown system—not the least of which is a fairly high level of labor overhead. Such a system—no matter how much time you put into it—would be hard-pressed to offer all of the features provided by a good configuration management system. Thus, this chapter focuses on commercial tools, effective processes, and industry methodologies for automated continuous configuration management.