DevOps

Exploring Configuration Management in DevOps: Concept, Importance, and Tools

Written by John Terra
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Updated on August 20, 2024

DevOps, the widespread application design methodology, uses many disparate environments to ensure proper functionality. It’s a challenging task to keep these different environments properly configured. That’s why we have configuration management.

This article covers configuration management in DevOps and explores its definition, workings, components, implementation, architecture, tools, and more. We will also discuss its benefits, how it differs from change management, and an online DevOps bootcamp to help professionals gain practical skills.

What is Configuration Management in DevOps?

There are several different flavors of configuration management, but for this article, we will focus on configuration management as it pertains to DevOps. In this context, configuration management is where every environment that hosts software is maintained and configured.

Configuration management is a systems engineering process that tracks and monitors software system configuration and metadata changes. In DevOps, it is commonly used with version control and CI/CD infrastructure.

Also Read: What is Docker Container? Steps to Use It and Its Benefits

Why is Configuration Management in DevOps Important?

Configuration management is essential because it lets teams scale infrastructure and software systems without needing to scale the administrative staff that manages those systems correspondingly. Thus, scaling becomes possible in situations where it previously wasn’t feasible.

It’s easy for configuration values to become an afterthought, which leads to scattered and disorganized configurations. Configuration management solves this problem by creating a “source of truth” with a central configuration location.

Version control and configuration management add visibility to configuration modifications. Thus, when configuration data changes, the version control system tracks it, letting team members review an audit trail of the changes. Furthermore, configuration version control enables a rollback or “undo” functionality to the DevOps configuration, helping to avoid unexpected breakage. So, a configuration can be rapidly reverted to the last known stable state.

How Does Configuration Management Work?

Configuration management in DevOps has three distinct processes:

Identification. Configuration management finds and catalogs the system-wide configuration needs.
Control. Configuration control affects change management as needed without destabilizing integrations or the existing infrastructure.
Audit. The configuration audit reviews existing systems, ensuring they adhere to compliance regulations and validations.

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Configuration Management vs. Change Management

Configuration management is best described as automating, managing, and maintaining configurations at each state. In contrast, change management is the process of redefining and changing configurations to fulfill the needs and conditions of new needs and dynamic circumstances.

So, configuration management covers the state of software systems and infrastructures at any given time, while change management covers how changes are made to the configurations.

DevOps Configuration Management Components

Configuration management, like DevOps, is spread across an organization’s operational and development buckets. This is deliberate. Three primary components are a part of DevOps comprehensive configuration management:

Artifact repository
Source code repository
Configuration management data architecture

Let’s take an in-depth look at each of these components.

Artifact Repository

Artifact repositories store machine files, including binaries, test data, and libraries. Essentially, they’re databases for files people don’t typically use. During the continuous integration process of DevOps, artifacts such as binaries are a natural result. DevOps developers constantly push out builds, creating artifact files that must be stored, although not necessarily accessed.

Source Code Repository

Conversely, the source code repository is the database developers often use, serving as a container for all working code. Additionally, it stores several valuable components, such as different scripts and configuration files. Although some developers store binaries in this same repository, it’s not a recommended tactic. Instead, due to the sheer number of builds and off-shoot binaries in DevOps, it’s recommended that an artifact repository be developed to store binaries and other artifacts. If the files are human-readable, they belong in the source code repository.

There are two source code repositories: the centralized version control system (or CVCS for short) and the distributed version control system (DVCS). With a CVCS, source code exists in a centralized place where it can be retrieved and stored. In a DVCS, the code exists across multiple terminals, which is helpful in the development process and faster and more reliable. Today’s DevOps professionals usually prefer DVCS as their chosen source code repository.

Configuration Management Data Architecture

The configuration management database (or CMDB for short) is a relational database that spans many systems and applications that relate to configuration management, such as applications, services, servers, and databases. CMDB is beneficial for change management since it lets users audit the relationships between different integrated systems before making configuration changes. CMDB is also a valuable provisioning tool since you can glean all identifying information for any relevant object. The CMDB is also a vital tool for incident management since it helps teams escalate issues to resolution.

Now, let’s explore a few examples of configuration management tools in DevOps.

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Configuration Management Tools in DevOps

There are plenty of configuration management tools available, such as:

Ansible, Chef, Puppet, and Salt Stack. Ansible, Chef, Puppet, and Salt Stack are popular IT automation frameworks that can automate many traditional system administrators’ processes. Each framework employs a series of configuration data files, typically YAML or XML, evaluated by an executable.
Docker. Docker introduced containerization, an advanced form of configuration management similar to a configuration lockdown. Docker is based on configuration files named Dockerfiles, which hold a list of commands evaluated to rebuild the expected snapshot of an operating system’s state. Docker builds containers from Dockerfiles, which are snapshots of a preconfigured application. Then, Dockerfiles are assigned to a Git repository for version tracking purposes, and additional configuration management is needed to get them deployed into an infrastructure.
Git. Git is the popular, industry-leading version control system for tracking code changes and is a foundational tool in higher-level configuration management. By adding configuration management data alongside the code in a Git repository, you can get a holistic version control view of your entire project
Terraform. Finally, Terraform is an open-source configuration management platform developed by HasiCorp. Terraform uses IaC to manage and provision clusters, cloud infrastructure, and services. Additionally, Terraform supports Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and other popular cloud platforms. Each cloud platform provider has a unique representation and interface for standard infrastructure components such as databases, servers, and queues. Terraform is versatile because it has built an abstraction layer of configuration tools for these cloud platforms that allow teams to write files that are reproducible definitions of their particular infrastructure.

How Do You Implement Configuration Management?

Identification. First, gather information. Configuration data must be compiled and aggregated from various application environments, staging, development, and production for every component and service. Secret data such as passwords and keys must be identified, securely encrypted, and safely stored. The configuration data should also be organized appropriately into data files referred to as the central source of truth.
Baseline. Once the configuration data has been aggregated and organized, establish a baseline. A baseline configuration is a known configuration state that successfully operates the dependent software without errors. The baseline is typically created by reviewing a functioning production environment’s configuration and committing the configuration settings.
Version Control. The development project needs to incorporate a version control system. If that’s impossible, install Git, initialize a project repository, and add the configuration data files. Ensure any secret data, such as passwords or keys, is encrypted with an external key since secret data accidentally committed to a repository poses a considerable risk. Such instances should be scrubbed from the repositories’ history, or they risk being exploited.
Auditing. Once the configuration data is organized and added to a repository, collaboration and visibility into the system’s configuration are allowed. The popular pull request workflow software teams typically use to review and edit their code can now be applied to the configuration data files, helping build an audit and accounting system. Any applied configuration changes must be reviewed and accepted by the team, adding accountability and visibility to the configuration changes.

Also Read: What is DevOps Culture and How to Create an Effective One

The Benefits of Configuration Management in DevOps

The main benefit of configuration management is how it creates and maintains consistency of the affected systems and software. Thanks to configuration management, you don’t have to guess that a configuration is correct and current. It’s accurate because the configuration management system’s whole purpose is to ensure it is.

Configuration management, combined with automation, improves efficiency because the automated processes easily replace manual configuration. This benefit also allows developers to manage more targets simultaneously with the same or fewer resources.

Get DevOps Training

If you’re interested in learning more about DevOps, consider this 36-week online post graduate program in DevOps. This online bootcamp will help you bridge the gap between software development and operations, giving you hands-on skills via industry projects in continuous deployment and DevOps tools such as Ansible, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, and Prometheus.

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