Hardware configuration management tools comparison

Hardware configuration management is explicitly focused on managing the hardware components of products, equipment, systems, or networks. The use of configuration management software becomes more essential and powerful when employed to manage over their lifecycles the configuration of product variants, product line portfolios, assemblies, mock-ups, test models, virtual twins, systems and networks of systems. This includes configuration data at the component, product, or system level that may be used in requirements specifications, engineering changes, product documentation, work orders, maintenance history, installation instructions, repair manuals, inspection reports, warranty records, and compliance certifications.

As such, the practice of CM is applicable to physical products as well as to all of their paper, digital, or virtual records. The historic use case of CM was to support product development, design engineering and manufacturing. CM is considered a must-have fundamental capability before bill-of-materials BOM management, release management, and change management can be undertaken at the product or systems engineering levels. There are many if not more uses of configuration management software solutions outside or downstream of the traditional engineering configuration and change management functions within a product manufacturer.

This is especially true in the supply, support, and service chains of long-life assets deployed in the field. For these industries, managing the in-service configuration of assets over an extended lifecycle of many years is a more important function of CM than that for product design engineering.

In these uses of CM, engineering-centric PDM solutions rarely provide the deep functionality, workflow adaptability, and robust usability required for performing asset configuration management by the supply, support, and service chains. There are many different application categories for Configuration Management software solutions because of the large range of industries and the unique needs and standards each industry has for CM solutions.

It is used to configure, manage, deploy various applications and services. The chef is an automation platform that offers a method to configure and manage infrastructure. In this tool, Infrastructure as code implies by executing coding instead of performing manual execution. The chef tool works on Ruby and DSL for writing the configurations. Ansible tool offers simple IT automation solution. It helps you avoid t performing repetitive tasks and frees up developer teams for more strategic work.

SaltStack is another effective configuration tool. It works on a master-client setup model or a non-centralized model. This tool is based on the Python programming language. SaltStack offers push and SSH methods to communicate with clients. Juju is an open source tool which mainly emphasizes on decreasing the operational overhead of new generation software. Juju offers features like configuring, scaling, quick deployment, integration, etc. Rudder is an open source Continuous Configuration solution.

The tool is used to satisfy the need of production infrastructure. This multi-platform tool allows you to automate and maintain your production infrastructure. TeamCity is an open source continuous integration server developed by Jet Brain. TeamCity offers up to build configurations jobs and runs unlimited builds. Octopus Deploy tool enables automation for complex application deployments. Whether the application is on-premises or in the cloud.

ConfigHub helps teams manage, secure and deliver configuration across the entire stack. The tool allows you to store, manage and distribute software configuration for a single application or a distributed system. It allows you to centralize the management of application configurations. Netflix offers Spinnaker configuration management tool. The ManageEngine tool includes a lot of automated processes that will relieve the burden of maintaining the configurations of your network devices.

The next phase of operation is a constant sweep of devices to look out for any unauthorized configuration changes. You can set up actions to be performed automatically when configuration variance is detected.

You can get reports on the differences between the configurations of similar devices and decide on a set of configuration policies, applying different policies to different device types. Once you have standardized the configurations of your equipment, you can update your config backups , giving you a set of standard settings that you can automatically apply to new devices. The update service of the Network Configuration Manager can also be applied in bulk.

The backup store is also useful when you need to roll back from accidental changes or configuration changes that impair performance and need to be reversed. The configuration management system includes a logging function , which records the users who make changes to the settings of network devices. Those accounts can be suspended automatically , and the information you get out of the logs will show you if a user account has been compromised.

The dashboard for the ManageEngine Network Configuration Manager is very attractive and includes a number of visualization devices to help you spot changes quickly. The console can be adapted for user roles , which makes this a good system for teams supporting a network.

The final benefit of the configuration manager is its ability to poll for patches and updates for the firmware of your network devices. When new software is available, the manager will roll it out and update all appropriate devices. So, you get an integrated patch manager with this tool. This system is better suited to middle-sized and large networks.

The software installs on Windows and Linux. There is a free version of the Network Configuration Manager , which is limited to two devices. If you decide to buy, you can try out the system first for free on a day trial.

Related: Best Linux Patch Manager. This is a configuration manager that would fit a small business to protect its network devices. This tool is not nearly as sophisticated as the previous three options on this list. However, if you have no money for a configuration manager, getting ConfiBack is a much better option than going without. You need to prompt the system to back up configurations for devices. However, you can schedule the backup process to take place regularly. Change detection is an interface-supported manual process.

You need to back up the current version of a device and then compare it to the original backup with a diff command. This process synchronizes the lines in two files and outputs those lines that are different. The results of this utility are saved to a text file. The ConfiBack software is an open-source project , so you can comb through the programming code if you want. This openness is a common method of ensuring users that there are no hidden security weaknesses in programs and that they do not contain hacker code.

WeConfig is billed as a configuration manager for industrial networks. The tool is a product of Westermo, which makes durable network equipment for shop-floor environments. The configuration manager is really only meant for Westermo devices. However, it also works with the network equipment of other manufacturers because it relies on the universal SNMP system. Anyone can download the WeConfig software for free from the Westermo website.

The tool installs on Windows environments. After installing the software, you need to tell it to scan the network. This will compile a network map and log all network devices in the WeConfig database. You can reorganize the network map manually if the display of icons is a little cluttered. Once you are happy with the layout, you can lock it to prevent anyone from accidentally moving or deleting elements. Each icon is a link to details about the device that it represents and an Analysis view shows graphs on the operation of the network equipment on your network.

The configuration manager allows you to command the storage of the configuration of a device to a file and load a configuration file onto a device. You can delete or edit configurations on a device. The WeConfig system requires a lot of manual intervention. However, this service management enables you to store copies of configurations. In order to check for alterations to device configurations, you would have to task a copy of the current configuration and do a file comparison with the store of the original settings.

In order to introduce your own automated procedures, you could set up the collection and comparison of configuration file versions in a batch job. The features of WeConfig include some useful basic network monitoring functions. This tool is suitable for small networks. Another free configuration manager that you could try is called rConfig.

This open-source tool is available from the GitHub website. GitHub makes the code of the tool available so you can check through it for security weaknesses or even adapt it to write your own version. The tool is able to detect all of your network devices and you can command it to copy off the configurations of each into files. The recording of configurations can be scheduled , giving you a regular view of statuses.

All actions can be performed on all devices, on categories of devices, or on individual devices. The checks on changes in configurations require some manual intervention and are based on a file comparison model. You can distribute configurations from the file store out to devices. Again, this can be broadcast to all devices, an update of just one category of device, or to an individual device. You can set policies in the rConfig system and use the Configuration Compliance Manager to check that all the configurations on your network comply with those specifications.

This means that the tool is only suitable for small networks and not those that are managed by a team. Net LineDancer , which is also known as NetLD , is not free to use, but you can try it on a day free trial. Net LineDancer has all of the features that you need from a configuration manager. It automatically logs all devices and takes a snapshot of their configurations to establish a stored baseline.

Subsequent configuration sweeps can identify changes to each device. Those comparisons can also be made on-demand. The stored configuration files can be re-loaded onto equipment in bulk, by device type, or individually. The software can manage thousands of devices and the monitoring processes can be automated through the tool. Reporting features of the tool log the users that make changes to the settings of devices. Net LineDancer and Net StreetDancer cover all of the essential functionality that you need from a configuration manager.

This newly-revamped package is worth a look if you are in the market for a configuration manager. BMC has done a very nice job with its new configuration system because it has paid attention to the standard requirements with which many data-driven businesses have to comply in order to win contracts and keep to service level agreements SLAs.

If you are contractually or legally bound to enforce one of these standards, you will be greatly aided in your duties by TrueSight Network Automation. Not only does the system list the settings that network devices need in order to comply with a given standard, it enforces those requirements.

This method will save you a lot of time reading through standards documents and trying to work out how to translate the requirements into device settings. The system starts off by scanning the system , logging all devices, checking for compliance requirements, and adjusting device settings. After that, the monitor will back up all configurations. TrueSight will continue to scan and prevent any changes or alert you when they happen.

You can restore standard configurations manually, but the automated option of TrueSight will perform that task for you. The console of TrueSight Network Automation can be allocated in sections to different user groups. This will allow you to make different dashboards available for different team members. Changes to configurations and updates to firmware can be rolled out in bulk. The system will detect new patches and updates and alert you to them; these will then be installed automatically on all relevant devices with your approval.

This optional extra will scan for security threats and block them. It also keeps in touch with vendor sources and the NIST National Vulnerability Database to detect security weaknesses and alert you to the need to patch the system when a relevant solution is made available.

This vulnerability monitoring applies to servers as well as to network devices. You have to pay for this network configuration software.