Understanding configuration information

With this system, you can get and set configuration information from numerous sources and represent the data in a manageable way. You can also manage specific configuration settings as well as the dynamic expansion and processing of these configuration values during updates of remote services. 

This configuration data is typically a snapshot of all the settings for a particular service or server, which is stored in the system database at regular intervals. The snapshots can be compared to provide delta information on any given service. The configuration data is either managed or unmanaged:

• Managed configuration data can be uniquely identified and presented in a controlled manner. It is used to update servers. Changes in the managed configuration data can be isolated and displayed when a delta occurs between two data sets. For an explanation of managed configuration data formats, see Understanding configuration data formats.
• Unmanaged configuration data is any information that needs to be tracked and used for delta decisions. The data is either random or has no specific format that prevents its management. This data is treated as a single textual entity. Any difference between two blocks of unmanaged configuration data is a global delta condition.

With the dispatcher and agent infrastructure, any server or server application can be the source for configuration information. For example, a server running MySQL can be queried for the MySQL configuration data, while another server might be queried for JBoss container configuration information. Configuration information for different services is managed by dumping the raw configuration information from the server and passing it through a translation process that transforms the data into a consistent format. The system includes translation filters for all of the common middleware, database, and web server systems.