Configuration Adapters

Purpose

Configuration adapters pull out the project-specific configuration from the control systems that the platform supports, and convert them into data that is sent up to the Configuration Management Engine. They also handle the conversion of that data back into a form that the application can use.

Configuration adapters are composed of two pieces: application-specific scripts and generic wrapper services that interface with those scripts.

How It Works

Application-Specific Scripts

Command Line Interface (CLI): The system has the ability to work with arbitrary command line tools provided by applications for configuration import/export.

Graphical User Interface (GUI): The system has a GUI automation tool to use graphical/wizard based configuration import/export.

Database Management System (DBMS): The system has scripts to interface directly with commonly used relational databases and export/merge data from them (e.g. Microsoft SQL, Oracle, etc).

Generic Wrapper Services

Leader/Heartbeat: This service informs the other pieces of our system whether the machine they are installed on is live, and therefore whether tasks from that machine should be run.

Process: This service handles the running of the above app specific scripts, as well as the upload and download of result data to and from the Configuration Management Engine of the system.

Switchover/Restore: This service runs on clone VMs and continuously polls the Configuration Management Engine for any new configurations that the clone machine should pick up, pulling them down to the failover machine when they are found.