Configuration Management has been flagged as an area of improvement at our client's site. Recently our team has been given access to SCCM 2007, with a view to use it to manage configuration. We are hoping to use a tool which would solve the following problems:
- Report on the delta before and after an application installation/upgrade. The idea is to baseline the server configuration after each deployment, and somehow delta the differences between the baselines to track what has been installed for each deployment. FYI most of the application we deploy are .NET/web apps.
- Report on all applications which use a common component. For instance, we get asked frequently to assess the impact on applications from component upgrade, with the most recent being upgrading WSE from 2.0 to 3.0. Because of our current set up where some 30 applications reside on the same server, this report will drastically reduce the testing effort required.
What I am struggling with (and to find time to) is to figure out which of the 50 or so reports available in SCCM to use, and how to use it. And also whether it is the right tool for what we are trying to solve, and whether any other tools out there which will be more appropriate. Needless to say, the approval for purchasing a 3rd party product is pretty slim due to budget constraints.
Any help is much appreciated.