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System Configuration Collector (SCC) is yet another configuration collector.
It consists of a client and a server part. The client-part collects
configuration data in a structured snapshot, compares the new snapshot with
the previous one and adds differences to a logbook. Then the snapshot and
the logbook are converted to HTML for local inspection. Optionally, the
SCC-data can be send to a system running the SCC server software. On the
server, summaries of the SCC-data are generated and search/compare
operations on the snapshots and logbooks are available via a web-interface.
An outline of the user-interface of the server can be found at:
http://www.open-challenge.nl/scc/examples/index.html

The logbook is a starting point in case a system "suddenly" does not work
correctly and the administrator is wondering what he/she has changed in the
last weeks or months. As most of us know by experience, changes in the
configuration can have accidental side-effects on (other) systems. By
examining the entries in the logbooks and considering the consequences, the
cause of an actual problem might be found more easily than by just trying to
remember the changes that were performed. Even the absence of changes in the
logbooks are usefull. They can be used to settle disputes between system
administrators and application developers.

Because of the classification of the data in the snapshots, the snapshots
can be used to compare the configuration of systems. Imagine that two
systems, that are supposed to be identical, behave differently. Comparing
parts of the snapshots of the two systems can indicate the cause of the
difference in behavior. The snapshots can also be used to recover a system
after a crash. A regular backup does not contain the sizes of filesystems or
firmware and boot settings. This data is part of the snapshots. Compare the
snapshots before and after recovery to find out anything you might have
forgotten.

The client part of SCC is available for Unix/Linux and Windows systems. The
server part of SCC is only available on Unix/Linux systems. All software is
available in the native system install-formats (HP-UX, Solaris, Linux and
Windows) and in source tar-balls. SCC (client and server) is free software
under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Copyright (©) 2001 - 2003
Open Challenge B.V. The Unix/Linux software has a minimal footprint. Only
"standard" tools are used to collect and manipulate data. On Windows clients
WMI and WSH are required to collect configuration data.

The software and documentation can be found at
www.open-challenge.nl/scc/index.html.

Siem Korteweg