System Configuration Collector (SCC) collects configuration data of systems in snapshots. The structure of the snapshot allows SCC to compare a snapshot with the previous one and to detect changes in the configuration. Upon detecting changes, SCC adds the differences to a logbook. The snapshot and the logbook are converted to HTML for local inspection. Optionally, the SCC-files 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.

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, configuration changes 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.

The snapshots can be used to compare the configuration of two systems. Imagine systems, that are supposed to be identical, but behave differently. Comparing parts of the snapshots of the two systems can indicate the cause of the difference in behaviour. All collected snapshots of a site can be analyzed when conducting a due diligence investigation.

Client
The technology used by the clients to collect configuration data, differs between Unix/Linux/*BSD and Windows. On Unix/Linux/*BSD-systems configuration-files and the output of system-commands are incorporated in the snapshots. On Windows systems data is retrieved through the Windows Management Interface.
The scriptomatic tool from Microsoft is used to generate perl code that is used to collect data. Several GNU tools and ActivePerl are used to process the collected data. Running it as domain administrator makes it possible to collect data from other systems in your domain. The client for Unix/Linux/*BSD system is quite mature. The Windows client does not yet collect as much data. Therefore it is likely that certain changes on your Windows-systems are missing in the logbook. The remainder of the functionality of the SCC client on Windows and Unix/Linux/*BSD is similar.

Server
On the server, summaries of the SCC-data are generated and search/compare operations are available via a web-interface. The complete functionality of the server part of SCC consists of:
1. receive files sent by scc from client systems
2. transfer of these files to the directory used by the web server
3. summarize data in the received files
4. allow search and compare functionality through a web server

The SCC data can be sent from clients to the server by email, scp, rcp or cp (local/NFS).

SoftSea Editor's Note: this download can not run on Windows 7 (64-bit).

The license of this software is Free, you can free download and free use this server utility software.