Top Ten of Change and Configuration Management Solutions

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60% of unplanned downtime is the result of unexpected/unauthorized change. By managing, tracking and auditing all configuration changes to servers, network devices and your desktop PCs this threat to business operation can be significantly reduced.

There is a well-established market for Change and Configuration Management software for servers and PC desktops and the closely aligned Network Change and Configuration Management (NCCM) software, used typically for Cisco or Nortel routers, 3Com, Extreme or Foundry Switches, Nokia, Checkpoint or PIX firewalls. Equally, there is a need to audit your systems for compliance with a wide range of Corporate Governance policies such as Sarbanes Oxley (SOX), GLBA, NERC, PCI DSS, HIPAA, MiFID, SAS 70, and Basel II which have all been introduced to ensure minimum levels of security and integrity are maintained for company financial information and any stored personal details of customers.

This article covers the Top Ten of key issues to consider

1. Cisco router/switch/firewall configuration backup - backup Cisco router configuration settings and backup Cisco switch and firewall configuration settings automatically and on a regular basis to ensure you can always revert or rollback to an earlier known working configuration if a problem occurs following a configuration change. The best network change and configuration management (NCCM) systems will also provide an open configuration backup system for all Nortel, 3Com, Juniper, Extreme, Foundry Networks, Riverbed, Nokia Checkpoint, Alteon, HP, Meru, Huawei and Fortinet or Fortigate firewall configurations.

2. Backup and track changes to Cisco Running and Startup Configurations - it is important to backup startup configuration and backup running configuration settings for Cisco routers, switches and firewalls and a good tip is to compare startup and running configuration settings to ensure they are not out of step unless this is intended i.e. before a scheduled update of the running configuration has been implemented.

3. Automatically audit for compliance with network configuration best practise - Where possible, automate auditing of Cisco router, switch and firewall configuration settings for best practise measures such as regular updates to passwords, SNMP community string changed from default (public) and Access Control Lists are configured.

4. Updating or upgrading Cisco IOS version using TFTP - before scheduling an update to the IOS version, verify the checksum for the IOS file is consistent with the checksum of the downloaded IOS version update to ensure corruption of the file during TFTP upload to the router has not occurred.

5. Integration with Network Management, Servicedesk/Helpdesk and Change Management Process systems - Ensure your Network Change and Configuration Management (NCCM) system integrates with all major Network Management Systems such as HP OpenView" and Castlerock SNMPc", and with leading Servicedesk systems such as Peregrine, Remedy, Touchpaper, Hornbill, Heat, ITSM, Assyst or HP Servicedesk. If a router, switch or firewall is reconfigured, the configuration change will be alerted into the Servicedesk, Helpdesk or Network Management system for immediate investigation. By integrating the NCCM system with your existing Change Management/Change Request/Change Approval system you can ensure planned changes are reconciled with actual changes. A full audit trial of changes made can be collated, together with the Request for Change (RFC), the Change Approval Board (CAB) approval for the change, and all details of who made the change, and what was changed.

6. Server, Network and PC Security Management - Best practise is to limit the number of User Accounts to the minimum and restrict access to Administrator accounts with Admin privileges. You also need to regularly check that Server and PC User Accounts have not been modified, added or changed and track all changes. A key aspect of PCI DSS and other corporate governance policies is that core filesystem attributes have their integrity maintained, for instance, the Win32 folder should not be changed or modified and it is vital to regularly check this

7. Track Changes to Registry Settings, Running Processes and Services/Service States - Enforce a whitelist and blacklist of authorized/unauthorized processes and services, together with any mandatory ‘must run’ or illegal ‘never run’ processes and services, while any Windows Operating System Registry changes must be logged and analysed

8. Server Virtualization - when virtualizing servers in order to facilitate datacentre moves, service continuity provision and to reduce running costs, remember that you are also introducing another layer of configuration management at the VM Host level that must equally be audited to ensure it is compliant with corporate governance policies

9. Software Inventory Management - A Configuration Management solution should cover Server and PC inventory management, server/PC asset management, server/PC performance management and server/PC configuration management

10. Server Application Configuration Management - Together with the Windows Server Operating System, key server applications such as SQL Server, IIS, Exchange, Active Directory and Oracle all have numerous and complex configuration settings which also need to be audited for compliance with your configuration management policy

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All NewNetTechnologies software solutions are built using the latest technology, which means they can be fully adapted to suit all business environments. For more information on Change and Configuration Management view our software solutions on www.newnettechnologies.com which provide 100% of the features you need but at a fraction of the cost of traditional solutions.

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