Abstract

Most existing Unix system configuration tools are designed monolithically. Each tool stores configuration data in its own way, has its own mechanism for enforcing policy, has a fixed repertoire of actions that can be performed to modify the system, and provides a specific strategy for configuration management. As a result, most tools are useful only in environments that very closely match the environment for which the tool was designed. This inflexibility results in a great deal of duplication of effort in the system administration community.

In this paper, I present a new architecture for system configuration tools using a modular design. I explain how this architecture allows a single tool to use different strategies for configuration management, enforce different ideas of policy, and prevent duplication of effort. I also describe the implementation of this architecture at my site and identify some areas for future research.

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