Editing Configuration management (section)

==Maintenance systems==
Configuration management is used to maintain an understanding of the status of complex assets with a view to maintaining the highest level of serviceability for the lowest cost. Specifically, it aims to ensure that operations are not disrupted due to the asset (or parts of the asset) overrunning limits of planned lifespan or below quality levels.

In the military, this type of activity is often classed as "mission readiness", and seeks to define which assets are available and for which type of mission; a classic example is whether aircraft on board an aircraft carrier are equipped with bombs for ground support or missiles for defense.

===Operating system configuration management===
Configuration management can be used to maintain [[Operating system|OS]] configuration files.<ref>{{cite web|author=C. Lueninghoener|title=Getting Started with Configuration Management. ;login: issue: April 2011, Volume 36, Number 2|url=https://www.usenix.org/system/files/login/articles/105457-Lueninghoener.pdf|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.usenix.org/system/files/login/articles/105457-Lueninghoener.pdf|archive-date=2022-10-09|url-status=live|access-date=2012-11-23}}</ref> Many of these systems utilize [[Infrastructure as Code]] to define and maintain configuration.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Loschwitz|first=Martin|date=14 November 2014|title=Choosing between the leading open source configuration managers|url=http://www.admin-magazine.com/Archive/2014/23/Choosing-between-the-leading-open-source-configuration-managers|magazine=Admin Network & Security|location=Lawrence, Kansas|publisher=Linux New Media USA LLC}}</ref>

The [[Promise theory]] of configuration maintenance was developed by [[Mark Burgess (computer scientist)|Mark Burgess]],<ref>M. Burgess, Cfengine: a site configuration engine, USENIX Computing systems, Vol8, No. 3 1995 [https://www.usenix.org/legacy/publications/compsystems/1995/sum_burgess.pdf]</ref><ref>M. Burgess, On the theory of system administration, Science of Computer Programming 49, 2003. p1-46 [http://research.iu.hio.no/papers/sysadmtheory3.pdf pdf] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724180113/http://research.iu.hio.no/papers/sysadmtheory3.pdf|date=24 July 2011}}</ref><ref>M. Burgess, Configurable immunity for evolving human-computer systems, Science of Computer Programming 51 2004, p197-213 [http://research.iu.hio.no/papers/immunity.pdf pdf] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303062114/http://research.iu.hio.no/papers/immunity.pdf|date=3 March 2012}}</ref> with a practical implementation on present day computer systems in the software CFEngine able to perform real time repair as well as preventive maintenance.

===Preventive maintenance===
{{Main|Preventive maintenance}}
Understanding the "as is" state of an asset and its major components is an essential element in preventive maintenance as used in maintenance, repair, and overhaul and [[enterprise asset management]] systems.

Complex assets such as aircraft, ships, industrial machinery etc. depend on many different components being serviceable. This serviceability is often defined in terms of the amount of usage the component has had since it was new, since fitted, since repaired, the amount of use it has had over its life and several other limiting factors. Understanding how near the end of their life each of these components is has been a major undertaking involving labor-intensive record keeping until recent developments in software.

===Predictive maintenance===
{{Main|Predictive maintenance}}
Many types of component use electronic sensors to capture data which provides live [[condition monitoring]]. This data is analyzed on board or at a remote location by computer to evaluate its current serviceability and increasingly its likely future state using algorithms which predict potential future failures based on previous examples of failure through field experience and modeling. This is the basis for "predictive maintenance".

Availability of accurate and timely data is essential in order for CM to provide operational value and a lack of this can often be a limiting factor. Capturing and disseminating the operating data to the various support organizations is becoming an industry in itself.

The consumers of this data have grown more numerous and complex with the growth of programs offered by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). These are designed to offer operators guaranteed availability and make the picture more complex with the operator managing the asset but the OEM taking on the liability to ensure its serviceability.