Introduction to NonStop Operations Management

Change and Configuration Management
Introduction to NonStop Operations Management–125507
7-2
The Goals of Change and Configuration
Management
Change and configuration management encompasses the following major areas, which
are described briefly in this section:
•
Anticipating and planning for change
•
Installing and implementing changes to system software and hardware, application
subsystems, communications subsystems, and application software
•
Controlling the introduction of change
For detailed descriptions of these topics, refer to the Availability Guide for Change
Management.
The Goals of Change and Configuration
Management
The main goal of change and configuration management is to minimize the impact of
change on system and application availability, while successfully migrating your system
or application from one stable configuration to another. You can meet the goals of
change management by:
•
Performing changes online. Being able to make changes to your hardware or
software online is one way to reduce—or even eliminate—system and application
down time caused by change. Online change is change that can be performed while
the system or subsystem is still running and available to users.
Because of its fault-tolerant architecture, Tandem systems reduce the down time
necessary to reconfigure hardware. Down time for software upgrades can be
eliminated by using tools provided by Tandem, allowing you to make software
changes online.
For detailed information about performing changes online, refer to the Availability
Guide for Change Management.
•
Reducing the time required for planned outages. Planned outages occur when there
are changes that must be implemented and the computing environment must be
stopped to implement the changes. An example of such a change is the installation
of a new version of the operating system.
Reducing the time required for planned outages can be accomplished by:
•
Minimizing the frequency of planned outages.
•
Reducing system and application startup and shutdown time.
•
Using a formal change control process to manage change. Change control helps
to ensure that the planned outages will proceed smoothly.
Techniques for reducing system and application startup and shutdown time and
minimizing the frequency of planned outages are described in the Availability Guide
for Change Management.
The change control process is described in this section.