Distributed Cross-Domain Configuration Management

Applications make extensive use of services offered by distributed platforms ranging from software services to application platforms or mere computational resources. In these cross-domain environments applications may have dependencies on services or resources provided by different domains. A service management solution based on a centrally managed configuration management database (CMDB) is not viable in these environments since CMDB federation does not scale well to many domains. In this paper we propose a distributed configuration management approach by applying standard technologies (e.g., REST services, ATOM feeds) to provide access to and distribution of configuration information. A domain exposes individual configuration items as RESTful web service resources that can be referred to and read by other domains in the context of service management; processes. Using this distributed approach, organizations can engage in effective service management practices avoiding the tight integration of CMDBs with their service providers and customers.