DC 5.10 Configuration Management: How to
- Tobias Thornfeldt Wolters
Configuration management can be accessed from the Media Manager UI through the cogwheel in the top right corner.
It requires the ConfigManagement_Admin or Administrator role to access it
The UI looks as follows
Where the left hand side contains the Desired state, the middle section is the editor for the selected file in the Desired state and lastly the right hand side represents the actions
Save current configuration is available if a .dcl file has been edited
Validate configuration is used to validate the changes you have made. This is also validated on save, however, it can be useful to validate changes while you edit.
Calculate diff is what fetches the Actual state and compares it with the Desired state in order to calculate the actions needed to take the Actual state to the Desired state.
Export unmanaged resources is used to export resources that are not managed by the system. For example users, assets and edit combo values.
Export entire actual state is used to exported the entire Actual state and making it the Desired state (i.e. this can be seen as the opposite of Calculate diff)
Execute autolinking is used to link the resources defined in the Desired state to the resources that are in the Actual state. This operation is also performed on Calculate diff
Download as zip is used to download the entire Desired state as .dcl files. Think of this as an export of the state
Import from zip is used to import an entire Desired state from an existing zip of .dcl files. Think of this as an import of the state.
Calculating the diff
As described in the previous sections, calculating the diff compares the Actual state with the Desired state and comes up with the set of actions need to take the Actual state of the system to the Desired state.
The calculate diff view comes in two flavors, each with it’s own strengths
Action based view
Good for seeing what is being executed
Not very good for seeing how things are connected
Structured view
Good for seeing how things are connected (i.e. everything in the meta group is displayed as children in the tree)
Not very good for a quick overview of actions.
The above views can be switched in between in the button right corner of the diff view.
Action based view
The action based view has 4 columns each representing an action type
To be created are resources that are in the Desired state, but not in the Actual state and therefore must be created
To be updated are resources that are both in the Desired state and in the Actual state, but with differences and therefore the Actual state must be updated to match the Desired state
Would be re-created if safe mode where off are resources that are both in the Desired state and in the Actual state, but with differences, however, a few of the properties (e.g. metadata type) cannot be updated and therefore the resource must be deleted and re-created.
Would be deleted if safe mode where off are resources that are in the Actual state but not in the Desired state and therefore these resources must be deleted
Structured view
Is a view where the actions are grouped based of the structure of the system. For example the above screenshot shows how the metafields are grouped within the metafield groups.
It contains the same actions as the Action based view, but the difference is they are color coded where
Green is create actions
Red is delete actions
Orange is update actions
Yellow is re-create actions
Lastly, the views can be switched between in the button right corner alongside the safe mode switch.
Safe mode
Safe mode is a mode which is on by default. It becomes relevant when the changes are accepted and applied. If safe mode is on only Create and Update actions are executed.