Software configuration management software

I've been using ClearCase for approx. 13 years. I've been there, done that, and got quite a few Atria, Pure Atria, Rational and IBM T-Shirts over the years. Not to mention a few conference rucksacks and even a pint glass! Just recently I was reading Linux Magazine and read about another new software configuration management (SCM) tool, PureCM. Which interested because...

I was at an IBM seminar recently and saw some presentations about Rational Team Concert (RTC) for the first time. I was reminded of a bunch of presentations given 6, 7 or 8 years ago by Rational/IBM - my account manager at the time had told me that they were going to consolidate their tools so that there would only be a couple of tools left. Everything went quiet for such a long time I thought that the idea had been shelved or that someone had realized that having half a dozen to a dozen point tools at a slightly lower price would generate more revenue than a couple of more expensive tools. So it does now look like ClearCase, ClearQuest, ReqPro and a few other tools have now effectively been superseded by RTC. Although you can plugin ClearCase, ClearQuest and ReqPro to RTC the best reason I can think of for doing so is to ease the migration to the new tool.

So given that you are going to start again with a new tool, why not play the field and see what else is out there.

If you are going to pay for the tools then the two SCM tools that I would consider in addition to Team Concert would have been Accurev and PlasticSCM.

I've long wanted to actually put Accurev through its paces in anger. Its implementation of streams is far superior to that of ClearCase UCM, which can be considered some sort of half-*rsed after-thought. Although UCM has gotten smoother recently. From friends who have used Accurev in anger, I've heard that it does enable multi-site use of a single branch without resorting to some of the nasty hacks that have become second nature to ClearCase old-timers. The reduction of merges and regression testing builds that must provide might well be sufficient to consider or investigate a migration.

The feature of PlasticSCM that first caught my attention was the security model, which again was far superior to that of ClearCase. ClearCase, and DSEE before it, were designed by old time UNIX engineers and so utilized the octal user, group,others builtin permissions. PlasticSCM utilizes ACLs, like you'll find in Active Directory, which can be applied to almost any item: elements; streams/branches; individual versions; labels; etc. So much more flexibility.

But looking at the documentation for PureCM, it looks like it might be an acceptable alternative. Given that the tool apparently runs on Apples OS X, Linux, Solaris and Windows it is interesting that the feature comparison they chose to make was with VSS. I suspect that Windows may have been their most successful platform to date. The changeset functionality seems similar to that of Perforce. The builtin issue tracker is similar to Trac. The plugins for CruiseControl and FinalBuilder (a new tool for me - one I'm going to have to take a look at) are also a step in the right direction as RTC has built in build management - actually rather sophisiticated build management.

I do not have a conclusion. There isn't a prescription that all can take. Which is one reason there are so many SCM tools out there. This article is really another starting point for further blogs I'll be writing.

Restore Vizioncore vRanger backups via the OS

The Development VMware ESX server at my company is an IBM 366 with a SCSI attached EXP400 external disk pack. This system arrived in the UK from a company site on the west coast of the US via a stop at the company HQ on the east coast of the US. To say that the hardware had been shunted from pillar to post would be a minor understatement.

We are using Vizioncore vRanger to back up the VMs on both this Development box and the Production VMware ESX server.

Just recently, the RAID 5 array on the EXP400 dropped 6 disks(out of 9)! Why it did this is a different story. Here I'll recount how we recovered from this.

There were a couple of VMs we had to get back online quickly. No problem, we had vRanger backing them up.

Ah! Now, well there was a problem. The backups were very successful, but for some reason we're still investigating, vRanger refused point blank to recover to the Production system.

However, we had access to the backup via the Windows OS. A quick google discovered this thread on the Vizioncore support site.

Restoring a VMWare machine from the '.tvzc' files of vRanger :
1.) Download FileZipper : http://www.vizioncore.com/Downloads/ProductSupport/vcbrestore.zip
2.) Download BSDTar: http://www.vizioncore.com/Downloads/ProductSupport/bsdtar.zip
3.) Install BSDTar (the zipfile contains an installable .exe)
4.) Extract the desired files :
FileZipper.exe -D -I "filename.tvzc" -O - | "c:\Program Files\GnuWin32\bin\bsdtar.exe" xzvf -
5.) Ensure file permissions are correct - I have cygwin installed on my PC, which can be invaluable!
6.) remove the .vzsnp extension from the end of files.
7) Within Virtual Center Server:

• use Browse datastore on the Production Server's storage
• Upload the restored files to the Production ESX server
• select the .vmf file and Add to Inventory

8.) Start up the VM.

Bob's your parental sibling, of the usually male variety.

The Initial Cost of VMware

I've written elsewhere abut the incremental cost of a VMware licence at the firm at which I work. But what about the initial cost?

There is the cost of:

• the new hardware
• training
• VMware software
• OS Licences
• additional Application Licences
• Administrator time!?!?

I try and use CentOS Linux for everything these days, but sometimes you need to use Windows. It takes just 5 to 10 minutes to create a new Windows VM from a template. However, just because you can doesn't mean you should. Each one of those Windows VMs will need a licence.

How do you factor in the cost of the mistakes you'll make with new technologies?

Some of these mistakes you will hope to avoid. Who makes mistakes? Or admits to them anyway?


Administrator time is a constant surely? I'm joking, but sometimes it does seem like there is a belief that a finite group can undertake infinite work.

There is also the opportunity cost of your Administrators not just improving and optimizing your existing infrastructure.

Training!? Choosing the right training first off for a new technology is difficult. For VMware, I'd recommend Elias Khnaser's Training DVDs. Having used VMware for nearly two years now, there are holes in his coverage. However, he also covers some topics I've yet to need to get involved with.

And new hardware! Well that wasn't a road we went down. To start with our development box was an IBM 366 with an EXP400 that had been forklifted from site to site to site. The downside, which we've had to explore extensively, is that as it originated in California IBM are unable supply a replacement motherboard in this country - a 366 in this country has different part numbers! In the long run, completely new hardware might have been the cheaper option, simply in Administrator time. Whilst we were getting the server back up, we weren't doing other more productive work!

So it goes.