Compare configurations across applications, middleware, databases and operating systems.

Looking for a config compare tool? Or config diff tool? Here is a way to automatically compare configurations in IIS, WebSphere Application Server, SQL Server, Oracle, and more.

Now that we’ve told you how Orca determines your infrastructure configurations, let’s look at Orca’s comparison capabilities.

In this complex world of configuration, “compare” can mean different things to different people. But don’t worry – no matter the use case we have you covered.

Each time Orca captures the configurations of your applications, middleware, databases, and OS, it can automatically compare the configuration against a known standard (such as a gold master revision or gold master server) as well as your compliance standards. To see more about how we do this, read about drift detection and compliance enforcement using Orca.  

Equally important is the ability to perform on-demand comparisons of configurations between environments or between points-in-time. Orca highlights the configuration differences that easily escape notice in less visually-oriented tools. Sometimes the configuration differences are inconsequential. Other times those differences indicate previously hidden problems that can lead to application performance issues, compliance violations, security vulnerabilities or outages.

Need to compare config settings between Dev, Test, Staging & Prod?

Let’s look at a configuration comparison use case.

You’ve released your application to Production. The application won’t come up but you know it’s not a code issue. The application is running fine in your Staging environment. How do you know what’s different between environments? How do you know which configuration changes were made by the application deployment to Production? Comparing configurations between environments or between different points-in-time can take hours, days, or you may sometimes never find the configuration mismatch.

How do you know what’s different between environments? How do you know which configuration changes were made by the application deployment to Production?

Keep Reading

Example: How to compare configurations in WebSphere Application Server
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With Orca you can easily compare your Production configurations to your other environments, such as the configurations in your Staging environment. You can also compare Production configurations before and after the application release, so you immediately know which configurations changed as a result of the release that may be causing problems.

And you can do these comparisons for any part of the application stack! Easily know how the database schema changed, the middleware configurations changed, as well as how the OS configurations changed.

Example: Comparing IIS configurations at points in time
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