Configuration Data Deserves a Database

Configuration management is one of the largest causes of sys- tem and application failure. In one study, twenty four percent of Windows NT downtime was attributed to system configura- tion and maintenance (13). Furthermore, system configuration is a large expense: 60-80% of the total cost of computer own- ership is system management (3). The problem is increasing as systems and applications get larger. We seek to address a key aspect of this problem, configu- ration storage: how configuration data is stored and managed by the OS. Existing mechanisms, such as files in Linux, prop- erty lists in MacOS X, and the registry in Windows do not ad- equately support application and administrator needs. Instead, we propose to store configuration data in a relational database. A database back-end simplifies many common application and management tasks, as well as providing key services needed for dependability, such as logging and transactions.