Treating infrastructure configuration as code and managing it in version control is a fundamental DevOps practice that provides auditability, rollback capability, and collaboration for operations teams. Subversion (SVN) offers a mature, centralized version control system well-suited for managing server configurations, scripts, and automation code.
Repository Structure for Operations
Organize your SVN repository with a clear structure separating configuration templates, deployment scripts, monitoring definitions, and documentation. Use the standard trunk/branches/tags layout for each project. Store Kickstart files, Nagios configurations, firewall rules, and cron definitions in version control to maintain a complete history of every infrastructure change.
Establish a workflow where all configuration changes are committed to SVN before being deployed to servers. Include commit messages that reference change tickets and describe the rationale for the change. This practice creates an audit trail that answers who changed what, when, and why, which is invaluable during incident investigation.
Use SVN hooks to enforce policies such as requiring non-empty commit messages, running syntax checks on configuration files before accepting commits, and triggering automated deployment to staging environments after each commit. These hooks add a layer of quality control that catches errors before they reach production systems.