3

I recently started a new job where I've been tasked with managing a global network of heterogenous web applications. There's very little documentation. My first order of business is to create an inventory of all of the web applications. Are there any tools out there to manage a large group of web apps?

I'd like to collect a large dataset for each website including:

  • logins for web based control panels
  • logins to FTP/ssh accounts
  • Google analytics tracking code for each site
  • 3rd party libraries used
  • SSL certs, issuers, and expiration dates
  • etc

I know I could keep the information in Excel or build a custom database, but I'm hoping there's already a tool out there to help me with this.

3 Answers 3

1

Sounds like you bring up a threefold question. This is what I think you're looking for:

  • A Password Management System
    • KeePass might be a pretty good solution for you. You can save your passwords in one secured database locked with one master key (or key file). So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database.
  • A Version Control System

    • You could use Subversion which manages files and directories, and the changes made to them (You can keep your keys, certs, notes, config files. You could even keep copies of your password database/s created with Keepass). This allows you to recover older versions of your data or examine the history of how your data changed. If you're a windows user, try VisualSVN for the server and TortoiseSVN for the client.
  • A Monitoring System (Not sure if you're really looking for that, but..)

    • To monitor our servers, routers... pretty much any kind of host we care about, We use ZennOS and are pretty happy with it. Here's a list of Monitoring solutions though. You can search for any of those within here, google, or bing them: ZennOS, OpenNMS, Nagios

All of the these solutions I believe are open-source

1
  • Great suggestions. Just started using KeePass and it's great! We also already have Subversion and will be implementing Nagios shortly.
    – Andrew
    Jul 24, 2009 at 13:19
0

I would look to your monitoring and change management/trouble ticket solutions for implicit documentation of the environment. Some solutions, like Zabbix or OpenNMS, may even help you out by auto discovering the network.

This is ultimately a question about maintaining documentation, which is unfortunately a political and not a technological problem.

1
  • Matt, You just hit the nail on the head. I'm realizing no matter how great the technology is this is ultimately about me helping people to realize how important documentation is.
    – Andrew
    Jul 24, 2009 at 13:18
0

Might not be quite what you are after, but, You could checkout Nagios which includes modules for monitoring/collecting data on all kinds of things and you can also script for it in various languages.

If the sites are live, then you could write a script to dump the information you want and also to update your data if information is always being added to the site.

good luck

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .