EM: BBj Services > Configuration History

Description

In BBj 18 and later, the Configuration History provides administrators with a complete audit trail of all changes made to BBjServices configuration files, enabling precise monitoring and rollback when required. Each entry in the history includes the timestamp, committer name, committer email, commit message, and unique commit ID, with detailed diff views showing exact modifications between versions. The feature reduces debugging complexity by allowing administrators to restore prior configurations quickly, ensuring system stability and maintaining accountability across all BBjServices changes. When reverting to previous version, administrators can simply select the desired entry and click the button, at which point BBj automatically restores the configuration and generates a new commit reflecting the rollback action.

Location

EM Navigator → BBjServices → Configuration History

Toolbar

Button	Function
	Reverts the configuration to the selected previous version in the history list.
	Refreshes the displayed list of applications and their status

Configuration History Column List

Column	Description
Time	Date and time of the change.
Committer Name	User who made the configuration change. If the change was made by BBjServices automatically, BBjServices will be used for this value.
Committer Email	This value corresponds to the email address field that is part of the Git commit action. This is created automatically using the user name and appending @bbjservices to the end.
Short Message	Brief description of the change event. Typically indicates whether a configuration change occurred manually or whether BBjServices committed a change at startup.
Commit ID	Corresponds to the Git commit ID. It does not mean much in the context of the EM, but it may be useful when interacting with the Git archive using the command line or another Git GUI client.

Configuration History: Status Section

In BBjServices the Configuration History panel, the Status section highlights the detailed file differences between two configuration versions using a standard diff format. Lines removed are shown in red with a minus sign, while new or modified lines appear in green with a plus sign, allowing administrators to quickly identify exact changes.

How Configuration History Works

The Configuration History is enabled by default during BBjServices installation, so there is no configuration needed to begin enjoying this feature right away. The implementation of this feature is quite simple, utilizing a local Git (see Git homepage for more information) archive to store the history of changes made to the <basis_install>/cfg directory.

It is important to note that changes made outside the BBj configuration tools (e.g. directly using a text editor) will automatically be committed to the Git archive. So, the BBj administrator has the assurance that any change made to the cfg directory files will be managed by the Configuration History feature regardless of where they were made.

Note: Some files and subdirectories are excluded from the Git archive because they change often during normal BBjServices operation (e.g. cache directories, etc.). Tracking these files would simply clutter the history log, therefore BASIS excludes them.

Why a Git Archive?

Git was designed to track changes to files and directories (typically used for source control) and maintain a history of those changes in such a way that one can return to any point in the change hierarchy. This is perfect for tracking changes to text-based configuration files as well. Further, use of Git means that BBj administrators can use the tools provided by BASIS for viewing changes or any Git interface (command-line, Git GUI clients, etc.) for more powerful comparing, searching, and more.

Enterprise Manager Access

The Enterprise Manager provides a simple interface for viewing the complete history of configuration changes, comparing differences between two versions, and reverting to a particular configuration version. If more management functionality is required, simply use the Git client of choice for additional features.

Comparing Commit Versions

To compare the difference between two versions:

Select the first commit version to compare.
Hold Ctrl (Cmd on Mac) and click the second commit version to compare.
Once two commits are selected, the differences are displayed in the status area below the commit list.

Reading the Differences

The differences between the two selected commits is displayed in combined diff format. This format displays the files changed, some context of where the change occurred, and any modified, added, or removed lines. For information on understanding this format, see Learn Version Control With Git.