Simplifying Server Configuration Management

Network services have gained great importance during the last years. Following the current trend, the number of computers and applications that collaborate to provide these services will grow steadily in the future. The dependencies between the collaborating systems along with heterogeneous management interfaces will continue to increase the complexity of the administration task. This thesis presents a new approach to server configuration management. The integration of the applications into diverse local environments is simplified, and the availability of services is improved by freeing the applications from error-prone tasks.