configuration drift

Definitions

1. The gradual divergence of a system's actual configuration from its intended or documented state, typically caused by ad-hoc manual changes, hotfixes applied directly to production, and inconsistent update practices across environments. Configuration drift is why 'works on my machine' happens and why identical servers mysteriously behave differently.

   In plain English: When servers that should be identical slowly become different because of manual tweaks and hotfixes — the reason your 'identical' environments aren't actually identical.

   Example: After six months of engineers SSHing in and making 'quick fixes,' the configuration drift between the three 'identical' web servers was so bad that each one responded differently to the same request.

Related Terms

• infrastructure as code
• immutable infrastructure
• Incident Management
• Monitoring
• Terraform Module
• Terraform State
• IT Security
• Cluster Management