Grouped computing device configuration management

A method of grouped computing device configuration management, comprising:

• establishing, on a first number of computing devices, a computing device baseline configuration at both a command level and a file level for use in comparing the baseline configuration with a second number of computing devices within a pre-selected computing device group;
• executing a first set of executable instructions on the first number of computing devices to send a second set of executable instructions to the second number of computing devices and that execute on the second number of computing devices to collect current and historical data regarding command and file level configuration of the second number of computing devices;
• receiving, on the first number of computing devices, the current and the historical data collected from the second number of computing devices;
• purging the current and the historical data collected based upon whether the current and the historical data collected was received by the first number of computing devices prior to a purge date;
• applying one or more filters to the nonpurged data collected wherein the one or more filters ignore one or more differences between the nonpurged data collected and the data of the baseline configuration to generate a filtered set of difference data;
• comparing the nonpurged current data collected with data from the baseline configuration to determine one or more differences;
• comparing the nonpurged current data with the nonpurged historical data to determine one or more differences;
• and
• initiating at least one action selected from the group including:
• issuing an alert, flagging the differences in a database, generating a report listing the differences, identifying a solution to resolve the differences, and executing instructions to resolve the differences.

A non-transitory machine readable medium having a set of machine readable instructions stored thereon for execution by a processor to cause a machine to:

• establish, on a first number of computing devices, a computing device baseline configuration at both a command level and a file level for use in comparing the baseline configuration with a second number of computing devices within a pre-selected computing device group;
• execute a first set of executable instructions on the first number of computing devices to send a second set of executable instructions to the second number of computing devices and that execute on the second number of computing devices to collect current and historical data regarding command and file level configuration of the second number of computing devices;
• receive, on the first number of computing devices, the current and the historical data collected from the second number of computing devices;
• discard data based upon a number of user selections;
• purge the current and the historical data collected based upon whether the data collected was received by the first number of computing devices prior to a purge date;
• compare the nonpurged current data collected with data from the baseline configuration to determine one or more differences;
• compare the nonpurged current data with the nonpurged historical data to determine one or more differences;
• and
• initiate at least one action selected from the group including:
• issuing an alert, flagging the differences in a database, generating a report listing the differences, identifying a solution to resolve the differences, and executing instructions to resolve the differences.