DEVOPS / A CONCEPT NOTE
Configuration Drift
when reality stops matching the code
Overview · mechanism
pitfall · examples
01 / THE SHORT VERSION
The idea in a few sentences.
Drift happens when manual changes, auto-scaling events, or untracked scripts modify active server states so they no longer match the version-controlled IaC code files.
02 / FOLLOW THE MECHANISM
How drift reconciliation flows
Manual change
someone logs into the AWS console and opens port 22 in a security group.
IaC scan
Terraform or drift-radar runs a plan check against configuration files.
Deviation found
reports gap: live security group contains port 22 but IaC files do not.
Correction
applying IaC changes reverts the manual port opening to restore parity.
04 / COMMAND NOTES
Read the command, then the result.
Inspect the flags and arguments before trying an example. Snippets can need local setup, replacement values, or resources in your own environment.
compare live cloud resources with IaC files to locate drift
terraform plan05 / CHECK YOURSELF
Could you explain Configuration Drift to a teammate?
Try it out loud in two sentences: what it is, and the one detail that changes the picture. If you stall, the gap is the part to reread.
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