CM Suite Server tracks changes to your files and documents and stores a copy of each change over time. Based on a high powered SQL database and years of development by the CVSNT and EVSCM projects CM Server provides a modern powerful change management platform. With feature for feature drop-in replacement of most version control systems plus support for Web Folders, Web Browsers, CVS, CVSNT and SVN clients - is it the right choice for consolidating your change management?

Runs on Windows - supports Windows, Unix, Linux, OS400 and Mac OS X clients

CM Server runs on the latest and most popular windows servers. Easy to setup Windows systems provide the ideal choice for consolidating change management across the enterprise.

CM Server will be available in 2009 for other server operating systems based on demand, talk to your technical account manager today to discuss your requirements.

Configuring CM Server is a simple matter of running up any supported web browser.

Effective Change Management

Implementing version control is the basis of a good change management system. However change management has a cost - it has an overhead. People generally agree that the benefits of good change management will outweigh the costs. Lose an important change to a web site, a document or software source code and you'll quickly realise the cost of not having change management in place.

However there are more benefits to change management than ensuring changes are not lost. Most of the benefits of change management come from developing a network of information about the reason for changes, and the environment where a change was made. For example: this web page was changed because this new feature was added to the web site, or this program was changed because of this bug report.

CM Server makes it easy for you to get all of the benefits from change management by storing all the change management data in an easily accessible database, plus including with your other business systems. This is what we call Effective Change Management. Don't choose another system where you end up paying the price - but you never see the benefit.

Best Practice

CM Server is a branch new change management server that follows modern best practice. CM Server helps you manage your changes flexibly, providing ways to implement most modern change management practices.

All version control methodologies work - but there are many because different people and different organisations work in different ways. Just because someone else was successful with one methodology does not mean that you will. Look at your requirements, your culture, and your objectives and find a tool which will work with you - not against you.

Backed by reliable SQL databases

CM Server is backed by modern enterprise class SQL databases which help ensure that you can your teams who rely on change management will be backed by the same durable systems that keep your other mission critical systems running. You can replicate you repository and perform live backups using the native tools of the SQL database you have chosen.

Because the versions of all the files you manage are stored in a SQL database then you can be sure that the transactions are protected from network faults and unreliable clients. If a developer is "checking in" 200 changes and the network connection drops then the entire result is discarded. Many other version control systems imply they behave this way by claiming they are "atomic" when all they mean is that the faulty change set is given a unique number so an administrator can manually undo the mess. Do this test: pull the network cable out when you are half way through a 200 file commit.

Tracking changes is only as accurate as your ability to track who made the change. By using the Windows authentication tokens, rather than an arbitrary username and password mechanism you can be sure that the name that is listed against a change is the name of the person who made the change. If you have activated auditing on the server - there is no way the user can proceed without the changes being logged - if the logging fails so does the requested action.

Change Sets

CM Server incorporates support for user defined change sets (bug numbers, job numbers) so that each change you make to a file can be labelled with a meaningful change identification, whether it be your job number or the bug number. You can then organise your work according to these numbers, including finialising all work for the urgent job while leaving your long term projects untouched. The CVS Suite TortoiseCVS includes support for this built right in so it's easy to use.

CM Server Change Manager does not require any additional software - it's all built right in and runs on the same database as your CM Server repository. Alternatively if you want to integrate with Bugzilla, Jira or Mantis please contact sales.

Multi Site

CM Server is designed from the very beginning to support multi site development across wide are networks. You can use a single server with multiple CVS clients with remote sandboxes or you can replicate your repository over your network using the database tools or you can mark some branches as being hosted by a CM Server in a different location (requires CM Server Multi Site, please contact sales).

Repository Replication

No disaster recovery plan for your organisation can be complete without a recovery scenario for your Versioning Repository. Use your database replication tools to ensure your repository is replicated.

Works Simply, Simply Works

CM Server is designed to help you track changes - so we prefer to focus on it's ability to do just that. But for those who want to know, behind the scenes CM Server has rename support, atomic checkouts, real atomic commits, multi-threaded lock server, unique transaction identifiers (session identifiers and commit identifiers), meta data, user definable keywords, efficient handling of binary files and the code is structured as a set of modules with well-defined interfaces. Looking at some of our competitors web sites you'd think all that stuff was what was important. Yes CM Server has all that - but what's important is getting your files versioned: accurately, securely, easily in change sets.

Stands Alone

In an enterprise datacenter, or even a small business, every piece of software you run on your servers increases the number of security alerts you need to keep up to date with. CM Server does not need Apache or any other software to get you running - it's what we call stand alone.

You can store your databases on the same host as CM Server or other hosts. Choose from client repository browsers like CVS Suite Studio or a web based browser like Internet Explorer 7, Firefox or Safari.

Open Source

CM Server is build on the EVSAPI which is Open Source Software licensed under the GNU LGPL. This means that you can get your own copy of the source code to the CM Server engine. It means that CM Server is never going to disappear.

March Hare remains committed to the Open Source development model, and believe that it makes CM Server a more robust, secure versioning system, as its core has been subjected to the crucible of peer review. Any problems found with this software can be immediately identified and fixed by March Hare Software and the Open Source community.

If you're a developer, we invite you to inspect CM Server EVSAPI under the hood, free of charge, by joining the EVS development process.