Generating a software license knowledge base for verifying software license compliance in cloud computing environments

• US 10,402,544 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2009
• Issued: 09/03/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Ferris, James Michael, Riveros, Gerry Edward
• Primary Examiner(s): Oyebisi, Ojo O
• Application Number:
  US12/628,156
• Publication Number:
  US 20110131134A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,564 Days
• Field of Search: 705 57, 705 59, 705 40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products

Abstract

A monitoring system can monitor computing processes in clouds. The monitoring system can verify software license compliance in the computing processes instantiated in the clouds. The monitoring system can generate and maintain a software license knowledge base. The software license knowledge base can include the software license requirements for various software programs. To generate the software license knowledge base, the monitoring system can communicate with various sources (software vendors, clouds, publicly available sources, etc.) to determine license requirements for the various software programs.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

generating, by a processor of a cloud management system, a software license database including software license requirements for a plurality of software programs;

retrieving, from publicly available information sources over public computer networks, software license requirements for a plurality of publicly available software programs;

enhancing contents of the software license database by the software license requirements for the publicly available software programs;

instantiating, in view of operational parameters specified by a could resource instantiation request, a plurality of virtual machines utilizing distributed resources of a cloud system;

monitoring, by a monitoring component in communication with a virtual machine monitor (VMM) managing one of more virtual machines of the plurality of virtual machines, the plurality of virtual machines, to identify a running cloud computing process;

identifying, by the processor, a software program utilized by the cloud computing process;

identifying software license requirements associated with the software program by the software license database;

determining a current number of instances of the software program;

presenting, via a graphical user interface (GUI) a software license compliance report visually representing a symbolic name of the software program, the current number of instances of the software program, a current number of licenses held for the software program, and a number of licenses needed for the software program;

determining, in view of the current number of instances, whether the cloud computing process complies with the software license requirements associated with the software program; and

terminating the cloud computing process in response to determining that the cloud computing process does not comply with the software license requirements associated with the software program.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing an interface to receive an additional software license requirement associated with the software program from a third party not associated with the software program; and

storing the additional software license requirement in the software license database.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein software license requirements comprise at least one of an allowed usage of the software program, an allowed duration of use of the software program, or a number of allowed instances of the software program.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

metering usage of the plurality of virtual machines.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending requests to extend the software license requirements.

4. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions for causing a processor of a cloud management system to perform operations comprising:

generating a software license database including software license requirements for a plurality of software programs;

retrieving, from publicly available information sources over public computer networks, software license requirements for a plurality of publicly available software programs;

enhancing contents of the software license database by the software license requirements for the publicly available software programs;

instantiating, in view of operational parameters specified by a could resource instantiation request, a plurality of virtual machines utilizing distributed resources of a cloud system;

monitoring, by a monitoring component in communication with a virtual machine monitor (VMM) managing one of more virtual machines of the plurality of virtual machines, the plurality of virtual machines, to identify a running cloud computing process;

identifying a software program utilized by the cloud computing process;

identifying software license requirements associated with the software program by the software license database;

determining a current number of instances of the software program;

presenting, via a graphical user interface (GUI) a software license compliance report visually representing a symbolic name of the software program, the current number of instances of the software program, a current number of licenses held for the software program, and a number of licenses needed for the software program;

determining, in view of the current number of instances, whether the cloud computing process complies with the software license requirements associated with the software program; and

terminating the cloud computing process in response to determining that the cloud computing process does not comply with the software license requirements associated with the software program.

5. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the operations further comprise:

providing an interface to receive an additional software license requirement associated with an additional software program from a third party not associated with the additional software program; and

inserting, into a record, an identification of the additional software program and the additional software license requirement.

6. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein software license requirements comprise at least one of an allowed usage of the software program, an allowed duration of use of the software program, or a number of allowed instances of the software program.

7. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving an additional software license requirement associated with the software program from a third party not associated with the software program; and

storing the additional software license requirement in the software license database.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 4, further comprising:

metering usage of the plurality of virtual machines.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 4, further comprising:

sending requests to extend the software license requirements.

8. A cloud management system comprising:

a network interface; and

a processor coupled to the network interface to;

generate a software license database including software license requirements for a plurality of software programs;

retrieve, from publicly available information sources over public computer networks, software license requirements for a plurality of publicly available software programs;

enhance contents of the software license database by the software license requirements for the publicly available software programs;

instantiate, in view of operational parameters specified by a could resource instantiation request, a plurality of virtual machines utilizing distributed resources of a cloud system;

monitor, by a monitoring component in communication with a virtual machine monitor (VMM) managing one of more virtual machines of the plurality of virtual machines, the plurality of virtual machines, to identify a running cloud computing process;

identify a software program utilized by the cloud computing process;

identify software license requirements associated with the software program by the software license database;

determining a current number of instances of the software program;

presenting, via a graphical user interface (GUI) a software license compliance report visually representing a symbolic name of the software program, the current number of instances of the software program, a current number of licenses held for the software program, and a number of licenses needed for the software program;

determine, in view of the current number of instances, whether the cloud computing process complies with the software license requirements associated with the software program; and

terminate the cloud computing process in response to determining that the cloud computing process does not comply with the software license requirements associated with the software program.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is further to:

provide, via the network interface, an interface to receive an additional software license requirement associated with the software program from a third party not associated with the software program; and

store the additional software license requirement.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein software license requirement comprise at least one of an allowed usage of the software program, an allowed duration of use of the software program, or a number of allowed instances of the software program.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is further to:

receive, via the network interface, an additional software license requirement associated with software program; and

insert, into a record, an identification of the additional software program and the additional software license requirement.

16. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is further to:

meter the usage of the plurality of virtual machines.

17. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is further to:

send requests to extend the software license requirements.