Service modeling and virtualization

• US 10,565,086 B2
• Filed: 02/19/2015
• Issued: 02/18/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Michelsen, John J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Saxena, Akash
• Application Number:
  US14/626,867
• Publication Number:
  US 20150205708A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,825 Days
• Field of Search: 717135
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3447 Performance evaluation by modeling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3457 Performance evaluation by simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3461 Trace driven simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3644 by instrumenting at runtime
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3688 for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3696 Methods or tools to render software testable
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

The systems and methods described herein can be used to provide virtual service environments. In one embodiment, a virtual service model is generated by detecting one or more transactions, each of which includes a request sent from a requester to a software service and a response sent from the software service to the requester; storing information describing the detected transactions in a virtual service model, where the information describing each transaction includes information identifying a command included in the request and information identifying a response attribute included in the response; and generating information describing an unknown transaction, where the information describing the unknown transaction includes information identifying a first command and information identifying a first response attribute. The first command and the first response attribute are copies of a corresponding command and a corresponding response attribute associated with a corresponding one of the detected transactions.

Claims

1. A method for generating a virtualized version of a particular software service implemented in a computing system, the method comprising:

deploying a virtual service within a software container hosted by a particular computing system, wherein the virtual service is designated to use a service model corresponding to the particular software service;

intercepting a request, from a requesting software component, directed to the particular software service, the request comprising a command;

re-routing the request to the virtual service, wherein the service model is generated from transaction data describing a plurality of previously observed transactions involving the particular software service, each of the previously observed transactions comprises a respective observed request of the particular software service and a respective observed response of the particular software service to the observed request;

generating a response by the virtual service, using a processor device of the particular computing system, to the received request based on the service model, wherein attribute values of the request are different from attribute values of the plurality of previously observed transactions and values in the response are generated based on the attributes of the request and a pattern in the service model based on the plurality of previously observed transactions; and

sending the response from the virtual service to the requesting software component, wherein the response is sent to appear to originate from the particular software service.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the request is received during a test of the requesting software component.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the request is received during a training session involving the requesting software component.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the received request is a request of an unknown transaction of a known type.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the service model comprises a plurality of records comprising records of at least a portion of the plurality of observed transactions and the portion of the plurality of observed transactions comprises observed transactions of two or more transaction types.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising identifying a particular transaction type from the request based on the command.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the response is returned based on the identified particular transaction type.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the request is a first request and the method further comprises:

receiving a second request of the particular software service from the requesting software component, wherein the second request is different from the first request; and

returning the requesting software component a second response, to the second request, generated from the virtual service.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

identifying that the first request relates to the observed transaction, the observed transaction being of a first transaction type; and

identifying that the second request relates to a second transaction of a different, second type, wherein the first response is based on the identification that the first request relates to the observed transaction of the first transaction type and the second response is based on the identification that the second request relates to the second transaction of the second transaction type.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the second transaction type is an unknown transaction type, wherein the second response comprises a default response.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

identifying that the first request relates to the observed transaction comprising a first attribute, wherein the observed transaction is of a particular transaction type; and

identifying that the second request relates to a second transaction comprising a second attribute, the second transaction also of the particular transaction type, wherein the first response is returned based on the first attribute and the second response is returned based on the second attribute.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising identifying that the first attribute is an unknown attribute.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising identifying that the virtual service operates in pass-through mode when the second request is received, wherein the virtual service in pass-through mode forwards the second request to the particular software service.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

monitoring responses by the particular software service to the second request; and

modifying the virtual service based on the monitoring.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein the second request comprises a particular request attribute and the second response is based on the request attribute.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the virtual service matches the particular request attribute to an observed request attribute in the observed transaction and the second response comprises at least a portion of an observed response of the observed transaction based on the particular request attribute matching the observed request attribute.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the attributes of the request comprise values in content of the request and one or more of the values in the response are generated based on one or more of the values in content of the request.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the attributes of the request comprise timing information of the received request, the values of the response comprise a time-sensitive value identified in the service model, and generating the response comprises filling the time-sensitive value of the response based on the timing information.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying that the observed transaction is a stateless transaction, wherein the response is based on identifying that the observed transaction is stateless.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying that the observed transaction is a stateful transaction, wherein the response is based on identifying that the observed transaction is stateful.

21. A non-transitory computer readable medium having program instructions stored therein, wherein the program instructions are executable by a computer system to perform operations comprising:

intercepting from a requesting software component, a request directed to a particular software service, the request comprising a command;

deploying a virtual service within a software container hosted by a particular computing system, wherein the virtual service is designated to use a virtual service model corresponding to the particular software service, wherein the virtual service model models at least a portion of the particular software service, the virtual service model is generated from transaction data describing a plurality of previously observed transactions involving the particular software service, each of the previously observed transactions comprises a respective observed request of the particular software service and a respective observed response of the particular software service to the observed request;

generating a response by the virtual service to the received request based on the virtual service model, wherein attribute values of the request are different from attribute values of the plurality of previously observed transactions and values in the response are generated based on the attributes of the request and a pattern in the virtual service model based on the plurality of previously observed transactions; and

sending the response from the virtual service to the requesting software component, wherein the response is sent to appear to originate from the particular software service.

22. A system comprising:

a processor device;

a memory element;

a virtual service model stored in the memory element, wherein the virtual served model comprises;

a model of responses of a particular software service to received requests of the particular software service based on a plurality of previously observed transactions involving the particular software service, wherein each of the previously observed transactions comprises a respective request and a respective response, and the model identifies a pattern in the plurality of previously observed transactions; and

a virtual service engine to deploy a request processing module in a particular software container to implement a virtual service, wherein the request processing module is configured to;

intercept a request, from a requesting software component, intended for the particular software service;

generate a modeled response by the virtual service to the received request based on the virtual service model, wherein attribute values of the request are different from attribute values of the plurality of previously observed transactions and values in the response are generated based on the attributes of the request and the pattern in the plurality of previously observed transactions; and

return, to the requesting software component, from the virtual service, the modeled response in lieu of a response to the request by the particular software service.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the content of the response is different from content of the observed responses of the plurality of previously observed transactions.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the virtual service model is further based on a user-defined transaction.