Interface for supporting integration with cloud-based service providers

• US 10,719,503 B1
• Filed: 05/02/2019
• Issued: 07/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2019
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Inventors: Bar Oz, Tom, Bitterfeld, Robert, Erblat, Boris, Aron, Aviya, Garty, Asaf, Badyan, Daniel, Tal, Hail
• Primary Examiner(s): Barker, Todd L
• Application Number:
  US16/402,045
• Time in Patent Office: 446 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/215 Improving data quality; Data cleansing, e.g. de-duplication, removing invalid entries or correcting typographical errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/219 Managing data history or versioning querying versioned data G06F16/2474; querying temporal data G06F16/2477
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/168 above the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/133 Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21 Server components or server architectures

Abstract

An example system includes persistent storage and a discovery application configured to perform operations including obtaining a uniform resource locator (URL) that addresses a function of an application programming interface (API) provided by a remote computing system of remote computing systems that provide computing resources. The function returns attributes of computing resources specified by the URL. The operations additionally include generating (i) a system-specific portion of a request that invokes execution of the function and (ii) a system-invariant portion of the request. The system-specific portion adheres to first rules adopted by the remote computing system for interacting with the API. The system-invariant portion adheres to second rules adopted by each of the remote computing systems for interacting with respective APIs thereof. The operations yet further include transmitting the request to the remote computing system, receiving therefrom a response containing the attributes, and storing, in the persistent storage, the attributes.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

persistent storage disposed within a remote network management platform, wherein the persistent storage is configured to store data on behalf of a managed network, and wherein one or more remote computing systems provide computing resources to the managed network; and

a discovery application configured to perform operations comprising;

obtaining a service identifier that allows access to a particular remote computing system of the one or more remote computing systems, wherein the service identifier is associated with the managed network;

obtaining a uniform resource locator (URL) that addresses a function of an application programming interface (API) provided by the particular remote computing system, wherein the function is configured to return attributes of computing resources specified by the URL;

generating, based on the service identifier, a system-specific portion of a request that invokes execution of the function of the API, wherein the system-specific portion of the request adheres to first rules adopted by the particular remote computing system for interacting with the API, wherein the first rules define a pagination process for obtaining, in multiple responses, the attributes when a size of data representing the attributes exceeds a maximum allowable size of a single response to the request, and wherein the operations further comprise receiving, from the particular remote computing system, an indication that the size of the data exceeds the maximum allowable size of the response to the request, and generating a second request to obtain a portion of a remainder of the data according to the pagination process;

generating a system-invariant portion of the request, wherein the system-invariant portion of the request adheres to second rules adopted by each of the one or more remote computing systems for interacting with respective APIs thereof, wherein the second rules define a mapping between (i) input fields of a user interface provided by the discovery application for receiving values of corresponding input parameters for the function and (ii) transfer protocol parameters of the request, wherein the transfer protocol is Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and wherein the operations further comprise generating the system-invariant portion of the request by generating an HTTP request that contains, within HTTP parameters therein, the values of the input parameters according to the mapping;

transmitting the request to the particular remote computing system;

receiving, from the particular remote computing system, a response to the request containing the attributes of the computing resources specified by the URL; and

storing, in the persistent storage, the attributes of the computing resources as one or more configuration items.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first rules define an authentication process to be followed in order to access the function of the API.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving authentication credentials for the service identifier associated with the particular remote computing system;

storing the authentication credentials as part of a representation of the service identifier; and

generating the system-specific portion of the request by generating a representation of the authentication credentials according to the authentication process.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

transmitting the second request to the particular remote computing system; and

receiving, from the particular remote computing system, a second response to the second request containing the portion of the remainder of the data.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the particular remote computing system comprises a plurality of geographic regions across which the computing resources provided to the managed network are distributed, and wherein the first rules define a process for iterating over the plurality of geographic regions to obtaining the attributes of the computing resources provided to the managed network.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the URL contains therein a region-invariant identifier of the plurality of geographic regions, wherein generating the system-specific portion of the request comprises replacing the region-invariant identifier in the URL with a region-specific identifier that corresponds to a specific geographic region of the plurality of geographic regions, and wherein the operations further comprise:

generating additional requests that iterate over remaining geographical regions of the plurality of geographical regions to obtain the attributes of the computing resources provided to the managed network.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving values of the corresponding input parameters for the function by way of the input fields of the user interface.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the HTTP parameters comprise one or more of (i) HTTP headers, (ii) an HTTP method, (iii) HTTP cookies, or (iv) HTTP body parameters.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the response contains therein a plurality of values, wherein each value of the plurality of values represents a corresponding attribute of the attributes of the computing resources, and wherein the operations further comprise:

defining a plurality of variables to store the plurality of values;

obtaining a mapping between the plurality of variables and the plurality of values;

in response to receiving the response to the request, assigning the plurality of values to the plurality of variables according to the mapping; and

defining an action of a discovery pattern, wherein the action (i) receives the plurality of variables as input, (ii) determines relationships between the computing resources based on the plurality of variables, and (iii) stores, in the persistent storage, representations of the relationships as one or more additional configuration items.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the plurality of values are stored in the response according to one or more data formats, and wherein the second rules define one or more processes for parsing the response according to the one or more data formats to identify therein the plurality of values.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

obtaining a discovery schedule that defines a condition for re-transmitting the request to the particular remote computing system to obtain an updated version of the attributes, wherein the condition comprise at least one of (i) an indication of one or more times at which the request is to be re-transmitted or (ii) reception from the particular remote computing system of a notification of an event that indicates a modification to one or more of the attributes;

determining that the condition has been met;

in response to the condition being met, re-transmitting the request to the particular remote computing system;

receiving, from the particular remote computing system, another response to the re-transmitted request containing an updated version of the attributes; and

storing, in the persistent storage, the updated version of the attributes by updating the one or more configuration items.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing resources are specified by the URL by way of one or more of (i) a URL resource path parameter that identifies a specific resource provided by a server device that hosts the API or (ii) a URL query parameter comprising a key and value pair.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the first rules differ from corresponding other rules adopted by other remote computing systems of the one or more remote computing systems.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more remote computing systems provide one or more corresponding cloud-based computing environments configured to allocate the computing resources based on demand therefor, and wherein the computing resources comprise one or more of (i) a virtual machine, (ii) a load balancer, (iii) a storage volume, or (iv) network infrastructure.

15. A computer-implemented method comprising:

obtaining, by a discovery application, a service identifier that allows access to a particular remote computing system of one or more remote computing systems that provide computing resources to a managed network, wherein the service identifier is associated with the managed network;

obtaining, by the discovery application, a uniform resource locator (URL) that addresses a function of an application programming interface (API) provided by the particular remote computing system, wherein the function is configured to return attributes of computing resources specified by the URL;

generating, by the discovery application and based on the service identifier, a system-specific portion of a request that invokes execution of the function of the API, wherein the system-specific portion of the request adheres to first rules adopted by the particular remote computing system for interacting with the API, wherein the first rules define a pagination process for obtaining, in multiple responses, the attributes when a size of data representing the attributes exceeds a maximum allowable size of a single response to the request, and receiving, from the particular remote computing system, an indication that the size of the data exceeds the maximum allowable size of the response to the request, and generating a second request to obtain a portion of a remainder of the data according to the pagination process;

generating, by the discovery application, a system-invariant portion of the request, wherein the system-invariant portion of the request adheres to second rules adopted by each of the one or more remote computing systems for interacting with respective APIs thereof, wherein the second rules define a mapping between (i) input fields of a user interface provided by the discovery application for receiving values of corresponding input parameters for the function and (ii) transfer protocol parameters of the request, wherein the transfer protocol is Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and generating the system-invariant portion of the request by generating an HTTP request that contains, within HTTP parameters therein, the values of the input parameters according to the mapping;

transmitting, by the discovery application, the request to the particular remote computing system;

receiving, by the discovery application and from the particular remote computing system, a response to the request containing the attributes of the computing resources specified by the URL; and

storing the attributes of the computing resources as one or more configuration items in persistent storage disposed within a remote network management platform, wherein the persistent storage is configured to store data on behalf of the managed network.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the first rules define an authentication process to be followed in order to access the function of the API.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving authentication credentials for the service identifier associated with the particular remote computing system;

storing the authentication credentials as part of a representation of the service identifier; and

generating the system-specific portion of the request by generating a representation of the authentication credentials according to the authentication process.

18. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations comprising:

obtaining a service identifier that allows access to a particular remote computing system of one or more remote computing systems that provide computing resources to a managed network, wherein the service identifier is associated with the managed network;

obtaining a uniform resource locator (URL) that addresses a function of an application programming interface (API) provided by the particular remote computing system, wherein the function is configured to return attributes of computing resources specified by the URL;

generating, based on the service identifier, a system-specific portion of a request that invokes execution of the function of the API, wherein the system-specific portion of the request adheres to first rules adopted by the particular remote computing system for interacting with the API, wherein the first rules define a pagination process for obtaining, in multiple responses, the attributes when a size of data representing the attributes exceeds a maximum allowable size of a single response to the request, and wherein the operations further comprise receiving, from the particular remote computing system, an indication that the size of the data exceeds the maximum allowable size of the response to the request, and generating a second request to obtain a portion of a remainder of the data according to the pagination process;

generating a system-invariant portion of the request, wherein the system-invariant portion of the request adheres to second rules adopted by each of the one or more remote computing systems for interacting with respective APIs thereof, wherein the second rules define a mapping between (i) input fields of a user interface provided by a discovery application for receiving values of corresponding input parameters for the function and (ii) transfer protocol parameters of the request, wherein the transfer protocol is Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and wherein the operations further comprise generating the system-invariant portion of the request by generating an HTTP request that contains, within HTTP parameters therein, the values of the input parameters according to the mapping;

transmitting the request to the particular remote computing system;

receiving, from the particular remote computing system, a response to the request containing the attributes of the computing resources specified by the URL; and

storing the attributes of the computing resources as one or more configuration items in persistent storage disposed within a remote network management platform, wherein the persistent storage is configured to store data on behalf of the managed network.