Request scheduler for automated software configuration

• US 20010054091A1
• Filed: 12/28/2000
• Published: 12/20/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lenz, Norbert, Mielke, Frank, Thelen, Ralf
• Granted Patent: US 7,051,092 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining of resources

Abstract

The present invention relates to the field of adapting software to requirements setup at the user site. It is suited for heterogeneous system management environment to configure software automatically. In particular, it relates to automated management of resources and even more particularly to automated configuration of software programs. Basically, the invention proposes a sequence of the following steps: accessing a repository comprising the requests, reorganizing said requests in a sense that they are ordered, bundled, etc., and invoking resource managing programs, e.g., supporters for handling the service of said requests.

Claims

1. A method for supporting automated management of supporter-owned resources in a system having at least one repository and a resource managing program means, comprising the steps of:

accessing a repository comprising requests each defining an action to be performed, or a desired state to be achieved, the state being associated with a respective one of said resources;

reorganizing said requests into a chain of requests; and

invoking resource managing program means for handling the chain of said requests.

2. The method according to

claim 1

used for supporting automated configuration of programs,, in which said requests define desired states of operating system maintained resources, wherein the method further comprises the step of invoking supporter program means for ensuring that said resources are set according to said requests.

3. The method according to

claim 2

further comprising the step of using a standardized interface for said invocation of supporter programs.

4. The method according to

claim 2

further comprising at least one of the steps of:

checking for inconsistencies caused by one or more requests, generating one or more new requests as a child request of an already existing request, simulating the execution of said requests, executing updates of resources and generating special requests for activation, making updates known to the operating system, and reversing updates done before.

5. The method according to

claim 4

further comprising the step of generating a user-readable protocol in which effects of execution of one of said steps according to the preceding claim are logged with respective settings of said resources.

6. A computer program comprising code portions adapted for performing the steps according to the method according to

claim 1

when said program is loaded into a computer device.

7. A computer program product stored on a computer usable medium comprising computer readable program means for causing a computer to perform the method of

claim 1

.

8. A computer system having installed program means for performing the method of

claim 1

.

9. A program storage device readable by machine tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine for performing a method for supporting automated management of supporter-owned resources in a system having at least one repository and a resource managing program means, said method comprising the steps of:

accessing a repository comprising requests each defining an action to be performed, or a desired state to be achieved, the state being associated with a respective one of said resources;

reorganizing said requests into a chain of requests; and

invoking resource managing program means for handling the chain of said requests.

10. The program storage device of

claim 9

wherein the method further comprises the step of invoking supporter program means for ensuring that said resources are set according to said requests.

11. The program storage device according to

claim 10

wherein the method further comprises the step of using a standardized interface for said invocation of supporter programs.

12. The program storage device according to

claim 10

wherein the method further comprises at least one of the steps of:

checking for inconsistencies caused by one or more requests, generating one or more new requests as a child request of an already existing request, simulating the execution of said requests, executing updates of resources and generating special requests for activation, making updates known to the operating system, and reversing updates done before.

13. The program storage device according to

claim 12

wherein the method further comprises the step of generating a user-readable protocol in which effects of execution of one of said steps according to the preceding claim are logged with respective settings of said resources.