Method and system for optimizing software upgrades

• US 20030229890A1
• Filed: 06/07/2002
• Published: 12/11/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Yu, Hong, Lau, Michael, Kemp, Dean, Ng, Clement, Atallah, Dario
• Granted Patent: US 7,191,435 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A method for analyzing impact on binaries, software, and hardware of a planned software upgrade for a computer system. The method includes performing a configuration inventory for the computer system with profiles for the computer system of hardware, software including operating system software, middleware, applications, development tools, and third party software, application interfaces, and binaries. A set of upgrade rules, e.g., rules defining hardware and software requirements including interfaces, libraries, dependencies, and more, are accessed and the binary profiles are analyzed based on the upgrade rules to determine safe binaries and at-risk binaries. The at-risk binaries are further divided into subcategories based on risks of incompatibility with the planned software upgrade. The subcategories include failure, high risk, and low risk. The method includes generating text or graphical reports providing the analysis results to quantify and qualify the impacts on binaries and other portions of the computer system.

Claims

1. A method for analyzing an impact on binaries of a computer system caused by a software upgrade, comprising:

accessing a configuration inventory of the computer system including a profile for each of the binaries;

accessing a set of upgrade rules for the software upgrade; and

analyzing the binary profiles based on the upgrade rules to generate binary analysis results dividing the binaries into a set of safe binaries and at-risk binaries, wherein the at-risk binaries are further divided into subcategories based on risk of incompatibility of the at-risk binaries with the software upgrade.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the subcategories include a failure category for the at-risk binaries determined during the analyzing to be incompatible with the software upgrade.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the subcategories include a high risk category for the atrisk binaries determined during the analyzing to have a low probability of running after the software upgrade and a low risk category for the at-risk binaries determined during the analyzing to have a high probability of running after the software upgrade.

4. The method of claim 1, further including generating a report grouping the binaries into various functions and risk categories and comparing the grouped binaries to a total number of binaries.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the report is in graph form and includes a representation of each of the subcategories of the at-risk binaries.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing further includes determining a level of effort for modifying one of the subcategories of the at-risk binaries to make the binaries in the one subcategory compatible with the software upgrade.

7. The method of claim 6, further including generating a list of recommended processes to perform the modifying.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the existing configuration inventory includes a hardware profile for the customer system and further including analyzing the hardware profile based on the upgrade rules to create hardware check results.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the existing configuration inventory includes a profile of software on the customer system and further including analyzing the software profile based on the upgrade rules to create software analysis results indicating compatibility of the customer system software with the software upgrade.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the software profile comprises subcategories selected from the software groups consisting of operating system or environment software, development tools, middleware, and applications.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein an analysis tool is provided for each of the subcategories for analyzing the subcategories based on the upgrade rules to create impact analysis results indicating compatibility of the subcategory with the software upgrade.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the analyzing includes comparing application interfaces of the computer system profiled in the configuration inventory with the upgrade rules.

13. A method for providing an analysis of a planned software upgrade for a customer computer system, comprising:

collecting hardware and software configuration data from the customer computer system including a hardware profile and an operating system profile;

providing upgrade rules for the planned software upgrade;

comparing the hardware profile with the upgrade rules to determine hardware compatibility with the planned software upgrade;

comparing the operating system profile with the upgrade rules to determine operating system compatibility with the planned software upgrade; and

generating an upgrade analysis report based on the hardware compatibility and the operating system compatibility.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the hardware and software configuration data includes profiles for binaries on the computer system, and further including comparing the binary profiles with the upgrade rules and based on the comparing classifying the binaries as safe binaries or at-risk binaries.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the classifying further includes classifying the at-risk binaries into two or more subsets based on a determined risk of failure to run after the planned software upgrade and the report generating includes providing graphical or text information on the subsets.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the risk is determined based on priorities assigned to the binaries.

17. The method of claim 15, further including determining a level of effort for each of the subsets and wherein the report generating includes providing graphical or text information on the levels of effort for the subsets.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the subsets include a failure category, a high risk category, and a low risk category.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the hardware and software configuration data includes profiles for middleware and applications and further including comparing the middleware and applications profiles to the upgrade rules to determine middleware and applications compatibility with the planned software upgrade.

20. The method of claim 13, further including receiving a request from the customer computer system for the analysis indicating software on the customer computer system to be included in the planned software upgrade.

21. A computer system for analyzing an impact of a software upgrade on a customer computer system, comprising:

a data storage device storing a configuration inventory for the customer computer system including data on binaries on the customer computer system;

a data storage device storing upgrade rules for the software upgrade; and

an analysis tool processing the binaries data based on the upgrade rules to classify the binaries into a set of safe binaries and a set of at-risk binaries, the set of at-risk binaries including subsets of binaries differentiated based on a level of risk of incompatibility with the software upgrade.

22. The computer system of claim 21, wherein the subsets of binaries includes a failure subset, a high risk subset, and a low risk subset.

23. The computer system of claim 21, wherein the configuration inventory includes a hardware profile, the computer system further including an analysis tool processing the hardware profile based on the upgrade rules to create a hardware check.

24. The computer system of claim 21, wherein the configuration inventory includes an operating system profile, the computer system further including an analysis tool processing the operating system profile based on the upgrade rules to determine compatibility of an operating system of the customer computer system with the software upgrade.

25. The computer system of claim 21, further including a report generator generating reports including text or graphical representations based on the subsets of binaries.

26. A computer system for analyzing an impact of a software upgrade on a customer computer system, comprising:

a data storage device storing a configuration inventory for the customer computer system;

a data storage device storing configuration information for the customer computer system after the software upgrade; and

an analysis tool for comparing the configuration inventory to the upgrade information to determine the impact of the software upgrade on the customer computer system.

27. The computer system of claim 26, wherein the configuration inventory includes an application interfaces profile for the customer computer system and wherein the analysis tool determines the impact based on a comparison of the application interfaces profile with application interface rules in the configuration information.

28. The computer system of claim 26, wherein the configuration inventory includes a profile of third party software on the customer computer system and wherein the analysis tool determines the impact based on a comparison of the third party software profile with the configuration information.

29. The computer system of claim 26, wherein the configuration inventory includes a hardware profile, an operating system or environment profile, a middleware profile, an application interfaces profile, and an applications profile, and wherein the analysis tool has analysis engines for sequentially analyzing each of the profiles based on the configuration information.

30. The computer system of claim 26, wherein the customer computer system includes two operating systems, and the computer system further includes a report generator adapted to generate a report showing the determined impact for the two operating systems.

31. The computer system of claim 26, wherein the configuration information includes rules for two or more upgrade levels, and the computer system further includes a report generator adapted to generate a report showing the impact for the upgrade levels.

32. The computer system of claim 31, wherein the upgrade levels include implementation rules for different implementations of an operating system included in the software upgrade.

33. The computer system of claim 26, wherein the customer computer system includes two or more subsystems having differing configuration complexities, and the computer system further includes a report generator adapted to generate a report showing the impact for the subsystems.

34. The computer system of claim 26, further including a report generator adapted to generate a report comparing a financial metric determined for the customer computer system based on the configuration inventory to the financial metric determined based on the configuration information for the customer computer system after the software upgrade.

35. The computer system of claim 34, wherein the financial metric is determined for the customer computer system based on an individual system within the customer computer system.