Method and system for managing configuration changes in a data processing system

• US 20040153869A1
• Filed: 09/23/2003
• Published: 08/05/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Marinelli, Claudio, Pichetti, Luigi
• Granted Patent: US 7,370,323 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/47
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation

Abstract

A method of managing configuration changes in a data processing system, particularly a network wherein software products (250) must be distributed to client workstations. The method provides the definition of reference models (220e-220d) arranged in a tree (215); each reference model includes configuration elements (such as software products and/or hardware features and their desired target status) for the corresponding client workstations (subscribers). A target configuration (230) of the client workstations associated with each reference model is determined by inheriting the configuration elements of the parent reference models. A list of actions (245) to be carried out on each client workstation for reaching the corresponding target configuration is determined by comparing the target configuration with a current configuration of the client workstation stored in a corresponding inventory (245).

Claims

1. A method (300) of managing configuration changes in a data processing system having a plurality of destination units, the method including the steps of:

providing (309-318) a plurality of reference models arranged in a tree starting from a root reference model,

associating (338,339,345-348) each destination unit with a reference model including configuration information specific for the corresponding destination units,

determining (320-336) a target configuration for the destination units associated with a selected reference model according to the configuration information of the reference models in a path from the root reference model to the selected reference model, and

causing (342-375) each destination unit associated with the selected reference model to be updated according to the target configuration.

2. The method (300) according to claim 1, wherein the configuration information includes at least one record indicating a target status of a corresponding configuration element, the step (320-336) of determining the target configuration including, for each current record of the reference models along the path:

verifying (330) if the target configuration includes a previous record for the configuration element of the current record, and

adding (333) the current record to the target configuration if the verification is negative or replacing (336) the target status of the previous record with the target status of the current record if the verification is positive.

3. The method (300) according to claim 2, further including the step of providing (315) dependency information indicating logic relations between the configuration elements, the target configuration being determined (325) further according to the dependency information of the corresponding configuration elements.

4. The method (300) according to any claim from 1 to 3, wherein the configuration information includes an indication of at least one hardware pre-requisite, the method further including the step of verifying (351-360) whether a current hardware structure of each destination unit associated with the selected reference model meets each hardware pre-requisite of the target configuration.

5. The method (300) according to any claim from 1 to 4, further including the step of running (345) a query on a memory structure for dynamically extracting a list of the destination units associated with the selected reference model.

6. The method (300) according to claim 5, further including the step of excluding (348) each destination unit from the list if a corresponding flag in the memory structure is asserted.

7. The method (300) according to any claim from 1 to 6, further including the steps of:

providing (342) an inventory storing an indication of a current configuration of each destination unit, and

determining (351) a list of actions for reaching the target configuration on each destination unit associated with the selected reference model according to a comparison between the target configuration and the corresponding current configuration.

8. The method (300) according to claim 7, wherein the configuration information includes an indication of at least one digitally encoded product to be installed or removed, and wherein the data processing system consists of a network with a server workstation and a plurality of client workstations each one associated with at least one destination unit, the method further including, for each destination unit associated with the selected reference model, the steps of:

building (357) a package under the control of the server workstation, the package including each product of the target configuration to be installed and instructions for automatically executing the list of actions,

distributing (372) the package to the client workstation associated with the destination unit through the network, and

updating (375) the inventory according to the actions executed on the client workstation.

9. A computer program (210,235,250) directly loadable into a working memory (130) of a computer (105) for performing the method of any claim form 1 to 8 when the program is run on the computer.

10. A program product (150) including a computer readable medium on which the program (210,235,250) of claim 9 is stored.

11. A data processing system (100) including a plurality of destination units (105), means (205-215) for providing a plurality of reference models arranged in a tree starting from a root reference model, means (210,215,225,230) for associating each destination unit with a reference model including configuration information specific for the corresponding destination units, means (230-245) for determining a target configuration for the destination units associated with a selected reference model according to the configuration information of the reference models in a path from the root reference model to the selected reference model, and means (245-265) for causing each destination unit associated with the selected reference model to be updated according to the target configuration.