Apparatus, system, and method for automatically discovering and grouping resources used by a business process

• US 20060037022A1
• Filed: 08/10/2004
• Published: 02/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Klingenberg, Bernhard Julius, Hillsberg, Bruce Light, Byrd, Stephen A., Fox, J. Kristofer, Czerwinski, Steven, Krishnan, Rajesh Francisco, Thirumalai, Balaji
• Granted Patent: US 7,546,601 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management

Abstract

An apparatus, system, and method are provided for automatically discovering and grouping files and other resources used by a business process. The present invention includes a monitoring module that collects trace data representative of operational behavior of software applications. An analysis module analyzes the trace data to discover resources affiliated with the business process. A determination module defines a logical application corresponding to the business process and includes the resources discovered by the analysis module. The logical application is automatically defined such that business policies may be readily implemented on the logical application as a whole. Manual identification of resources for a business process is eliminated or substantially reduced.

Claims

1. An apparatus to automatically discover and group resources used by a business process, the apparatus comprising:

a monitoring module configured to collect trace data representative of operational behavior of software applications;

an analysis module configured to analyze the trace data to discover resources affiliated with a business process that includes at least one of the software applications; and

a determination module configured to define a logical application that includes the discovered resources.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a modification module configured to modify the logical application to include resources affiliated with resources already included within the logical application.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the business process is identified by a characteristic of a software application implementing the business process.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the business process is identified by an identifier for the business process, the identifier provided by a user.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the logical application is configurable such that a user can add or delete discovered resources.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a management module configured to apply a business level policy to the logical application.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the business level policy is a policy selected from the group comprising a load balancing policy, a software migration policy, and a backup policy.

8. An apparatus to automatically discover and group resources used by a business process, the apparatus comprising:

an interface configured to receive an identifier for a business process, the identifier directly related to a resource that implements the business process;

a monitoring module configured to collect trace data as the business process executes, the trace data relating to the resource;

an analysis module configured to analyze the trace data to discover one or more resources affiliated with the identifier; and

a determination module configured to define a logical application that includes the one or more discovered resources.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising a modification module configured to modify the logical application to comprise resources affiliated with resources already included within the logical application.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the analysis module further comprises

a query module configured to filter the trace data to produce a result set;

an evaluation module configured to apply one or more heuristic routines to the result set to discover one or more resources affiliated with the identifier; and

a discovery module configured to discover one or more resources, in response to the one or more heuristic routines.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the determination module adds one or more discovered resources in response to a heuristic routine.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the determination module removes one or more resources from a pre-defined superset comprising substantially all available resources in response to a heuristic routine.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the monitoring module further comprises

a launch module configured to initiate one or more activity monitors, each activity monitor configured to trace a specific type of activity relating to a resource;

a controller configured to control the activity monitors; and

a storage module configured to store trace data from the activity monitors that describes a specific type of activity, in response to utilization of the resource conducting the specific type of activity.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a scanner that scans system information for trace data that describes a specific type of activity performed by the business process.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the system information is selected from the group comprising file system information, processes information, networking information, and Input/Output (I/O) information.

16. A system to automatically discover and group resources used by a business process, comprising:

an operating system configured to manage execution of processes;

a process manager configured to provide information on running processes;

an Input/Output (I/O) module configured to provide file activity information;

a file system configured to manage files stored in storage and provide metadata about the files;

a monitoring module configured to collect trace data during execution of at least one software application within the operating system, the monitoring module interacting with at least one of the process manager, the I/O module, and the file system to collect the trace data directly related to operation of the software application; and

an analysis module configured to analyze the trace data to discover resources affiliated with a business process that includes the software application and to define a logical application that includes the discovered resources.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising a Graphical User Interface (GUI) configured to receive an identifier for the business process from a user and present the logical application to the user.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the monitoring module further comprises a process monitor, an I/O monitor, a network monitor, and a file system monitor.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the monitoring module is further configured to interact with a plurality of file systems.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the analysis module defines the logical application within a markup language data structure.

21. A system to automatically discover and group resources used by a business process, comprising:

a plurality of inter-networked computer systems implementing a business process;

a monitoring module on each computer system, the monitoring module configured to collect trace data representative of operations performed by the at least one software application;

a storage module configured to collect trace data from the monitoring modules and store the collected trace data in a repository;

an analysis module configured to analyze the collected trace data to discover resources affiliated with a business process that includes the software application and to define a logical application that includes the discovered resources; and

an interface in communication with the analysis module, the interface configured to interact with a user by way of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and another software application by way of an Application Programming Interface (API).

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the interface provides the logical application to another software application that applies a business level policy on the logical application.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the discovered resources are resources selected from the group comprising data files, executable files, and service applications.

24. A signal bearing medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform operations to automatically discover and group resources used by a business process, the operations comprising:

the operation to collect trace data during execution of at least one software application, the trace data representative of operations performed by the at least one software application;

the operation to analyze the trace data to discover resources affiliated with a business process that includes the software application; and

the operation to define a logical application that includes the discovered resources.

25. The signal bearing medium of claim 24, wherein the operations further comprise an operation to modify the logical application to include resources affiliated with resources already included within the logical application.

26. The signal bearing medium of claim 24, wherein the business process is identified by a characteristic of the software application.

27. The signal bearing medium of claim 24, wherein the business process is identified by an identifier for the business process, the identifier provided by a user.

28. The signal bearing medium of claim 24, wherein the logical application is configurable such that a user can add or delete discovered resources.

29. The signal bearing medium of claim 24, wherein the operations further comprise an operation that applies a business level policy to the logical application.

30. The signal bearing medium of claim 29, wherein the business level policy is a policy selected from the group comprising a load balancing policy, a software migration policy, a recovery policy, and a backup policy.

31. A signal bearing medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform operations to automatically discover and group resources used by a business process, the operations comprising:

an operation to receive an identifier for a business process, the identifier directly related to a resource that implements the business process;

an operation to collect trace data relating to the resource and representative of operations performed by one or more software components implementing the business process;

an operation to analyze the trace data to discover one or more resources affiliated with the identifier; and

an operation to define a logical application that includes the one or more discovered resources.

32. The signal bearing medium of claim 31, wherein the operations further comprise an operation to modify the logical application to comprise resources affiliated with resources already included within the logical application.

33. The signal bearing medium of claim 31, wherein the an operation to analyze the trace data comprises

an operation to search the trace data for resources to produce a result set, the resources identified by criteria comprising the identifier;

an operation to apply one or more heuristic routines to the result set to discover one or more resources affiliated with the identifier; and

an operation to discover one or more resources, in response to the one or more heuristic routines.

34. The signal bearing medium of claim 31, wherein the operation to define the logical application comprises adding one or more discovered resources in response to a heuristic routine.

35. The signal bearing medium of claim 31, wherein the operation to define the logical application comprises removing one or more resources from a pre-defined superset comprising substantially all available resources in response to a heuristic routine.

36. The signal bearing medium of claim 31, wherein the operation to collect the trace data comprises

an operation to initiate one or more activity monitors, each activity monitor configured to trace a specific type of activity relating to a resource;

an operation to execute the business process including the resource; and

an operation to store trace data that describes a specific type of activity, in response to utilization of the resource conducting the specific type of activity.

37. The signal bearing medium of claim 36, wherein the operations further comprise an operation to scan system information for trace data that describes a specific type of activity performed by the business process.

38. The signal bearing medium of claim 31, wherein collecting trace data is conducted during execution of the business process.

39. A method to automatically discover and group resources used by a business process, the method comprising:

receiving an identifier for a business process, the identifier directly related to a resource that implements the business process;

collecting trace data relating to the resource and representative of operations performed by one or more software components implementing the business process;

analyzing the trace data to discover one or more resources affiliated with the identifier; and

defining a logical application that includes the one or more discovered resources.

40. A signal bearing medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform operations to automatically discover and group resources used by a business process, the operations comprising:

an operation to receive an identifier for a business process, the identifier directly related to a resource that implements the business process;

an operation that implements a means for collecting trace data relating to the resource and representative of operations performed by one or more software components implementing the business process;

an operation that implements a means for analyzing the trace data to discover one or more resources affiliated with the identifier; and

an operation to define a logical application that includes the one or more discovered resources.