Metadata driven method and apparatus to configure heterogenous distributed systems
First Claim
1. A method for a distributed system having a plurality of subsystems, said method performed within a computer having a processor which executes instructions stored in memory, said method comprising the steps of:
- identifying state variables of subsystems in a distributed system, said state variables describing subsystem feature components of the subsystems;
specifying a configuration schema, having schema components, to describe feature components of a subsystem;
matching said schema with said state variables to associate said schema components with said feature components of said subsystems.
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Abstract
A meta-data driven method and apparatus to manage configurations of coexisting heterogeneous subsystems. The present invention recognizes that schemas evolve incrementally from version to version. In a preferred embodiment, the present invention employs two stages: an identification specification stage, to identify and/or specify any changes in a heterogeneous distributed system, and a configuration validation stage, to implement and/or validate the changes thus identified or specified. In the first stage, the identification specification stage, the present invention programmably compares the next version of the schema from its previous version. This allows meta-data to be created that describes how a schema component evolves from version to version. In addition, a user may specify what appears in the schema. In the second stage, the configuration validation stage, the meta-data created in the first stage can be used to determine whether a particular component version of the subsystem is valid for a particular schema component, and vice versa, and/or to configure the subsystem to conform to the schema.
35 Citations
26 Claims
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1. A method for a distributed system having a plurality of subsystems, said method performed within a computer having a processor which executes instructions stored in memory, said method comprising the steps of:
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identifying state variables of subsystems in a distributed system, said state variables describing subsystem feature components of the subsystems;
specifying a configuration schema, having schema components, to describe feature components of a subsystem;
matching said schema with said state variables to associate said schema components with said feature components of said subsystems. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A computer readable storage medium storing software data in the form of computer code, comprising:
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an identifying state variables software module for identifying state variables that describe subsystems in a distributed system;
a configuration schema software module to specify a desired configuration schema, having schema components, that describe a subsystem; and
,a matching software module for matching said desired configuration schema with said identified state variables in the subsystems of the distributed system. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
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19. A system, within a computer platform, for configuring a distributed system having a plurality of subsystems, said system comprising:
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memory storing data;
I/O for inputting and outputting data;
a plurality of software function modules residing in said memory;
a processor cooperating with said memory and I/O for processing instructions and data from said memory, said I/O and said function modules;
an identifying state variables software function module in said memory for identifying state variables that describe subsystems in a distributed system;
a configuration schema software function module in said memory to specify a desired configuration schema, having schema components, that describe a subsystem having feature components; and
,a matching software function module in said memory for matching said desired configuration schema with said identified state variables in the subsystems of the distributed system. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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Specification