Autonomic creation of shared workflow components in a provisioning management system using multi-level resource pools

• US 20060136490A1
• Filed: 12/17/2004
• Published: 06/22/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Aggarwal, Vijay Kumar, Ullmann, Lorin Evan, Whitfield, John Patrick, Lawton, Craig, Peters, Christopher Andrew, Ramachandran, P.G.
• Application Number:
  US11/016,210
• Publication Number:
  US 20060136490A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Workflows for execution by an autonomic provision management system to yield near clones and replacement systems for a set of targeted computing solutions are provided by determining a common denominator set of workflow steps among the workflows for the targeted computing systems, including workflows to morph a near clone to a specific targeted solution when executed a provisioning management system. Common portions of workflows are identified and archived as workflow templates for re-use in development of new workflows, thus virtualizing the process of subsequent workflow design which use the templates. Multi-level criteria-based searching is provided to workflow designers for finding and re-using existing workflows and workflow templates according to degree of matching common steps, quickest implementation, highest available, or other criteria.

Claims

1. A method for designing workflows for a provisioning management system comprising the steps of:

evaluating workflows used to realize a group of targeted computing systems to determine a common denominator of workflow steps among said group of targeted computing systems;

producing a pseudo-clone workflow including said common denominator set of workflow steps which is executable by a provisioning management system to yield a pseudo-clone system; and

producing a plurality of completion workflows each of which correspond to a specific targeted computing system, and which is executable by a provisioning management system on a pseudo-clone to yield a replacement computing system for a targeted computing system.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said step of determining a common denominator of workflow steps comprises determining a highest common denominator of workflow steps.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said step of determining a common denominator of workflow steps comprises determining a lowest common denominator of workflow steps.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

identifying a set of workflow steps in a workflow under analysis which are in common with one or more pre-existing workflows;

archiving said set of common workflow steps as a workflow template; and

disposing said workflow template in a data store which is searchable by workflow designers and workflow design tools.

5. The method as set forth in claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

accessing and searching said archived workflow templates;

identifying available workflow templates which match at least a portion of a workflow under development;

indicating to a user said available matching workflow templates; and

incorporating one or more matching workflow templates upon user control into said workflow under development.

6. The method as set forth in claim 5 further comprising performing a multi-level search of said archived workflow templates and of pre-existing workflows, said search ranking each template or pre-existing workflow according to a level of match with one or more specified level criteria, and wherein said step of indicating to a user said available matching workflow templates further comprises

providing an indication of said ranking of each matching template or pre-existing workflow.

7. The method as set forth in claim 6 wherein said search proceeds according to a highest-to-lowest level match according to common workflow steps.

8. The method as set forth in claim 6 wherein said search proceeds according to a lowest-to-highest level match according to common workflow steps.

9. The method as set forth in claim 6 wherein said search proceeds according to a quickest-to-slowest level match according to expected time to execute a workflow incorporating each matching workflow template or pre-existing workflow.

10. The method as set forth in claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

determining one or more subsets of targeted computing systems having a higher degree of workflow step commonality than said highest common denominator set of workflow steps of all targeted computing systems in said group;

producing one or more higher-priority pseudo-clone workflows executable by a provisioning management system to yield one or more pseudo-clone configurations having a highest common denominator set of components for said subsets; and

producing a plurality of higher-priority completion workflows each of which correspond to a specific targeted computing system and are executable executed by a provisioning management system on a pseudo-clone to yield a replacement computing system for a targeted computing system.

11. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein:

said step of evaluating workflows further comprises evaluation of server cluster configurations to determine a common denominator of server cluster configuration definitions; and

said step of producing a pseudo-clone workflow further comprises producing a common cluster configuration template including said common denominator of server cluster configuration definitions.

12. A computer readable medium encoded with software for designing workflows for a provisioning management system, said software when executed by a computer performing steps comprising:

evaluating workflows used to realize a group of targeted computing systems to determine a common denominator of workflow steps among said group of targeted computing systems;

producing a pseudo-clone workflow including said common denominator set of workflow steps which is executable by a provisioning management system to yield a pseudo-clone system; and

producing a plurality of completion workflows each of which correspond to a specific targeted computing system, and which is executable by a provisioning management system on a pseudo-clone to yield a replacement computing system for a targeted computing system.

13. An apparatus for designing workflows for use by a provisioning management system, said apparatus comprising:

a workflow analyzer adapted to evaluate workflows used to realize a group of targeted computing systems to determine a common denominator of workflow steps among said group of targeted computing systems;

a pseudo-clone workflow generator configured to produce a pseudo-clone workflow including said common denominator set of workflow steps which is executable by a provisioning management system to yield a pseudo-clone system; and

a completion workflow generator configured to produce a plurality of completion workflows each of which correspond to a specific targeted computing system, and which is executable by a provisioning management system on a pseudo-clone to yield a replacement computing system for a targeted computing system.