Method and apparatus for tracking changes in a system

• US 20060265698A1
• Filed: 05/20/2005
• Published: 11/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Ali, Syed M., Malks, Daniel B., Crupi, John P., Alur, Deepak, Kamen, Yury
• Granted Patent: US 7,703,074 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/141
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment

Abstract

A method for analyzing a target system that includes obtaining a plurality of characteristics from the target system using a characteristics extractor, wherein the plurality of characteristics is associated with a characteristics model, storing each of the plurality of characteristics in a characteristics store using a tracking mechanism, and analyzing the target system by issuing a query to the characteristics store to obtain an analysis result, wherein the query uses tracking information associated with the tracking mechanism.

Claims

1. A method for analyzing a target system, comprising:

obtaining a plurality of characteristics from the target system using a characteristics extractor, wherein the plurality of characteristics is associated with a characteristics model;

storing each of the plurality of characteristics in a characteristics store using a tracking mechanism; and

analyzing the target system by issuing a query to the characteristics store to obtain an analysis result, wherein the query uses tracking information associated with the tracking mechanism.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining the characteristics model;

generating the characteristics extractor associated with the characteristics model; and

generating a characteristics store application programming interface (API) associated with the characteristics model, wherein the characteristics extractor uses the characteristics store API to store each of the plurality of characteristics in the characteristics store.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the tracking mechanism comprises storing a time-based attribute associated with each of the plurality of characteristics in the characteristics store.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the time-based attribute comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of a timestamp and a target system version number.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the characteristics store comprises a first sub-characteristics store and a second sub-characteristics store.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the tracking mechanism comprises storing characteristics associated with a first timeframe in the first sub-characteristics store and storing characteristics associated with a second timeframe in the second sub-characteristics store.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the tracking mechanism comprises storing characteristics associated with a first version of the target system in the first sub-characteristics store and storing characteristics associated with a second version of the target system in the second sub-characteristics store.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the tracking information comprises one selected from the group consisting of a time-related attribute and a sub-characteristics store name.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one query is defined using a pattern query language and wherein the pattern query language includes functionality to search for at least one pattern in the target system.

10. A system, comprising:

a characteristics model defining at least one artifact and a plurality of characteristics associated with the at least one artifact;

a target system comprising at least one of the plurality of characteristics defined in the characteristics model;

at least one characteristics extractor configured to obtain at least one of the plurality of characteristics from the target system;

a characteristics store configured to store the at least one of the plurality of characteristics obtained from the target system using a tracking mechanism; and

a query engine configured to analyze the target system by issuing a query to the characteristics store and configured to obtain an analysis result in response to the at least one query, wherein the query uses tracking information associated with the tracking mechanism.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the tracking mechanism comprises storing a time-based attribute associated with each of the plurality of characteristics in the characteristics store.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the time-based attribute comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of a timestamp and a target system version number.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the characteristics store comprises a first sub-characteristics store and a second sub-characteristics store.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the tracking mechanism comprises storing characteristics associated with a first timeframe in the first sub-characteristics store and storing characteristics associated with a second timeframe in the second sub-characteristics store.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the tracking mechanism comprises storing characteristics associated with a first version of the target system in the first sub-characteristics store and storing characteristics associated with a second version of the target system in the second sub-characteristics store.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the tracking information comprises one selected from the group consisting of a time-related attribute and a sub-characteristics store name.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one query is defined using a pattern query language, wherein the pattern query language includes functionality to search for at least one pattern in the target system.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the characteristics model is a domain-specific model.

19. A computer readable medium comprising software instructions for analyzing a target system, comprising software instructions to:

obtain a plurality of characteristics from the target system using a characteristics extractor, wherein the plurality of characteristics is associated with a characteristics model;

store each of the plurality of characteristics in a characteristics store using a tracking mechanism; and

analyze the target system by issuing a query to the characteristics store to obtain an analysis result, wherein the query uses tracking information associated with the tracking mechanism.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the tracking mechanism comprises storing a time-based attribute associated with each of the plurality of characteristics in the characteristics store.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein the time-based attribute comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of a timestamp and a target system version number.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the characteristics store comprises a first sub-characteristics store and a second sub-characteristics store.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 22, wherein the tracking mechanism comprises storing characteristics associated with a first timeframe in the first sub-characteristics store and storing characteristics associated with a second timeframe in the second sub-characteristics store.

24. The computer readable medium of claim 22, wherein the tracking mechanism comprises storing characteristics associated with a first version of the target system in the first sub-characteristics store and storing characteristics associated with a second version of the target system in the second sub-characteristics store.

25. The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the tracking information comprises one selected from the group consisting of a time-related attribute and a sub-characteristics store name.