AUTOMATED PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE CATALOG

• US 20080077603A1
• Filed: 09/22/2006
• Published: 03/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Arnott, Michael S., Martin, Rex G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,935,380 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/577 Assessing vulnerabilities and evaluating computer system security

Abstract

A product catalog is associated with a rules service allowing administrators to conduct examinations of a computer system'"'"'s health. Rules services establish a set of rules to be run against a particular computer system and thereafter invoke a rules engine. The rules service accesses a product catalog to supply product reference data regarding each component of interest in the computer system. The product reference data supplies to the rules service structure and characteristics of the component'"'"'s telemetry data as well as factors to consider with regard to component interaction. Once supplied with the product reference and input data the rules service conducts the analysis. When reference data is not available or fails to match parsed input data, a search is conducted to identify and retrieve reference data matching the structure and characteristics of the parsed input data. Upon finding a match the product catalog is updated with the new information.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for executing a rules service using a product catalog by a rules service engine, the method comprising:

identifying at least one rule from the rules service to conduct analysis of a computer system comprising a plurality of components, wherein the at least one rule identifies to the rules service engine product reference data from the product catalog about at least one of the plurality of components;

collecting input data about the computer system;

parsing the input data;

correlating the parsed input data with the identified product reference data;

responsive to the parsed input data correlating with the identified product reference data, providing to the rules service engine product reference data about the at least one of the plurality of components from the product catalog;

responsive to the parsed input data failing to correlate with the identified product reference data, matching another at least one of the plurality of components to the parsed input data and providing to the rules service engine product reference data about the another at least one of the plurality of components; and

running the at least one rule.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the product catalog comprises a normalized list of product reference data about a portion of the plurality of components.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein product reference data about at least one of the plurality of components is identified by pseudo code.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein product reference data about at least one of the plurality of components is identified by a product key.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the product key is a nonspecific representation of a component.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the product key enables the rules service engine to identify contributing factors from other components of the computer system.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein parsing analyzes input data to determine identifiable structural components.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein correlating comprises attempting to match the parsed input data with the identified product reference data and then attempting to match the parsed input data with any product reference data in the product catalog prior to attempting to match the parsed input data with product reference data about other of the plurality of components.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8, responsive to the parsed input data failing to correlate with the identified product reference data or with any product reference data in the product catalog, further comprising updating the product catalog with product reference data about the other of the plurality of components that matches the parsed input data.

10. A computer system rules service using a product catalog, the product catalog comprising:

a software portion configured to normalize a plurality of computer system components creating a list of normalized computer system components;

a software portion configured to assign a product key to each normalized computer system component; and

a software portion configured to associate at least one of the plurality of normalized computer system component with at least one rule of the computer system rules service.

11. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the software portion configured to normalize the plurality of computer system components identifies unique patterns and features of each of the plurality of computer system components.

12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the software portion configured to normalize the plurality of computer system components correlates the identified unique patterns and features of each of the plurality of computer system components with common designations of each of the plurality of computer system components.

13. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the software portion configured to normalize the plurality of computer system components identifies factors of each of the plurality computer system components relating to other of the plurality computer system components.

14. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the software portion configured to normalize the plurality of computer system components associates each of the plurality of normalized computer system components with product reference data about that computer system component.

15. The computer system of claim 10, responsive the computer system rules service determining that parsed input data fails to match any of the plurality of normalized computer system components in the product catalog, a software portion configured to identify a computer system component absent from the product catalog that matches the parsed input data, associate the identified computer system component absent from the product catalog with parsed input data, normalize the parsed input data associated with the identified computer system component creating a new normalized computer system component, and update the product catalog with the new normalized computer system component.

16. The computer system of claim 10, responsive the computer system rules service determining that input data matches at least a portion of at least one normalized computer system component in the product catalog but fails to entirely match the at least one normalized computer system component in the product catalog, a software portion configured to update the at least one normalized computer system component in the product catalog with features and patterns from the input data absent from the product catalog.

17. At least one computer-readable medium containing a computer program product for using a product catalog in association with a rules service, the computer program product comprising:

program code for identifying at least one rule from the rules service to conduct analysis of a computer system comprising a plurality of components, wherein the at least one rule identifies to a rules service engine product reference data from the product catalog about at least one of the plurality of components;

program code for collecting input data about the computer system;

program code for parsing the input data;

program code for correlating the parsed input data with the identified product reference data;

program code, responsive to the parsed input data correlating with the identified product reference data, for providing to the rules service engine product reference data about the at least one of the plurality of components from the product catalog;

program code, responsive to the parsed input data failing to correlate with the identified product reference data, for matching another at least one of the plurality of components to the parsed input data and providing to the rules service engine product reference data about the another at least one of the plurality of components; and

program code running the at least one rule.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the product catalog comprises a list of product reference data associated with at least some of the plurality of components normalized so as to identify unique patterns and features of each of the associated plurality of components.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the program code for matching the another at least one of the plurality of components to the parsed input data, further comprises program code for searching the program catalog for product reference data that matches the parsed input data prior to exploring other reference data for new matches to the parsed input data.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, further comprising program code, responsive to identifying a new match between the parsed input data and product reference data from other reference data, for associating the parsed input data with the newly matched product reference data, normalizing the product reference data associated with the newly matched parsed input data, associating the normalized product reference data with the another at least one of the plurality of components, and updating the product catalog with the associated normalized product reference data and the another at least one of the plurality of components.