Method and System for Automated Handling of Resolvable and Non-resolvable Errors in Execution of System Management Flows Consisting of System Management Tasks
First Claim
1. Method for automated handling of resolvable and non-resolvable errors in system management flows consisting of system management tasks, wherein said system management tasks (10-12) are provided by system management applications to perform certain operations on the managed IT infrastructure (1), wherein said system management tasks (10-12) provide interfaces (13-15) via said system management tasks which are invoked (20) during the execution of the system management flow definition by said Workflow Engine (30),characterized by the steps of:
- executing a system management flow definition (35) by said Workflow Engine (30), wherein said system management flow definition additionally includes an ErrorHandlingStrategy attribute for determining the processing mode of the system management flow in the case of errors, wherein said processing mode can be “
compensate”
, or “
forced”
,intercepting execution of a task as defined in said system management flow definition by said Workflow Engine (30),invoking Error Handling component (40) via “
invokeTask interface”
(41), wherein said Error Handling component (40) uses an error handling interface with an Error Handling Layer (90,70,100) for invocation of system management tasks and for error handling, wherein said Error Handling Layer (90, 70, 100) uses a Processing Context Store (80) storing processing state information of invoked tasks,wherein said Error Handling component (40) performs the steps of;
invoking a system management task as defined by said task via the system management task'"'"'s startProcessing operation (72) of said error handling interface by said Error Handling Component (40) and storing processing state information of said invoked task in a Processing Context Store (68),receiving error condition via the “
suspendProcessing”
operation (44) of said error handling interface from said Error Handling Layer (90, 70, 100),switching to the processing mode as defined in the “
ErrorHandlingStrategy”
, andprocessing said system management flow in a processing mode as defined in said “
ErrorHandlingStrategy”
accordingly.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides a method and system for automated handling of resolvable and non-resolvable errors in the execution of system management flows by enhancing Workflow Engines (30) by an Error Handling component (40) and by adding a supportive Error Handling Layer (60,90,100) to invoked system management tasks which serves as the counterpart to the Workflow Engine'"'"'s Error Handling component (see FIG. 2). The additional functionality of the task-provided Error Handling Layer (90, 70, 100) is accessible for the Workflow Engine via extended web services interfaces (91, 71, 101). The Workflow Engine'"'"'s Error Handling component (40) and the task-provided Error Handling Layer allow for the definition of a standard protocol between the Workflow Engine and invoked tasks (31) for automated error handling.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. Method for automated handling of resolvable and non-resolvable errors in system management flows consisting of system management tasks, wherein said system management tasks (10-12) are provided by system management applications to perform certain operations on the managed IT infrastructure (1), wherein said system management tasks (10-12) provide interfaces (13-15) via said system management tasks which are invoked (20) during the execution of the system management flow definition by said Workflow Engine (30),
characterized by the steps of: -
executing a system management flow definition (35) by said Workflow Engine (30), wherein said system management flow definition additionally includes an ErrorHandlingStrategy attribute for determining the processing mode of the system management flow in the case of errors, wherein said processing mode can be “
compensate”
, or “
forced”
,intercepting execution of a task as defined in said system management flow definition by said Workflow Engine (30), invoking Error Handling component (40) via “
invokeTask interface”
(41), wherein said Error Handling component (40) uses an error handling interface with an Error Handling Layer (90,70,100) for invocation of system management tasks and for error handling, wherein said Error Handling Layer (90, 70, 100) uses a Processing Context Store (80) storing processing state information of invoked tasks,wherein said Error Handling component (40) performs the steps of; invoking a system management task as defined by said task via the system management task'"'"'s startProcessing operation (72) of said error handling interface by said Error Handling Component (40) and storing processing state information of said invoked task in a Processing Context Store (68), receiving error condition via the “
suspendProcessing”
operation (44) of said error handling interface from said Error Handling Layer (90, 70, 100),switching to the processing mode as defined in the “
ErrorHandlingStrategy”
, andprocessing said system management flow in a processing mode as defined in said “
ErrorHandlingStrategy”
accordingly. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. System for automated error handling of resolvable and non-resolvable errors in system management flows consisting of system management tasks, wherein said system management tasks (10-12) are provided by system management applications to perform certain operations on the managed IT infrastructure (1), wherein said system management tasks (10-12) provide interfaces (13-15) via said system management tasks to be get invoked (20) during the execution of the system management flow definition,
characterized by the means of: -
a Workflow Engine (30) for executing a system management flow definition, wherein said system management flow definition additionally includes an ErrorHandlingStrategy attribute for determining the processing mode of the system management flow, wherein said processing mode can be “
compensate”
, or “
forced”
, wherein said Workflow Engine including;means for intercepting execution of a task as defined in said system management flow definition, means for invoking Error Handling component (40) via “
invokeTask interface”
(41),an Error Handling Component which uses a Processing Context Store (68) to store processing state information, wherein said Error Handling component uses an error handling protocol with an Error Handling Layer (90, 70, 100) for invoked system management tasks, wherein said Error Handling Layer uses a Processing Context Store (80) to store processing state information, wherein said Error Handling component including; means for invoking a system management task as defined by said system management flow definition via the system management task'"'"'s startProcessing interface operation (72), means for receiving error condition via interface “
suspendProcessing”
(44) of said error handling interface from said Error Handling Layer, andmeans for switching to the processing mode as defined in the “
ErrorHandlingStrategy”
. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification