Systems and Methods for Constructing Change Plans from Component Interactions

• US 20080120617A1
• Filed: 11/16/2006
• Published: 05/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Keller, Alexander, DePauw, Wim
• Granted Patent: US 8,229,778 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/46 Multiprogramming arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining of resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Techniques for constructing change plans from one or more component interactions are provided. For example, one computer-implemented technique includes observing at least one interaction between two or more components of at least one distributed computing system, consolidating the at least one interaction into at least one interaction pattern, and using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan, wherein the at least one change plan is useable for managing the at least one distributed computing system. In another computer-implemented technique, a partial order of two or more changes is determined from at least one component interaction in at least one distributed computing system, the partial order of two or more changes is automatically transformed into at least one ordered task, wherein the at least one ordered task is linked by at least one temporal ordering constraint, and the at least one ordered task is used to generate at least one change plan useable for managing the distributed computing system is generated, wherein the change plan is based on at least one requested change.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for constructing at least one change plan, the method comprising the steps of:

observing at least one interaction between two or more components of at least one distributed computing system;

consolidating the at least one interaction into at least one interaction pattern; and

using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan, wherein the at least one change plan is useable for managing the at least one distributed computing system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan comprises constructing at least one change plan in a machine-readable format by taking into account at least one change management operation and at least one change management pattern.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan comprises reverse-engineering a blueprint of at least one staging system at run-time.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan comprises identifying at least one algorithm applicable to changing the at least one distributed computing system.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the steps of:

facilitating an administrator to identify the at least one algorithm for the at least one distributed computing system as a whole or for selected parts of the at least one distributed computing system; and

expressing the at least one identified algorithm in at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of storing the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program for subsequent reuse.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of facilitating retrieval of the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program to build a production system automatically, wherein building the production system comprises:

loading the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program into an automated deployment and provision system; and

executing the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of observing at least one interaction between two or more components of at least one distributed computing system comprises observing the at least one interaction at run-time.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of storing the at least one change plan for subsequent reuse and processing in a change plan library.

10. An apparatus for constructing at least one change plan, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and operative to;

observe at least one interaction between two or more components of at least one distributed computing system;

consolidate the at least one interaction into at least one interaction pattern; and

use the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan, wherein the at least one change plan is useable for managing the at least one distributed computing system.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is operable to construct at least one change plan in a machine-readable format by taking into account at least one change management operation and at least one change management pattern.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is operable to construct at least one change plan by reverse-engineering a blueprint of at least one staging system at run-time.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is operable to construct at least one change plan by identifying at least one algorithm applicable to changing the at least one distributed computing system.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the at least one processor is operable to:

facilitate an administrator in identifying the at least one algorithm for the at least one distributed computing system as a whole or for selected parts of the at least one distributed computing system; and

express the at least one identified algorithm in at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the at least one processor is operable to store the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program for subsequent reuse.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the at least one processor is operable to facilitate retrieval of the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program to build a production system automatically, wherein building the production system comprises:

loading the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program into an automated deployment and provision system; and

executing the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program.

17. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is operable to observe at least one interaction between two or more components of at least one distributed computing system observes the at least one interaction at run-time.

18. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is operable to store the at least one change plan for subsequent reuse and processing in a change plan library.

19. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer useable program code for constructing at least one change plan, the computer program product including:

computer useable program code for observing at least one interaction between two or more components of at least one distributed computing system;

computer useable program code for consolidating the at least one interaction into at least one interaction pattern; and

computer useable program code for using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan, wherein the at least one change plan is useable for managing the at least one distributed computing system.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the computer useable program code for using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan comprises constructing at least one change plan in a machine-readable format by taking into account at least one change management operation and at least one change management pattern.

21. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the computer useable program code for using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan comprises reverse-engineering a blueprint of at least one staging system at run-time.

22. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the computer useable program code for using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan comprises identifying at least one algorithm applicable to changing the at least one distributed computing system.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, further including computer useable program code for:

facilitating an administrator in identifying the at least one algorithm for the at least one distributed computing system as a whole or for selected parts of the at least one distributed computing system; and

expressing the at least one identified algorithm in at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program

24. The computer program product of claim 23, further including computer useable program code for storing the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program for subsequent reuse.

25. The computer program product of claim 24, further including computer useable program code for facilitating retrieval of the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program to build a production system automatically, wherein the building the production system comprises:

loading the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program into an automated deployment and provision system; and

executing the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program.

26. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the computer useable program code for observing at least one interaction between two or more components of at least one distributed computing system observes the at least one interaction at run-time.

27. The computer program product of claim 19, further including computer useable program code for storing the at least one change plan for subsequent reuse and processing in a change plan library.

28. A computer-implemented method for automatically determining at least one change plan from at least one component interaction, the method comprising the steps of:

determining a partial order of two or more changes from at least one component interaction in at least one distributed computing system;

automatically transforming the partial order of two or more changes into at least one ordered task, wherein the at least one ordered task is linked by at least one temporal ordering constraint; and

using the at least one ordered task to generate at least one change plan useable for managing the at least one distributed computing system, wherein the at least one change plan is based on at least one requested change.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the step of using the at least one ordered task to generate at least one change plan comprises minimizing total change time by exploiting parallelism between two or more components.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the step of using the at least one ordered task to generate at least one change plan comprises an administrator accepting the at least one requested change and explicitly identifying the at least one computing system.

31. The method of claim 28, wherein the step of using the at least one ordered task to generate at least one change plan comprises computing at least one change plan by observing at least one interaction between two or more computing systems.

32. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer useable program code for automatically determining at least one change plan from at least one component interaction, the computer program product including:

computer useable program code for determining a partial order of two or more changes from at least one component interaction in at least one distributed computing system;

computer useable program code for automatically transforming the partial order of two or more changes into at least one ordered task, wherein the at least one ordered task is linked by at least one temporal ordering constraint; and

computer useable program code for using the at least one ordered task to generate at least one change plan useable for managing the at least one distributed computing system, wherein the at least one change plan is based on at least one requested change.

33. The computer program product of claim 32, wherein the computer useable program code for using the at least one ordered task to generate at least one change plan comprises minimizing total change time by exploiting parallelism between two or more components.

34. The computer program product of claim 32, wherein the computer useable program code for using the at least one ordered task to generate at least one change plan comprises an administrator accepting the at least one requested change and explicitly identifying the at least one computing system.

35. The computer program product of claim 32, wherein the computer useable program code for using the at least one ordered task to generate at least one change plan comprises computing at least one change plan by observing at least one interaction between two or more computing systems.