METHOD AND SYSTEM TO DETECT APPLICATION NON-CONFORMANCE

• US 20080125878A1
• Filed: 08/23/2006
• Published: 05/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kaminsky, David L., Doyle, Ronald P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,558,770 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis

Abstract

A method to anticipate and prevent application non-conformance is disclosed. The method includes making available a configuration management database (CMDB) having configuration information of a plurality of system resources and dependency information of a plurality of applications related to the plurality of system resources. The method also includes making available a plurality of rules to establish a plurality of operating conditions that are statistically probable to cause a non-conformance of each system resource of the plurality of system resources, and combining each rule with the CMDB to determine the dependency of each application upon each operating condition. The method proceeds with performing a response action in response to determining that any of the operating conditions are such to cause a statistically probable non-conformance of any of the plurality of applications.

Claims

1. A method to anticipate and prevent application non-conformance, the method comprising:

malting available a configuration management database (CMDB) comprising;

configuration information of a plurality of system resources; and

dependency information of a plurality of applications related to the plurality of system resources;

making available a plurality of rules to establish a plurality of operating conditions that are statistically probable to cause a non-conformance of each system resource of the plurality of system resources;

combining each rule of the plurality of rules with the CMDB to determine the dependency of each application upon each operating condition of the plurality of operating conditions;

determining if any of the operating conditions are such that will result in a statistically probable non-conformance of any of the plurality of applications; and

in response to determining that any of the operating conditions are such to cause the statistically probable non-conformance of any of the plurality of applications, performing a response action.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining if any of the operating conditions are such that will result in the statistically probable non-conformance of any of the plurality of applications comprises:

determining if any of the operating conditions are such that a statistically probable non-conformance of any of the plurality of system resources will result in the statistically probable non-conformance of any of the plurality of applications.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining if any of the operating conditions are such that will result in the statistically probable non-conformance of any of the plurality of applications comprises:

querying the plurality of system resources.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining if any of the operating conditions are such will result in the statistically probable non-conformance of any of the plurality of applications comprises:

querying a monitoring program, the monitoring program configured to monitor and store the operating conditions of the plurality of resources.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the performing the response action comprises:

notifying an administrator of the statistically probable application non-conformance resulting from the statistically probable resource non-conformance.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

querying the CMDB to determine if an alternate resource may be utilized to support continued conformance of any of the plurality of applications determined to be statistically probable to non-conform; and

shifting the dependency of the application that is statistically probable to non-conform as a result of the statistically probable system resource non-conformance to the alternate resource.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

considering a cost-benefit factor of the shifting the dependency of the application that is statistically probable to non-conform as a result of the statistically probable system resource non-conformance.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the performing a response action comprises:

performing a plurality of response actions, each response action corresponding to a different level of statistical probability of application non-conformance.

9. A program storage device readable by a computer, the device embodying a program or instructions executable by the computer to perform the method of claim 1.

10. A data processing system configured to anticipate and prevent application non-conformance, the system comprising:

means for malting available a configuration management database (CMDB) comprising;

configuration information of a plurality of system resources; and

dependency information of a plurality of applications related to the plurality of system resources;

means for making available a plurality of rules to establish a plurality of operating conditions that are statistically probable to cause a non-conformance of each system resource of the plurality of system resources;

means for combining each rule of the plurality of rules with the CMDB to determine the dependency of each application upon each operating condition of the plurality of operating conditions;

means for determining if any of the operating conditions are such that will result in a statistically probable non-conformance of any of the plurality of applications; and

means for performing a response action in response to determining that any of the operating conditions are such to cause the statistically probable non-conformance of any of the plurality of applications.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the means for determining if any of the operating conditions are such that will result in the statistically probable non-conformance of any of the plurality of applications comprise:

means for determining if any of the operating conditions are such that a statistically probable non-conformance of any of the plurality of system resources will result in the statistically probable non-conformance of any of the plurality of applications.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the means for performing the response action comprise:

means for notifying an administrator of the statistically probable application non-conformance resulting from the statistically probable resource non-conformance.

13. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

means for querying the CMDB to determine if an alternate resource may be utilized to support continued conformance of any of the plurality of applications determined to be statistically probable to non-conform; and

means for shifting the dependency of the application that is statistically probable to non-conform as a result of the statistically probable system resource non-conformance to the alternate resource.

14. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

means for considering a cost-benefit factor related to the shifting the dependency of the application that is statistically probable to non-conform as a result of the statistically probable system resource non-conformance.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the means for performing a response action comprise:

means for performing a plurality of response actions, each response action corresponding to a different level of statistical probability of application non-conformance.