Computer-Implemented Systems And Methods For Analyzing Product Configuration And Data

• US 20080235611A1
• Filed: 01/04/2008
• Published: 09/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAS Institute Incorporated
• Original Assignee: SAS Institute Incorporated
• Inventors: Nasuti, William John, Fraley, Jessica Marie, Lehman, Katherine R., Tomlinson, Benjamin Jeffress
• Granted Patent: US 8,296,732 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/772
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

Computer-implemented systems and methods are provided for analyzing configuration data associated with a plurality of software applications. For example a system and method can be configured to receive configuration data about the software applications, wherein the configuration data about the software applications includes configuration items that have relationships with other configuration items. An interface display screen is provided to the user, wherein the user interface display screen is configured to display an evaluation of the retrieved configuration data.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for analyzing configuration data associated with a plurality of software applications, comprising:

retrieving configuration data about the software applications;

wherein the configuration data is retrieved from the computer location on which their respectively associated software application is located;

wherein the configuration data about the software applications includes configuration items that have relationships with other configuration items;

wherein the configuration data about the software applications includes two configuration items that have a many-to-many relationship between the two configuration items;

providing a user interface display screen;

wherein the user interface display screen is configured to display an evaluation of the retrieved configuration data based upon an evaluation of the many-to-many relationship between said two configuration items.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface display screen is configured to display relationship evaluations between configuration data stored in two separate lists;

wherein each list is populated by more than one configuration item;

wherein a user interface is provided to the user to allow the user to select a configuration item from a list, and have every configuration item in the other list evaluated based on the value of the selected configuration item.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the selected configuration item from the list is one of the two configuration items having the many-to-many relationship with the other of the two configuration items;

wherein the evaluated configuration item in the other list is said other of the two configuration items having the many-to-many relationships.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the evaluation of each configuration item in the other list is then automatically displayed to the user, thereby providing to the user a comparison of the relationships, while isolating the user from the manual tasks of manually comparing values associated with the relationships.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration items are software objects having classes and properties;

wherein a configuration test model includes rules and other configuration test models.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the rules specify criteria for performing evaluations of the retrieved configuration data.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the rules specify criteria for performing evaluations based upon the relationships of the retrieved configuration data.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the configuration items includes configuration information about a workspace server, a library, a user, and a configuration file.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more of the software applications resides in a different and disparate computer environment than the other software applications.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the different and disparate computer environment is different with respect to server location.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the different and disparate computer environment is disparate with respect to an environment characteristic selected from the group consisting of software manufacturer vendor source, machine type or tier, software or hardware architecture, software operating system.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing past results of evaluations of the retrieved configuration data for evaluating how a machine'"'"'s configuration settings have changed over time.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing past results of evaluations of the retrieved configuration data for comparing the results between a properly configured setup against a similar configuration that is not operating properly.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

capturing results of evaluations of the retrieved configuration data;

providing the captured results from the user to a third party;

wherein the captured results is provided to the third party for remote analysis of the captured results within the computer environment of the third party for local examination of the captured results by the third party.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the captured results that the third party views on the third party'"'"'s user interface are identical to the evaluations of the retrieved configuration data viewed by the user on the user interface display screen, thereby enabling technical support by dissemination of diagnostic evaluation results to remote locations which have to ability to view the results as if the results were local.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

running multiple configuration evaluation tests by opening a separate results user interface window for each different test.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

selecting a configuration item within one of the separate results user interface window;

wherein in response to said selecting, all of the other result windows dynamically perform a re-evaluation of their respectively displayed configuration data and present new evaluation results based on the re-evaluation.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein by said selecting of the configuration item, the data view is not changed with respect to the user interface windows.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the performed re-evaluation comprises initiating a new evaluation process that results in new evaluation data occurring across separate results user interface windows.

20. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing a test group results display screen to the user, wherein the test group results display screen contains test group configuration evaluation results and displays each test group along with an indicator of the results status associated with each test group.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

displaying details of results of a test group configuration evaluation in response to receiving a selection from the user of one of the test group configuration evaluation results.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the displayed details of results includes identifies for the user the name and data value of the configuration items retrieved, as well as type of relationship expected to exist between the configuration items, and includes an interpretation of the results.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein at least one of the test groups group tests according to the software applications for which tests are to be performed upon, or group tests to explore specific system behaviors, anomalies, or logged messages, or group tests so that information that is distributed across a different and disparate computer environment is aggregated into one computer-based location.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the software applications are in an operational and executing state when the configuration data is retrieved and evaluated.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising:

receiving edits to configuration tests from a user;

wherein the tests indicate which of the configuration items are to be retrieved.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the test configuration edits are generated by an administrator or by updating the configuration tests in an update facility, thereby providing for customization of the configuration tests within a different and disparate computer environment.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the configuration tests are configured to be self-evaluating so that the configuration tests autonomously gather the configuration data and automatically determine configuration anomalies.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the self-evaluating of the configuration tests obviates a requirement for directing direct the user to configuration data locations where the user can gather information or provide the user with a generic configuration data checklist.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the configuration data checklist is generic with respect to type of computer environment.

30. The method of claim 25 wherein a first configuration test includes high level test actions, said method further comprising:

receiving a list of high level test actions for controlling execution of the first configuration test.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the first configuration test specifies that at least two configuration data values to be retrieved;

wherein the at least two configuration data values include a relationship indicator which describes how the data values should be related and messages that discuss configuration evaluation test results.

32. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration items are software objects having classes and properties;

wherein an adaptive search engine registers and releases classes that form criteria for specifying what configuration data is to be retrieved about the software application, thereby providing an ability to dynamically expand or contract searching to fit the configuration items to be retrieved.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the objects required by a test are collected and the adaptive search engine retrieves the objects'"'"' property values.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the adaptive search engine is provided with parameters about the objects;

wherein the parameters about the object includes object data selected from the group consisting of pointer to an object, name of an object'"'"'s class, value of an object, name of the property to be retrieved, type of the property, potential value of the property, and combinations thereof.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the adaptive search engine uses the parameters passed into the search engine to identify first methods to retrieve values for the configuration items;

wherein if the identified first methods do not successfully retrieve the values, the search engine identifies second methods by using fetch object property method parameters, and performs a search though use of the second methods to retrieve the values.

36. The method of claim 32, wherein when a new searching class is registered with the adaptive search engine, the new searching class is held in a hashtable with the new searching class as the key or a map with the new searching class as the key.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the hashtable or the map contains pointers to search methods within registered search code is used to retrieve data.

38. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a configuration test group to execute,

wherein the configuration test group includes high level configuration test actions;

compiling a list of all of the configuration items that are to be retrieved in order to execute the tests in the received configuration test group;

wherein said retrieving step includes, based upon location and type of the configuration items that are to be retrieved, retrieving values of configuration items by;

(a) a search engine which retrieves data by communicating with the software applications or reading configuration files associated with the software applications, wherein the search engines retrieve all data values of a specified type such that if a configuration setting occurs in multiple computer locations, the search engine retrieves all of the available values;

(b) a remote agent which reads software application configuration files on a remote machine;

compiling into a list the data values that were retrieved by said retrieving step;

wherein the compiled list of data values is supplied to a comparator;

wherein the comparator retrieves a test from the list of tests to be evaluated, retrieves the data values that are required by the test and compares the data values against each other to determine if the compared data values satisfy the specified relationship type;

displaying the test results by showing the list of tests executed with an indicator for each test indicating if the test passed;

said providing step being performed in response to selection of one of the displayed test results.

39. The method of claim 1, wherein the evaluation of the retrieved configuration data based upon an evaluation of the many-to-many relationship between said two configuration items includes a determination if configuration settings involving said two configuration items are set to a value that allows for proper software functioning.

40. The method of claim 1, wherein the evaluation of the retrieved configuration data based upon an evaluation of the many-to-many relationship between said two configuration items includes a determination if configuration settings involving said two configuration items are set to a pre-determined value.

41. The method of claim 9, wherein the configuration data is stored in metadata repositories in the different and disparate computer environment.

42. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration data is software application installation configuration data.

43. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration data is post-installation production configuration data.

44. The method of claim 4 wherein the comparison includes a comparison of configuration evaluation results.

45. A computer-implemented system for analyzing configuration data associated with a plurality of software applications comprising:

software instructions for retrieving configuration data about the software applications;

wherein the configuration data is retrieved from the computer location on which their respectively associated software application is located;

wherein the configuration data about the software applications includes configuration items that have relationships with other configuration items;

wherein the configuration data about the software applications includes two configuration items that have a many-to-many relationship between the two configuration items;

interface displaying software instructions for providing a user interface display screen;

wherein the user interface display screen is configured to display an evaluation of the retrieved configuration data based upon an evaluation of the many-to-many relationship between said two configuration items.

46. A computer implemented method for analyzing configuration data associated with a plurality of software applications comprising:

retrieving configuration data about the software applications;

wherein the configuration data is retrieved from the computer location on which their respectively associated software application is located;

wherein the configuration data about the software applications includes configuration items that have relationships with other configuration items;

wherein the configuration items are software objects having classes and properties;

wherein an adaptive search engine registers and releases classes that form criteria for specifying what configuration data is to be retrieved about the software application, thereby providing an ability to dynamically expand or contract searching to fit the configuration items to be retrieved;

providing a user interface display screen;

wherein the user interface display screen is configured to display an evaluation of the retrieved configuration data.

47. A computer implemented system for analyzing configuration data associated with a plurality of software applications comprising:

software instructions for retrieving configuration data about the software applications;

wherein the configuration data is retrieved from the computer location on which their respectively associated software application is located;

wherein the configuration data about the software applications includes configuration items that have relationships with other configuration items;

wherein the configuration items are software objects having classes and properties;

wherein an adaptive search engine registers and releases classes that form criteria for specifying what configuration data is to be retrieved about the software application, thereby providing an ability to dynamically expand or contract searching to fit the configuration items to be retrieved;

interface displaying software instructions for providing a user interface display screen;

wherein the user interface display screen is configured to display an evaluation of the retrieved configuration data.

48. A computer-implemented graphical user interface comprising:

a first display area for displaying one or more entities that have relationships to other entities;

a second display area for displaying a second set of entities that have relationships to other entities;

wherein at least one entity in the first display area has a many-to-many relationship with at least one entity in the second display area.

49. A computer-implemented method for analyzing configuration data associated with a plurality of software applications, comprising:

retrieving configuration data about the software applications;

wherein the configuration data is retrieved from the computer location on which their respectively associated software application is located;

wherein the configuration data about the software applications includes configuration items that have relationships with other configuration items;

wherein the configuration data about the software applications includes two configuration items that have a many-to-many relationship between the two configuration items;

providing a user interface display screen;

wherein the user interface display screen is configured to display an evaluation of the retrieved configuration data based upon an evaluation of the many-to-many relationship between said two configuration items;

wherein the configuration items are software objects having classes and properties;

wherein a configuration test model includes rules and other configuration test models;

wherein the rules specify criteria for performing evaluations based upon the relationships of the retrieved configuration data.