Identification of Discrepancies in Actual and Expected Inventories in Computing Environment having Multiple Provisioning Orchestration Server Pool Boundaries

• US 20090099942A1
• Filed: 12/22/2008
• Published: 04/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Christopher Andrew Peters, Craig Lawton, John Whitfield, Lorin Evan Ullmann, P. G. Ramachandran, Vijay Kumar Aggarwal
• Inventors: Whitfield, John, Aggarwal, Vijay Kumar, Ullmann, Lorin Evan, Lawton, Craig, Ramachandran, P. G., Peters, Christopher Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 8,606,659 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A system for establishing and maintaining inventories of computing environment assets comprising one or more custom collector interfaces that detect movement of assets from one environment to another, and an inventory scanner which modifies inventories for each environment based on monitored asset movements. The present invention is of especial benefit to autonomic and on-demand computing architectures.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least one collector interface disposed in relation with at least two of said environments such that movement of an asset from one environment to another environment is detected, and having an asset movement report output;

two or more computer readable asset inventories, each inventory being associated with at least one of said environments;

an inventory scanner configured to establish an initial asset inventory for each of said environments, to receive said movement reports from said collector interface, and to modify said inventories according to said movement reports.

2. The system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said collector interface and said inventory scanner are adapted to cooperate with a self-managed computing system.

3. The system as set forth in claim 2 wherein said collector interface and said inventory scanner are adapted to cooperate with a system selected from the group of an autonomic computing system, an on-demand computing system, a utility computing system, and a grid computing system.

4. The system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said inventory scanner is further adapted to access one or more backup copies of one or more environments, to compare said backup with an inventory associated with the environment the backup represents, and to generate a report detailing any discrepancies between a compared backup and inventory.

5. The system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said inventory scanner is further adapted to maintain a history of each asset in each inventory, and to produce a history report regarding the life of an asset as first introduced to a monitored environment, throughout movements from environment to environment, including final removal from the monitored environments when not currently located in a monitored environment.

6. The system as set forth in claim 1 wherein at least one of said collector interfaces is disposed to monitor asset movement between any two environments selected from the group of one or more development environments, one or more test environments, and one or more production environments.

7. The system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said inventory scanner is further configured to add a previously unknown asset to an inventory associated with an environment in which said previously unknown asset has or will be configured.

8. The system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said inventory scanner is further configured to remove a previously known asset from an inventory associated with an environment in which said previously known asset was configured.

9. The system as set forth in claim 1 further comprising a license inventory report generator configured to generate a report containing locations and status of licensed assets, said report being receivable by a license management system.

10. The system as set forth in claim 1 further comprising a physical asset tracking sensor report converter adapted to convert signals received from a physical asset tracking system to a collector interface asset movement report output.

11. The system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said inventory scanner is further adapted to access one or more asset revision level indicators, to compare an inventory associated with a monitored environment to determine if all applicable patches and upgrades have been configured into said environment, and to generate a report detailing any discrepancies between a compared backup and inventory.

12. A method comprising:

disposing at least one collector interface in relation with at least two of said environments such that movement of an asset from one environment to another environment is detected;

establishing by an inventory scanner an initial asset inventory for each of said environments;

receiving an asset movement report output from said collector interface responsive to detection of movement of an asset from one environment to another environment; and

modifying according to said movement reports two or more computer readable asset inventories, each inventory being associated with at least one of said environments.

13. The method as set forth in claim 12 further comprising adapting said collector interface and said inventory scanner to cooperate with self-managed computing system.

14. The method as set forth in claim 13 further comprising adapting said collector interface and said inventory scanner to cooperate with a self-managed system selected from the group of an autonomic computing system, an on-demand computing system, a utility computing system, and a grid computing system.

15. The method as set forth in claim 12 further comprising:

accessing one or more backup copies of one or more environments;

comparing said backup copy with an inventory associated with the environment the backup represents; and

generating a report detailing discrepancies between a compared backup and inventory.

16. The method as set forth in claim 12 further comprising:

maintaining a history of each asset in each inventory; and

producing a history report regarding the life of an asset as first introduced to a monitored environment, throughout movements from environment to environment, including final removal from the monitored environments when not currently located in a monitored environment.

17. The method as set forth in claim 12 wherein said step of disposing a collector interface comprises disposing a collector interface to monitor asset movement between any two environments selected from the group of one or more development environments, one or more test environments, and one or more production environments.

18. The method as set forth in claim 12 further comprising the step of adding a previously unknown asset to an inventory associated with an environment in which said previously unknown asset has or will be configured.

19. The method as set forth in claim 12 further comprising removing a previously known asset from an inventory associated with an environment in which said previously known asset was configured.

20. The method as set forth in claim 12 further comprising generating a license inventory report containing locations and status of licensed assets, said report being receivable by a license management system.

21. The method as set forth in claim 12 further comprising converting a signal from a physical asset tracking sensor report to a collector interface asset movement report output.

22. The method as set forth in claim 12 further comprising:

accessing one or more asset revision level indicators;

comparing an inventory associated with a monitored environment to determine if all applicable patches and upgrades have been configured into said environment, and

generating a report detailing any discrepancies between a compared backup and inventory.

23. A computer-readable medium comprising:

a computer readable memory suitable for encoding software programs; and

one or more software programs encoded by said memory and configured to;

detect by at least one collector interface in relation with at least two of said environments movement of an asset from one environment to another environment;

establish by an inventory scanner an initial asset inventory for each of said environments;

receive an asset movement report output from said collector interface responsive to detection of movement of an asset from one environment to another environment; and

modify according to said movement reports two or more computer readable asset inventories, each inventory being associated with at least one of said environments.

33. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 33 further comprising software configured to:

access one or more asset revision level indicators;

compare an inventory associated with a monitored environment to determine if all applicable patches and upgrades have been configured into said environment; and

generate a report detailing any discrepancies between a compared backup and inventory.

24. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 33 further comprising software configured to cooperate with a self-managed computing system.

25. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 24 further comprising software configured to cooperate with a system selected from the group of an autonomic computing system, an on-demand computing system, a utility computing system, and a grid computing system.

26. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 33 further comprising software configured to:

access one or more backup copies of one or more environments;

compare said backup copy with an inventory associated with the environment the backup represents; and

generate a report detailing discrepancies between a compared backup and inventory.

27. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 33 further comprising software configured to:

maintain a history of each asset in each inventory; and

produce a history report regarding the life of an asset as first introduced to a monitored environment, throughout movements from environment to environment, including final removal from the monitored environments when not currently located in a monitored environment.

28. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 33 wherein said collector interface software comprises software configured to monitor asset movement between any two environments selected from the group of one or more development environments, one or more test environments, and one or more production environments.

29. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 33 further comprising software configured to add a previously unknown asset to an inventory associated with an environment in which said previously unknown asset has or will be configured.

30. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 33 further comprising software configured to remove a previously known asset from an inventory associated with an environment in which said previously known asset was configured.

31. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 33 further comprising software configured to generate a license inventory report containing locations and status of licensed assets, said report being receivable by a license management system.

32. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 33 further comprising software configured to convert a computer readable signal from a physical asset tracking sensor report to collector interface asset movement report output.