RESOURCE MANAGEMENT METHOD

• US 20090276784A1
• Filed: 05/02/2008
• Published: 11/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Grieve, Richard, Fragapane, Paolo
• Granted Patent: US 8,695,006 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files

Abstract

There is provided a method of managing a resource within a computer system using a configuration wrapper, the method comprising: providing a configuration file comprising configuration data for the resource; generating metadata related to the configuration data; and automatically processing the metadata to produce a configuration wrapper for the resource. The configuration wrapper may be a java object with management attributes and methods.

Claims

1. A method of managing a computer resource using a configuration wrapper, the method comprising:

providing a computer-readable configuration file comprising configuration data for the resource to a computer system;

generating, with the computer system, computer-readable metadata related to the configuration data;

automatically processing the metadata, with the computer system, to produce a configuration wrapper for the resource that can be used to manage the configuration and

storing the configuration wrapper in a computer-readable medium.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer resource comprises one of:

an application, an implementation of a software service, a device, a database or a user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration wrapper comprises a Java object with associated attributes and operations.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the Java object is an MBean.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration wrapper is implemented using a plurality of Java objects.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata is stored in a metadata file.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating computer-readable metadata comprises generating a CSV or XML file associated with the configuration data.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of automatically processing the metadata comprises:

providing, with the computer system, a reference to the metadata file;

processing, with the computer system, the metadata file using an automator application;

generating, with the computer system, one or more files used to implement the configuration wrapper.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising viewing properties of the resource by calling methods associated with the configuration wrapper.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the methods of the configuration wrapper retrieve data from the configuration file.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising modifying properties of the resource by calling methods associated with the configuration wrapper.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the methods of the configuration wrapper modify data within the configuration file.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein at any time after the step of automatically processing the metadata the method further comprises the steps of:

d. loading, with the computer system, a management agent for managing one or more resources;

e. implementing, with the computer system, the configuration wrapper;

f. associating, with the computer system, the configuration wrapper with the management agent; and

g. using, with the computer system, the management agent to view and/or modify the properties of the resource.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the management agent comprises a JMX management application.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

altering, with the computer system, the form of the configuration file;

updating, with the computer system, the metadata associated with the configuration data; and

automatically processing the metadata, with the computer system, a further time to produce an updated configuration wrapper for the resource.

16. A data structure for use in managing a resource within a computer system, the data structure comprising:

a configuration file comprising configuration data for the resource;

a metadata file comprising metadata associated with the configuration data; and

a configuration wrapper for use in managing the resource,

wherein the configuration wrapper was generated with the computer system automatically based on the metadata file.

17. A management system for managing a resource within a computer system, the management system comprising:

means for storing configuration data for the resource;

means for storing metadata associated with the configuration data; and

means for managing the resource,

wherein the means for managing the resource was generated automatically based on the means for storing meta data.

18. The management system of claim 17, wherein the means for managing the resource is adapted to read and/or modify configuration data for the resource associated with the means for storing configuration data.

19. A system for generating a configuration wrapper for use in managing a resource, the resource having a configuration file, the system comprising:

an input module adapted to receive a reference to a metadata file related to the configuration file;

a mapping module adapted to store the reference in memory;

a metadata module adapted to generate one or more metadata objects in memory based on data within the metadata file;

a builder module adapted to generate one or more configuration wrapper objects in memory based on the metadata objects; and

a writer module adapted to write one or more implementation files based on the one or more configuration wrapper objects generated by the builder module,

wherein the one or more implementation files are used to implement a configuration wrapper for the resource.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the builder module and the writer module are adapted to produce configuration wrapper objects and implementation files in one or more of the following formats:

Java, C++ and XML Schema (XSD).

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising one or more additional builder and writer modules, wherein the system is adapted to output implementation files for two or more formats.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the input module is adapted to receive a mapping file comprising one or more mappings between one or more configuration files and one or more respective metadata files.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the input module is adapted to receive a mapping file comprising a plurality of mappings and the system is further adapted to generate implementation files for a plurality of configuration wrappers.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the system is adapted to generate implementation files for a plurality of configuration wrappers for managing a plurality of resources.

25. A computer-readable medium comprising program code configured to process metadata associated with configuration data for a resource within a computer system to generate a configuration wrapper for use in managing the resource.