Environment Wide Configuration System

• US 20100058105A1
• Filed: 08/28/2008
• Published: 03/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Jackson, Michael W., Purchase, Gary J., Sarma, Kanchuki, Brown, Jeremy D., Tremblay, Edward K., Garbis, Christer, Spence, Jeanine E., Sonkin, Dmitry, Hallock, Joseph W., Kool-Brown, Eric C., Lubrecht, Michael D., Coleman, Kenneth P., Greisen, Marc
• Granted Patent: US 8,151,273 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0715 in a system implementing multitasking multitasking per se G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5017 Task decomposition
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system

Abstract

An installation and configuration system consolidates workloads of multiple applications and services, including applications or services that may be installed or configured on multiple server devices or remotely hosted services. The system gathers environmental information, analyzes dependencies among the workloads, and populates the input data used by the workloads from a common database. The system then executes the workloads, allowing branching within the workloads or the sequence of workloads. An example of branching may include detecting an error condition, pausing the sequence, and presenting alternative fixes to a user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a plurality of workloads, each of said workloads comprising at least one task, said task comprising a task definition conforming to a task schema;

for at least one of said workloads, identifying at least one input parameter to said workload;

for at least one of said workloads, identifying at least one dependency to another of said workloads;

performing an environmental scan to determine a value for said at least one input parameter;

determining a sequence of said tasks based at least in part on said dependencies; and

causing said tasks to be performed according to said sequence.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining that an error has occurred in a first task;

pausing at least a portion of said sequence; and

determining a corrective action that may be performed in response to said error.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

presenting an option for said corrective action on a user interface, said corrective action to be performed after receiving a user input from said user interface.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

causing said corrective action to be performed without user interaction.

5. The method of claim 1, said environment scan comprising:

taking at least a partial inventory of locally installed applications.

6. The method of claim 1, said environment scan comprising:

taking at least a partial inventory of locally executing services.

7. The method of claim 1, said environment scan comprising:

taking at least a partial inventory of services available across a network.

8. The method of claim 1, said environment scan comprising:

determining at least one parameter from a remotely hosted service.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

obtaining at least one of said input parameters from a status database, said status database being populated at least in part by user input.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

determining a first input parameter value from a result of a first task and storing said first input parameter value in said status database.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

determining that said result is an input parameter to a second task, said second task being later in said sequence to said first task; and

using said first input parameter value as said input parameter to said second task.

12. The method of claim 1, at least one of said workloads comprising configuration of a remotely hosted service.

13. The method of claim 1, at least one of said workloads comprising installation of an application on a remote device.

14. A system comprising:

a workload gathering mechanism configured to receive a plurality of workloads, each of said workload comprising at least one task;

a sequencing mechanism configured to identify at least one dependency between a first workload and a second workload, and determine a sequence for said workloads using said at least one dependency;

a data population mechanism configured to identify at least one input parameter for at least one of said workloads, and for each of said input parameters, determine a value and populate said input parameter with said value; and

a task execution mechanism configured to cause each of said tasks to be performed based on said sequence.

15. The system of claim 14 further comprising:

a user interface; and

a status database configured to store at least one value for at least one of said input parameters.

16. The system of claim 15, said task execution mechanism further configured to:

determine a value for a first input parameter as a result of causing a first task to be performed and store said value in said status database;

determine that a second task has said first input parameter; and

cause said first input parameter of said second task to use said value when said second task is performed.

17. The system of claim 14 further comprising:

a fault analysis system configured to receive an error from one of said tasks, determine a potential remedial action for said error, and present said error on a user interface.

18. A method comprising:

receiving a plurality of workloads, each of said workloads comprising at least one task and define at least one configuration step for a configurable software entity;

for at least one of said workloads, identifying at least one input parameter to said workload;

for at least one of said workloads, identifying at least one dependency to another of said workloads;

for at least one of said workloads, populating at least one input parameter from a status database;

performing an environmental scan to determine a value for said at least one input parameter, said environmental scan being performed across a local device and at least one device accessed through a network;

determining a sequence of said tasks based at least in part on said dependencies; and

causing said tasks to be performed according to said sequence.

19. The method of claim 18, said environmental scan comprising collecting at least one software parameter and at least one hardware parameter.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

identifying a plurality of input parameters; and

prior to said causing said tasks to be performed, for each of said plurality of input parameters, receiving a value for said input parameter from a user interface and storing said value in said status database.