Business service discovery

• US 20100191555A1
• Filed: 01/29/2009
• Published: 07/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus LLC (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Shmul, Emil
• Granted Patent: US 8,381,167 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A business service discovery (BSD) system, implemented as programming on a processor, provides for discovering, formatting, and storing configuration information related to a business service. The BSD system uses a discovery engine to create a search methodology used for discovering the configuration information. The discovery engine controls a number of discovery components, each of which includes a definition of a corresponding BSD class model. The BSD system further includes a universal configuration management database (uCMDB) graph engine that creates a uCMDB graph representing a system discovered by the discovery component, and an input module that receives hints and conditions related to one or more elements of the business service, wherein a completed discovery search produces a business service structure.

Claims

1. A business service discovery (BSD) system, implemented as programming on a processor, for discovering, formatting, and storing configuration information related to a business service, comprising:

an input module capable of receiving hints and conditions related to nodes in the business service;

a discovery engine, coupled to the input module, that receives the hints and conditions related to a system underlying the business service and creates a corresponding search methodology; and

a plurality of discovery components, under control of the discovery engine, wherein a discovery component comprises;

a definition of a corresponding BSD class model,

an application signature definition, and

a universal configuration management database (uCMDB) graph engine that creates a uCMDB graph representing a system discovered by the discovery component.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a uCMDB in which a business service structure is stored.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a template module coupled to the discovery engine, wherein the template module comprises search templates useable by the discovery engine to create the search methodology.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the discovery engine determines which element of the business service is provided with the most specific hints or conditions.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the discovery engine begins the discovery search at the element with the most specific hints or conditions.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the discovery engine begins the discovery search by dispatching an appropriate discovery component to the element with the most specific hints or conditions.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the discovery component discovers attribute data for the element with the most specific hints or conditions.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the hints or conditions comprise Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, DNS names, and URLs.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the BSD class model comprises BSD classes wherein each BSD class has a matching discovery component, and wherein the discovery component discovers a corresponding system and produces an instance of its matching BSD class.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the discovery component receives the Internet Protocol (IP) address and credentials of an element to complete discovery of that element.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the discovery component uses the application signature to determine if the IP hosts the system, and wherein if the IP does not host the system, the discovery component ends the discovery search.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the discovery component, after discovering a first element, expands the discovery search to adjacent elements by discovering each link connecting the first element to each of the adjacent elements.

13. A method, implemented on a processor, for discovering and storing a business service structure, comprising:

receiving hints or conditions for one or more elements of the business service structure;

using the received hints or conditions, determining an element of the business service structure that is most explicitly defined;

selecting a search component appropriate for the most explicitly defined element and dispatching the search component to discover the element, wherein discovering the element comprises;

applying an application signature definition to the element,

determining if the IP hosts the element, and

determining links from the element to adjacent elements;

generating a graph of the element;

selecting an adjacent element and repeating the discovery process on the adjacent element; and

continuing the adjacent element selection and discovery until all elements are discovered, wherein a graph of the business service structure is created.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising storing the graph in a configuration management database.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the hints or conditions comprise Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, DNS names, and URLs.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the business service structure conforms to a business service discovery (BSD) model having a plurality of BSD classes, wherein each BSD class has a matching discovery component, and wherein the discovery component discovers a corresponding system and produces an instance of its matching BSD class.

17. A computer program product comprising code executable by a processor, the code when executed providing a method for discovering and storing a business service structure, comprising:

receiving hints or conditions for one or more elements of the business service structure;

using the received hints or conditions, determining an element of the business service structure that is most explicitly defined;

selecting a search component appropriate for the most explicitly defined element and dispatching the search component to discover the element, wherein discovering the element comprises;

applying an application signature definition to the element,

determining if the IP hosts the element, and

determining links from the element to adjacent elements;

generating a graph of the element;

selecting an adjacent element and repeating the discovery process on the adjacent element; and

continuing the adjacent element selection and discovery until all elements are discovered, wherein a graph of the business service structure is created.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising storing the graph in a configuration management database.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the hints or conditions comprise Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, DNS names, and URLs.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the business service structure conforms to a business service discovery (BSD) model having a plurality of BSD classes, wherein each BSD class has a matching discovery component, and wherein the discovery component discovers a corresponding system and produces an instance of its matching BSD class.