COMPONENT AND DEPENDENCY DISCOVERY

• US 20100241690A1
• Filed: 03/20/2009
• Published: 09/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Coelho, Alexandre A., Kurapati, Venkata Seshu Kumar, Sudhakar, Rajeev, Ganesan, Anandha K., Mahajan, Dhananjay M., Letca, Ilarie G.
• Application Number:
  US12/407,793
• Publication Number:
  US 20100241690A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/08 Configuration management of networks or network elements address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/085 Retrieval of network configuration; Tracking network configuration history
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1042 using topology management mechanisms

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer-readable media are disclosed for discovering components and dependencies in a distributed computing environment. A particular method includes discovering a first component and a second component of a distributed computing environment, where the first component and the second component are associated with different discoverable technologies. Each component is discovered based on a match between a characteristic of the component and a technology specification associated with the discoverable technology. The method also includes discovering a dependency between the first component and the second component.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

discovering a first component of a distributed computing environment, the first component associated with a first discoverable technology of a plurality of discoverable technologies, wherein the first component is discovered based on a first match between a characteristic of the first component and a first technology specification, the first technology specification associated with the first discoverable technology;

discovering a second component of the distributed computing environment, the second component associated with a second discoverable technology of the plurality of discoverable technologies that is different from the first discoverable technology, wherein the second component is discovered based on a second match between a characteristic of the second component and a second technology specification, the second technology specification associated with the second discoverable technology; and

discovering a dependency between the first component and the second component.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of discoverable technologies includes Java, .NET, Unix-based technologies, Windows-based technologies, Internet Information Services (IIS), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), or any combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first technology specification comprises one or more properties associated with the first discoverable technology and the second technology specification comprises one or more properties associated with the second discoverable technology.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one property associated with the first discoverable technology or at least one property associated with the second discoverable technology is associated with a technology standard.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first technology specification or the second technology specification is represented in extensible markup language (XML).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first match comprises a match between metadata associated with the first component and the first technology specification, the metadata associated with the first component including the characteristic of the first component;

and wherein the second match comprises a match between metadata associated with the second component and the second technology specification, the metadata associated with the second component including the characteristic of the second component.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the metadata associated with the first component includes metadata of one or more configuration files associated with the first component and the metadata associated with the second component includes metadata of one or more configuration files associated with the second component.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein discovering the dependency between the first component and the second component includes monitoring one or more messages between the first component and the second component.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more messages are monitored at a technology specific interceptor.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more messages comprise one or more packets and wherein monitoring the one or more messages includes disassembling and reassembling the one or more packets at the technology specific interceptor.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating dependency data related to the dependency between the first component and the second component to a storage service, wherein the storage service stores the dependency data to one or more storage locations.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the dependency data is stored in response to determining that the dependency data includes data that has not been previously stored.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more storage locations include dependency data corresponding to a dependency of a component that has been removed from the distributed computing environment.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of technology specifications are stored in a technology specification database, the method further comprising adding a new technology to the plurality of discoverable technologies by adding a new technology specification associated with the new technology to the technology specification database.

15. A system comprising:

a discovery manager configured to;

generate one or more crawlers, wherein each crawler is configured to discover one or more components of a distributed computing environment based on a comparison of metadata associated with the one or more components to a plurality of technology specifications; and

initiate discovery of the one or more components of the distributed computing environment by invoking the one or more crawlers; and

a dependency manager configured to;

receive dependency data from a plurality of technology specific interceptors, wherein each technology specific interceptor is configured to discover dependencies of a particular component of the distributed computing environment by intercepting messages sent or received by the particular component of the distributed computing environment; and

send dependency data to a storage service.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the discovery manager is further configured to send discovery data to a management module, wherein the dependency manager is further configured to send the dependency data to the management module, and wherein the management module is configured to generate a management view of the distributed computing environment based on the discovery data and based on the dependency data.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the discovery data and the dependency data are represented in extensible markup language (XML), and wherein generating the management view includes performing an extensible stylesheet language transformation (XSLT) on the discovery data and mapping the dependency data onto the management view.

18. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions, that when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

discover a plurality of components of a distributed application by crawling metadata associated with the distributed application and comparing the crawled metadata to a plurality of technology specifications, wherein each of the plurality of components is associated with a particular technology of a plurality of technologies and wherein each of the plurality of technologies has an associated technology specification of the plurality of technology specifications;

generate discovery data based on at least one of the discovered plurality of components;

discover a dependency between a first component and a second component by intercepting messages between the first component and the second component at a technology specific interceptor;

generate dependency data based on the discovered dependency between the first component and the second component; and

create a view of the distributed application based on the discovery data and based on the dependency data, wherein the view identifies the discovered plurality of components, the technology associated with each of the discovered plurality of components, and the discovered dependency between the first component and the second component.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the view of the distributed application is a graphical view.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the plurality of components includes a web service, a web client, a web server, an application server, a database server, or any combination thereof.