SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR TRACKING A HISTORY OF CHANGES ASSOCIATED WITH SOFTWARE PACKAGES AND CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT IN A COMPUTING SYSTEM

• US 20110055544A1
• Filed: 08/31/2009
• Published: 03/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Antill, James, Likins, Adrian Karstan, Vidal, Seth Kelby, Dehaan, Michael Paul
• Granted Patent: US 8,316,224 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management

Abstract

In order to track actions performed by a package manager or a configuration management system, a computing system can be configured to include a tagging tool. The tagging tool can be configured to cooperate with the package manager and the configuration management system in order to determine and generate a history of the actions performed by the package manager and the configuration management system. The history can include a description of the actions, the reasons why the actions were performed, and a list and description of the software programs, files, and software libraries that are affected by the actions.

Claims

1. A method for tracking a history of software changes, comprising:

acquiring information describing a change in a configuration of a computing system;

extracting specific information from the information describing the change, the specific information comprising a description of the change, a reason for the change, and an identification of at least one other item affected by the change; and

storing the specific information in a computer readable storage medium of the computing system.

2. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

receiving a request for a set of the specific information;

retrieving the set of the specific information based on the request from the computer readable storage medium; and

providing the set of the specific information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein providing the set of the specific information comprises:

providing the set of the specific information in a graphical user interface.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information describing the change comprises at least one of metadata for installing a software package, information from a package manager describing the change, information provided by a user of the computing system, and information provided by a configuration management system describing the change.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein acquiring the information comprises:

receiving the information describing the change from a configuration management system that caused the change.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein acquiring the information comprises:

providing an interface to receive information about the change from a user of the computing system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one other item affected by the change comprises at least one of a software program, a file, and a software library.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the specific information comprises:

storing the description of the change, the reason for the change, the description of the at least one other item affected by the change, and a unique identification for the change in a first record; and

storing the description of the change, the reason for the change, and the unique identification for the change in a second record associated with at least one item affected by the change.

9. A computer readable storage medium comprising instructions for causing a processing system to perform a method, comprising:

acquiring information describing a change in a configuration of a computing system;

extracting specific information from the information describing the change, the specific information comprising a description of the change, a reason for the change, and an identification of at least one other item affected by the change; and

storing the specific information in a computer readable storage medium of the computing system.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, the method further comprising:

receiving a request for a set of the specific information;

retrieving the set of the specific information based on the request from the computer readable storage medium; and

providing the set of the specific information.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein providing the set of the specific information comprises:

providing the set of the specific information in a graphical user interface.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the information describing the change comprises at least one of metadata for installing a software package, information from a package manager describing the change, information provided by a user of the computing system, and information from a configuration management system describing the change.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein acquiring the information comprises:

receiving the information describing the change from a configuration management system that caused the change.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein acquiring the information comprises:

providing an interface to receive information about the change from a user of the computing system.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the at least one other item affected by the change comprises at least one of a software program, a file, and a software library.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein storing the specific information comprises:

storing the description of the change, the reason for the change, the description of the at least one other item affected by the change, and a unique identification for the change in a first record; and

storing the description of the change, the reason for the change, and the unique identification for the change in a second record associated with at least one item affected by the change.

17. A system for tracking a history of software changes, comprising:

a computer readable storage medium; and

a processor, communicating with the computing readable and configured to execute a configuration management tool and a tagging tool, wherein the configuration management tool is configured to

perform a change in a configuration of the system, and

wherein the tagging tool is configured to

acquire information describing the change in the configuration;

extract specific information from the information describing the change, the specific information comprising a description of the change, a reason for the change, and an identification of at least one other item affected by the change; and

store the specific information in the computer readable storage medium.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising a display communicating with the processor, wherein the tagging tool is further configured to

provide an interface to the display to receive information about the change from a user.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the tagging tool is further configured to

receive the information describing the change from the configuration management tool.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the tagging tool is further configured to

store the description of the change, the reason for the change, the description of the at least one other item affected by the change, and a unique identification for the change in a first record;

and

store the description of the change, the reason for the change, and the unique identification for the change in a second record associated with at least one item affected by the change.