SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MODELS IN AN INTELLIGENT WORKLOAD MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20110126047A1
• Filed: 03/19/2010
• Published: 05/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus Software, Inc. (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Westerfeld, Kurt, Wipfel, Robert, Anderson, Eric W. B.
• Granted Patent: US 9,191,380 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0807 using tickets, e.g. Kerberos cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using tickets or tokens H04L9/3213
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 providing single-sign-on or federations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/14 for detecting or protecting against malicious traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3213 using tickets or tokens, e.g. Kerberos network architectures or network communication protocols for entities authentication using tickets in a packet data network H04L63/0807

Abstract

The system and method described herein for managing information technology models in an intelligent workload management system may include a computing environment having a model-driven, service-oriented architecture for creating collaborative threads to manage workloads. In particular, the management threads may converge information for managing planned changes and recovery processes for version-controlled snapshots of the information technology models. For example, a discovery engine may enrich models of an infrastructure with identity information obtained from an identity vault and the infrastructure itself, and a management infrastructure may then manage planned changes to the infrastructure model. In particular, the management infrastructure may construct implementation plans that coordinate interaction between managed entities to implement the planned changes, and may further detect drifts between operational states and planned states for the infrastructure models.

Claims

1. A system for managing information technology models in an intelligent workload management system, comprising:

an identity vault that stores federated information defining unique identities for a plurality of managed entities across a plurality of authentication domains;

a discovery engine that populates a model of an information technology infrastructure and enriches the model of the information technology infrastructure with the federated information stored in the identity vault and identity information obtained from the information technology infrastructure; and

a management infrastructure that manages one or more planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the management infrastructure is configured to;

construct an implementation plan for the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the implementation plan includes an approval workflow that coordinates interaction between one or more human approvers and one or more of the plurality of managed entities;

manage the implementation plan constructed for the planned changes, wherein managing the implementation plan includes coordinating the interaction between the one or more human approvers and the one or more of the plurality of managed entities to implement the planned changes in the information technology infrastructure;

capture a snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure in response to implementing the planned changes in the information technology infrastructure;

compare the snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure to the operational state for the information technology infrastructure; and

detect a real-time drift in the operational state for the information technology infrastructure in response to determining that the operational state for the information technology infrastructure does not conform to the snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to:

validate the operational state for the information technology infrastructure in response to determining that the operational state for the information technology infrastructure conforms to the snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure;

identify a location of the real-time drift in the operational state for the information technology infrastructure in response to determining that the operational state for the information technology infrastructure does not conform to the snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure;

create a real-time remediation workload to recover from the real-time drift in the operational state for the information technology infrastructure, wherein the real-time remediation workload includes a recovery workflow that the one or more human approvers interact with to recover the operational state for the information technology infrastructure to a previously validated state of the information technology infrastructure; and

execute the recovery workflow in the real-time remediation workload, wherein the one or more human approvers interact with the executed recovery workflow to roll back one or more changes that occurred in the information technology infrastructure during a time interval between the previously validated state and the drifted operational state of the information technology infrastructure

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to:

validate the operational state for the information technology infrastructure in response to determining that the operational state for the information technology infrastructure conforms to the snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure;

identify a location of the real-time drift in the operational state for the information technology infrastructure in response to determining that the operational state for the information technology infrastructure does not conform to the snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure;

create a real-time remediation workload to recover from the real-time drift in the operational state for the information technology infrastructure, wherein the real-time remediation workload includes a recovery workflow that the one or more human approvers interact with to implement one or more changes to the information technology infrastructure; and

execute the recovery workflow in the real-time remediation workload, wherein the one or more human approvers interact with the executed recovery workflow to cause the operational state for the information technology infrastructure to conform to the snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to:

determine that the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure violate one or more policies, wherein the implementation plan modifies one or more of the planned changes for compliance with the violated policies;

determine that the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure competes with one or more other planned changes to model of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the implementation plan modifies one or more of a schedule or a priority for the planned changes or the other planned changes to resolve the competition between the planned changes and the other planned changes; and

determine that the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure interfere with availability or performance for one or more resources in the information technology infrastructure, wherein the implementation plan modifies one or more of the planned changes to resolve the interference with the availability or the performance for the one or more resources.

5. A system for managing information technology models in an intelligent workload management system, comprising:

an identity vault that stores federated information defining unique identities for a plurality of managed entities across a plurality of authentication domains;

a discovery engine that populates a model of an information technology infrastructure and enriches the model of the information technology infrastructure with the federated information stored in the identity vault and identity information obtained from the information technology infrastructure; and

a management infrastructure that manages one or more planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the management infrastructure is configured to;

construct an implementation plan for the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the implementation plan includes an approval workflow that coordinates interaction between one or more human approvers and one or more of the plurality of managed entities;

manage the implementation plan constructed for the planned changes, wherein managing the implementation plan includes coordinating the interaction between the one or more human approvers and the one or more of the plurality of managed entities to implement the planned changes in the information technology infrastructure; and

capture a snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure in response to implementing the planned changes in the information technology infrastructure.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to determine that the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure violate one or more policies, wherein the implementation plan modifies one or more of the planned changes for compliance with the violated policies.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to determine that the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure competes with one or more other planned changes to model of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the implementation plan modifies one or more of a schedule or a priority for the planned changes or the other planned changes to resolve the competition between the planned changes and the other planned changes.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to determine that the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure interfere with availability or performance for one or more resources in the information technology infrastructure, wherein the implementation plan modifies one or more of the planned changes to resolve the interference with the availability or the performance for the one or more resources.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the discovery engine further populates the model of the information technology infrastructure with an operational state discovered for the information technology infrastructure, and wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to:

compare the snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure to the operational state for the information technology infrastructure;

detect a real-time drift in the operational state for the information technology infrastructure in response to determining that the operational state for the information technology infrastructure does not conform to the snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure; and

validate the operational state for the information technology infrastructure in response to determining that the operational state for the information technology infrastructure conforms to the snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to:

identify a location of the real-time drift in the operational state for the information technology infrastructure in response to determining that the operational state for the information technology infrastructure does not conform to the snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure; and

manage a real-time remediation workload to recover from the real-time drift in the operational state for the information technology infrastructure.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the real-time remediation workload includes a recovery workflow that the one or more human approvers interact with to recover the operational state for the information technology infrastructure to a previously validated state of the information technology infrastructure, and wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to execute the recovery workflow in the real-time remediation workload, wherein the one or more human approvers interact with the executed recovery workflow to roll back one or more changes that occurred in the information technology infrastructure during a time interval between the previously validated state and the drifted operational state of the information technology infrastructure.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the real-time remediation workload includes a recovery workflow that the one or more human approvers interact with to implement one or more changes to the information technology infrastructure, and wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to execute the recovery workflow in the real-time remediation workload, wherein the one or more human approvers interact with the executed recovery workflow to cause the operational state for the information technology infrastructure to conform to the snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure.

13. A method for managing information technology models in an intelligent workload management system, comprising:

storing, in an identity vault, federated information defining unique identities for a plurality of managed entities across a plurality of authentication domains;

populating, by a discovery engine, a model of an information technology infrastructure, wherein the discovery engine enriches the model of the information technology infrastructure with the federated information stored in the identity vault and identity information obtained from the information technology infrastructure; and

managing, by a management infrastructure, one or more planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure, wherein managing the planned changes includes;

constructing an implementation plan for the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the implementation plan includes an approval workflow that coordinates interaction between one or more human approvers and one or more of the plurality of managed entities;

managing the implementation plan constructed for the planned changes, wherein managing the implementation plan includes coordinating the interaction between the one or more human approvers and the one or more of the plurality of managed entities to implement the planned changes in the information technology infrastructure; and

capturing a snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure in response to implementing the planned changes in the information technology infrastructure.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein managing the planned changes further includes determining that the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure violate one or more policies, wherein the implementation plan modifies one or more of the planned changes for compliance with the violated policies.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein managing the planned changes further includes determining that the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure competes with one or more other planned changes to model of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the implementation plan modifies one or more of a schedule or a priority for the planned changes or the other planned changes to resolve the competition between the planned changes and the other planned changes.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein managing the planned changes further includes determining that the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure interfere with availability or performance for one or more resources in the information technology infrastructure, wherein the implementation plan modifies one or more of the planned changes to resolve the interference with the availability or the performance for the one or more resources.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the discovery engine further populates the model of the information technology infrastructure with an operational state discovered for the information technology infrastructure, and wherein managing the planned changes further includes:

comparing the snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure to the operational state for the information technology infrastructure;

detecting a real-time drift in the operational state for the information technology infrastructure in response to determining that the operational state for the information technology infrastructure does not conform to the snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure; and

validating the operational state for the information technology infrastructure in response to determining that the operational state for the information technology infrastructure conforms to the snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein managing the planned changes further includes:

identifying a location of the real-time drift in the operational state for the information technology infrastructure in response to determining that the operational state for the information technology infrastructure does not conform to the snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure; and

managing a real-time remediation workload to recover from the real-time drift in the operational state for the information technology infrastructure.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the real-time remediation workload includes a recovery workflow that the one or more human approvers interact with to recover the operational state for the information technology infrastructure to a previously validated state of the information technology infrastructure, and wherein the one or more human approvers interact with the recovery workflow to roll back one or more changes that occurred in the information technology infrastructure during a time interval between the previously validated state and the drifted operational state of the information technology infrastructure.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the real-time remediation workload includes a recovery workflow that the one or more human operators interact with to implement one or more changes to the information technology infrastructure, and wherein the one or more human approvers interact with the recovery workflow to cause the operational state for the information technology infrastructure to conform to the snapshot of the planned information technology infrastructure.