SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RECORDING COLLABORATIVE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROCESSES IN AN INTELLIGENT WORKLOAD MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20110126099A1
• Filed: 03/16/2010
• 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: Golan, Jonathan, Wipfel, Robert, Anderson, Eric W. B.
• Granted Patent: US 8,543,916 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/704
• 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 recording collaborative information technology processes 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 include one or more data structures that converge information describing interaction between managed entities and content that may relate to such interaction in time-ordered series of events. The time-ordered event stream may then be replayed in a real-time stream to remediate, roll back, or otherwise analyze the collaborative information technology processes.

Claims

1. A system for recording collaborative information technology processes 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 management infrastructure that manages one or more collaborative information technology processes that include interaction between an information technology infrastructure and a client device that a human operator interacts with to solve an observable problem in the information technology infrastructure, wherein the management infrastructure is configured to;

establish a virtual team that has one or more members, wherein the members of the virtual team include the human operator and one or more of the plurality of managed entities;

monitor collaboration between the members of the virtual team, wherein the monitored collaboration includes troubleshooting activity that occurs during the interaction between the information technology infrastructure and the client device that the human operator interacts with to solve the observable problem; and

record the monitored collaboration between the members of the virtual team, including the troubleshooting activity that occurs during the interaction, in a data structure, wherein the data structure records the monitored collaboration in a time-ordered event stream.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the collaboration between the members of the virtual team further includes one or more of the members of the virtual team, the management infrastructure, or the client device interacting with one another, interacting with shared content, or interacting with one or more resources in the information technology infrastructure.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the client device executes an application configured to record the time-ordered event stream into the data structure or replay the time-ordered event stream recorded in the data structure.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the application is further configured to replay the time-ordered event stream in a real-time video or drive the troubleshooting activity on one or more of the client device or the management infrastructure.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the client device executes the application configured to replay the time-ordered event stream recorded in the data structure in response to receiving a request to perform an information technology process having similar characteristics to the collaboration recorded in the data structure.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to:

monitor the information technology process having the similar characteristics to the collaboration recorded in the replayed time-ordered event stream;

record, in a second data structure, the monitored information technology process having the similar characteristics to the collaboration recorded in the replayed time-ordered event stream; and

generate a conformity report that indicates whether the monitored information technology process recorded in the second data structure conforms to the collaboration recorded in the replayed time-ordered event stream.

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

analyze the time-ordered event stream recorded in the data structure; and

determine whether the collaboration recorded in the data structure violates one or more policies.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to roll back one or more information technology processes performed during the collaboration recorded in the data structure in response to determining that the recorded collaboration violates one or more of the policies.

9. A method for recording collaborative information technology processes 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; and

managing, by a management infrastructure, one or more collaborative information technology processes that include interaction between an information technology infrastructure and a client device that a human operator interacts with to solve an observable problem in the information technology infrastructure, wherein managing the collaborative information technology processes includes;

establishing a virtual team that has one or more members, wherein the members of the virtual team include the human operator and one or more of the plurality of managed entities;

monitoring collaboration between the members of the virtual team, wherein the monitored collaboration includes troubleshooting activity that occurs during the interaction between the information technology infrastructure and the client device that the human operator interacts with to solve the observable problem; and

recording the monitored collaboration between the members of the virtual team, including the troubleshooting activity that occurs during the interaction, in a data structure, wherein the data structure records the monitored collaboration in a time=ordered event stream.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the collaboration between the members of the virtual team further includes one or more of the members of the virtual team, the management infrastructure, or the client device interacting with one another, interacting with shared content, or interacting with one or more resources in the information technology infrastructure.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising executing, at the client device, an application configured to record the time-ordered event stream into the data structure or replay the time-ordered event stream recorded in the data structure.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the application is further configured to replay the time-ordered event stream in a real-time video or drive the troubleshooting activity on one or more of the client device or the management infrastructure.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the client device executes the application configured to replay the time-ordered event stream recorded in the data structure in response to receiving a request to perform an information technology process having similar characteristics to the collaboration recorded in the data structure.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

monitoring the information technology process having the similar characteristics to the collaboration recorded in the replayed time-ordered event stream;

recording, in a second data structure, the monitored information technology process having the similar characteristics to the collaboration recorded in the replayed time-ordered event stream; and

generating a conformity report that indicates whether the monitored information technology process recorded in the second data structure conforms to the collaboration recorded in the replayed time-ordered event stream.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

analyzing the time-ordered event stream recorded in the data structure; and

determining whether the collaboration recorded in the data structure violates one or more policies.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising rolling back one or more information technology processes performed during the collaboration recorded in the data structure in response to determining that the recorded collaboration violates one or more of the policies.

17. A method for recording diagnostic processes in an intelligent workload management system, comprising:

detecting one or more predefined diagnostic operations performed at a client device, wherein the diagnostic operations are predefined in one or more policies;

monitoring troubleshooting activity performed at the client device in response to detecting the predefined diagnostic operations, wherein the monitored troubleshooting activity includes at least the predefined diagnostic operations; and

recording the monitored troubleshooting activity performed at the client device in a data structure, wherein the data structure records the monitored troubleshooting activity in a time-ordered event stream.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving, at a help desk system, a trouble ticket request from the client device, wherein the trouble ticket request identifies one or more problems observed by a human operator interacting with the client device;

retrieving, by the help desk system, the monitored troubleshooting activity recorded in the data structure, wherein the help desk system references the time-ordered event stream recorded in the data structure to resolve the one or more problems; and

updating the data structure to record collaboration between the help desk system and the client device that the human operator interacts with, wherein the recorded collaboration includes interaction between the help desk system and the client device to solve the observed problems.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving another trouble ticket request from another client device, wherein the other trouble ticket request identifies at least one problem having similar characteristics to the one or more problems observed by the human operator; and

executing an application that replays the time-ordered event stream recorded in the data structure in response to determining that the collaboration recorded in the updated data structure successfully solved the observed problems.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

monitoring patterns of activity in an information technology infrastructure;

identifying one or more information technology processes in the monitored patterns of activity that are indicative of self-diagnostic operations; and

generating one or more new policies that define additional diagnostic operations, wherein the additional diagnostic operations defined in the new policies include the identified information technology processes that are indicative of the self-diagnostic operations.