CONFIGURATION ITEM RECONCILIATION

• US 20110153558A1
• Filed: 12/23/2009
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Nahum, Nimrod, TUBMAN, Olga
• Application Number:
  US12/646,069
• Publication Number:
  US 20110153558A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/609
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/085 Retrieval of network configuration; Tracking network configuration history

Abstract

Systems, methods and computer-readable storage media or provided for reconciling an input configuration item (“CI”) with one or more existing CIs, each CI representing an entity on a computer network. An existing CI may be identified as a potential equivalent to the input CI where a first attribute of the existing CI has a value that matches a value of a first attribute of the input CI. The existing CI may be eliminated as a potential equivalent, however, where a comparison of a value of a second attribute of the existing CI with a value of a second attribute of the input CI indicates a mismatch.

Claims

1. A method of reconciling an input configuration item (“

CI”

) with one or more existing CIs, each CI representing an entity on a computer network, comprising;

identifying an existing CI as a potential equivalent to the input CI where a first attribute of the existing CI has a value that matches a value of a first attribute of the input CI; and

eliminating the existing CI as a potential equivalent where a comparison of a value of a second attribute of the existing CI with a value of a second attribute of the input CI indicates a mismatch.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising comparing a value of a third attribute of the existing CI with a value of a third attribute of the input CI where the comparison of the values of the second attributes indicates a match or one of the existing CI and the input CI has an empty value for the second attribute.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising eliminating the existing CI as a potential equivalent where the comparison of the values of the third attributes indicates a mismatch.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising comparing a value of a fourth attribute of the existing CI with a value of a fourth attribute of the input CI where the comparison of the values of the third attributes indicates a match or one of the existing CI and the input CI has an empty value for the third attribute.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising identifying the existing CI as an equivalent to the input CI where the comparison of the values of the third attributes indicates a match.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising updating attributes of the existing CI with attributes of the input CI.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first attribute is one of a hardware ID and a host name.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first attribute is one of a MAC address and an IP address.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the values of the first attributes match based on a contain operator.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the second attribute is an operating system.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the third attribute is one of a hardware ID and a host name.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the third attribute is one of a MAC address and an IP address.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the values of the third attributes match based on a contain operator.

14. The method of claim 6, further comprising merging, with the existing CI, a second existing CI that is identified as an equivalent to the input CI where:

one of the existing CIs identified as equivalent to the input CI has a second attribute with a value that either matches the value of the second attribute of the other of the existing CIs, or that is empty; and

the second existing CI has a third attribute with a value that matches the value of the third attribute of the existing CI.

15. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions for reconciling an input CI with one or more existing CIs, the instructions causing a processor to perform steps comprising:

identifying an existing CI as a potential equivalent to the input CI where a first attribute of the existing CI has a value that matches a value of a first attribute of the input CI;

eliminating the existing CI as a potential equivalent where a comparison of a value of a second attribute of the existing CI to a value of a second attribute of the input CI indicates a mismatch; and

comparing a value of a third attribute of the existing CI to a value of a third attribute of the input CI where the comparison of the values of the second attributes indicates a match or one of the existing CI and the input CI has an empty value for the second attribute.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, further including computer-executable instructions for comparing a value of a fourth attribute of the existing CI with a value of a fourth attribute of the input CI where one of the existing CI and the input CI has an empty value for the third attribute.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, further including computer-executable instructions for:

identifying the existing CI as an equivalent to the input CI where the comparison of the values of the third attributes indicates a match; and

updating attributes of the existing CI with attributes of the input CI.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the first attribute is one of a hardware ID, a host name, a MAC address and an IP address.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, further including computer-executable instructions for merging, with the existing CI, a second existing CI that is identified as an equivalent to the input CI where:

one of the existing CIs identified as equivalent to the input CI has a second attribute with a value that either matches the value of the second attribute of the other existing CI, or that is empty; and

the second existing CI has a third attribute with a value that matches the value of the third attribute of the existing CI.

20. A computer system for reconciling an input CI with one or more existing CIs, the computer system being configured to:

identify an existing CI as a potential equivalent to the input CI where a first attribute of the existing CI has a value that matches a value of a first attribute of the input CI;

eliminate the existing CI as a potential equivalent where a comparison of a value of a second attribute of the existing CI with a value of a second attribute of the input CI indicates a mismatch;

compare a value of a third attribute of the existing CI with a value of a third attribute of the input CI where the comparison of the values of the second attributes indicates a match or one of the existing CI and the input CI has an empty value for the second attribute;

identify the existing CI as an equivalent to the input CI where the comparison of the values of the third attributes indicates a match or one of the existing CI and the input CI has an empty value for the third attribute;

update attributes of the existing CI with attributes of the input CI; and

merge, with the existing CI, a second existing CI that is identified as an equivalent to the input CI.