SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR GENERATING CACHED REPRESENTATIONS OF HOST PACKAGE INVENTORIES IN REMOTE PACKAGE REPOSITORIES

• US 20110296397A1
• Filed: 05/28/2010
• Published: 12/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Antill, James, Vidal, Seth Kelby
• Granted Patent: US 8,429,256 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/171
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/658 Incremental updates; Differential updates

Abstract

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for generating cached representations of host package inventories in remote package repositories. A physical or virtual client machine can host a set of installed software packages, including operating system, application, and/or other software. A package manager installed on the client reports an inventory of the installed packages to one or more package servers. The package server(s) can receive the inventory from machines populating the managed network, and generate an encoded identification for each constituent package, such as a hash-based output based on package attributes. The encoded identification and other data can be stored to an aggregate package cache in the one or more package servers, for more efficient management of the host machines in the managed network. In embodiments, the package update files for each identifier can also be stored in the cache for even more efficient inventorying and package update operations.

Claims

1. A method of using a cached representation of package information associated with a managed network of host machines to generate package updates, comprising:

receiving an inventory of a set of installed packages of each host machine in the managed network;

aggregating the inventory of the set of installed packages on the host machines to generate a cumulative set of installed packages for the host machines of the managed network;

encoding a set of identifiers for each package in the cumulative set of installed packages;

storing the set of encoded identifiers for the cumulative set of installed packages to an aggregate package cache associated with a remote package platform; and

responding to a package update request from at least one target host in the managed network by accessing the aggregate package cache using the set of encoded identifiers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of encoded identifiers comprises a set of identifiers produced by applying a hash function to a set of attributes of the inventory of the set of installed packages of each host machine.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the set of attributes comprises at least one of a package name identifier, a package version identifier, a package epoch identifier, a package timestamp identifier, a package size identifier, a file name identifier, a file version identifier, a file timestamp identifier, or a file size identifier.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein inventory of the set of installed packages comprises at least one of an inventory of a set of installed packages or an inventory of a set of component files associated with the set of installed packages.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the responding to the update request comprises initiating a package update to the at least one target host.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising generating an update to the aggregate package cache after the package update is installed in the at least one target host.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the update to the aggregate package cache comprises an update to the set of encoded identifiers stored in the aggregate package cache based on attributes of the package update.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one target host comprises a plurality of target hosts.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the initiating a package update comprises initiating a package update to the plurality of target hosts via the aggregate package cache on a collective basis.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the host machines comprise a set of virtual machines.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the set of virtual machines is hosted in a cloud-based network.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the host machines comprise a set of hardware-based machines.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote package platform comprises at least one of a package server or a package repository.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing at least one package update in the aggregate package cache in association with at least one of the set of encoded identifiers.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing a plurality of package updates in the aggregate package cache in association with a plurality of the set of encoded identifiers.

20. A package management platform for generating package updates for host machines in a managed network using a cached representation of package information associated with the host machines, comprising:

a network interface to the host machines;

an aggregate package cache; and

a processor, communicating with the host machines via the network interface and with the aggregate package cache, processor being configured to—

receive an inventory of a set of installed packages of each host machine in the managed network,

aggregate the inventory of the set of installed packages on the host machines to generate a cumulative set of installed packages for the host machines of the managed network,

encode a set of identifiers for each package in the cumulative set of installed packages,

store the set of encoded identifiers for the cumulative set of installed packages to the aggregate package, and

respond to a package update request from at least one target host in the managed network by accessing the aggregate package cache using the set of encoded identifiers.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the responding to the update request comprises initiating a package update to the at least one target host.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the process is further configured to store at least one package update in the aggregate package cache in association with at least one of the set of encoded identifiers.