SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TRACKING CONFIGURATION CHANGES IN ENTERPRISE PRODUCT

• US 20120143821A1
• Filed: 11/19/2011
• Published: 06/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: MALLYA, Nitin, Sreeramudu, Thokala, Sagar, Vidya, Venkataramanan, Arun, Uppaiapati, Silpa, Thakkar, Dhaval, Gakhar, Nltin
• Granted Patent: US 9,059,898 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/639
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information

Abstract

In one embodiment, an automatic, remote and centralized configuration management system for tracking configuration changes in an enterprise product is provided. The system comprises at least one subsystem forming a part of the enterprise product, an agent coupled to the subsystem, the agent configured for creating one or more configuration snapshots of the subsystem and a configuration manager operably coupled to the agent, the configuration manager configured to communicate with the agent to collect the one or more configuration snapshots so as to track the configuration changes in the enterprise product.

Claims

1. A method of tracking configuration changes in an enterprise product, the method comprising:

receiving a first trigger for creating a configuration snapshot;

creating a first configuration snapshot in response to the received first trigger, the first configuration snapshot corresponding to a first time stamp;

receiving a second trigger for creating a configuration snapshot,

creating a second configuration snapshot in response to the received second trigger, the second configuration snapshot corresponding to a second time stamp;

comparing the first and second configuration snapshots to track configuration changes in the enterprise product; and

displaying the tracked configuration changes.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating an alert on tracking configuration changes in the enterprise product.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the first and second configuration snapshots in a serviceability database; and

retrieving the first and second configuration snapshots from the serviceability database.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each configuration snapshot comprises one or more configuration values.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining the validity of the configuration values; and

generating a notification upon determining invalidity of the configuration values.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the configuration values comprise at least one of static and dynamic configuration values.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising collecting audit information about the configuration snapshot.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the serviceability database is located remotely from the enterprise product.

9. The system of claim 1, Wherein the trigger generated is one of a scheduled, manual and event based trigger.

10. An automatic, remote and centralized configuration management system for tracking configuration changes in an enterprise product, the system comprising:

at least one subsystem forming a part of the enterprise product;

an agent coupled to the subsystem, the agent configured for creating one or more configuration snapshots of the subsystem; and

a configuration manager operably coupled to the agent, the configuration manager configured to communicate with the agent to collect the one or more configuration snapshots so as to track the configuration changes in the enterprise product.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein a first agent is coupled to a first subsystem and a second agent is coupled to a second subsystem and wherein the first agent and the second agent communicate with the configuration manager through a standard interface.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first agent and the second agent communicate with the configuration manager using communication protocols comprising JMX and web services.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the configuration manager is further configured for storing the first and second configuration snapshots in a serviceability database.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the enterprise product is set up in one of environments comprising production, test and training.

15. The system of claim 10, further comprising a configuration management user interface coupled to the configuration manager.