FORMING AN UPGRADE RECOMMENDATION IN A CLOUD COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT

• US 20150020061A1
• Filed: 07/11/2013
• Published: 01/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: RAVI, Kiran Vedula Venkata Naga
• Granted Patent: US 9,189,224 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/172
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0883 Semiautomatic configuration, e.g. proposals from system

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program product for forming cloud upgrade recommendations. The method commences by initiating an environment monitoring agent to run on a plurality of nodes within a cloud environment. The monitoring agent checks periodically for changes in the environment. When changes are detected, a process forms an upgrade recommendation, and sends the upgrade recommendation to recipients. An instance image includes a runnable copy of an environment monitoring agent, and nodes run respective instances of the environment monitoring agent. An upgrade recommendation comprises an upgrade path, which in turn includes recommendation of a processor model, or a device, and/or an operating system version, a software component, a middleware component, or a driver. The upgrade recommendation is formed based on a detected presence of at least one of, a directory on a file system, or a file on a file system or on the basis of detected port usage.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

initiating an environment monitoring agent to run on a plurality of hosts within a cloud environment;

forming an upgrade recommendation based at least in part on environment changes detected by the environment monitoring agent; and

sending the upgrade recommendation to a recipient.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the environment monitoring agent is included in an instance image.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating a wait-for event before sending a next upgrade recommendation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the upgrade recommendation comprises an upgrade path.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the upgrade path includes at least one of, a processor, a processor model, a processor stepping, or a device.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the upgrade path includes at least one of, an operating system version, a software title, a software component, a middleware component, or a device driver.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the recommendation comprises removal of a software component.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the recommendation is formed based at least in part on a detected presence of at least one of, a directory on a file system, or a file on a file system.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the recommendation is formed based at least in part on a detected port usage.

10. A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium, the computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed by a processor causes the processor to execute a process, the process comprising:

initiating an environment monitoring agent to run on a plurality of hosts within a cloud environment;

forming an upgrade recommendation based at least in part on environment changes detected by the environment monitoring agent; and

sending the upgrade recommendation to a recipient.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the environment monitoring agent is included in an instance image.

12. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising instructions for calculating a wait-for event before sending a next upgrade recommendation.

13. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the upgrade recommendation comprises an upgrade path.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the upgrade path includes at least one of, a processor, a processor model, a processor stepping, or a device.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the upgrade path includes at least one of, an operating system version, a software title, a software component, a middleware component, or a device driver.

16. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the recommendation comprises removal of a software component.

17. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the recommendation is formed based at least in part on a detected presence of at least one of, a directory on a file system, or a file on a file system.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein the recommendation is formed based at least in part on a detected port usage.

19. A computer system comprising:

a plurality of hosts interconnected within a cloud environment;

a monitoring agent running on at least some of the plurality of hosts, the monitoring agent configured to detect environment changes;

a recommendation engine configured to form an upgrade recommendation based at least in part on the environment changes; and

a cloud server to publish the upgrade recommendation.

20. The computer system of claim 19, further comprising a database engine to store the upgrade recommendation.