SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR STORING A SKELETON REPRESENTATION OF AT LEAST ONE APPLICATION IN A COMPUTERIZED ORGANIZATION INCLUDING GENERATING AND UTILIZING APPLICATION STRUCTURE USING SKELETON-BASED DISCOVERY AND RE-DISCOVERY

• US 20170228389A1
• Filed: 04/27/2017
• Published: 08/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Inventors: Mohaban, Shai, Rosh, Haviv, Benado, Yarin, Cohen, Yuval
• Granted Patent: US 10,445,069 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/148 File search processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/17 Details of further file system functions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/20 of structured data, e.g. relational data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4806 Task transfer initiation or dispatching
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

A computerized method for storing a representation of at least one application in a computerized organization, the method comprising determining a structure of at least one application in a computerized organization; and using a processor for generating, and storing, a skeleton characterization of the structure of the application including storing information, characterizing at least one applicative component identified, that is considered stable over time and not storing information, characterizing at least one applicative component identified, that is considered unstable over time.

Claims

1. A method for discovering assets on a computer system, the method comprising:

performing a full discovery process on the computer system to determine the computer system'"'"'s structure;

deriving a skeleton of the computer system based on the computer system'"'"'s structure;

performing a re-discovery process on the computer system utilizing the skeleton; and

repeating the full discovery process on at least a portion of the computer system to update the skeleton.

2. The method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein performing the full discovery process comprises starting from an entry point of the computer system and advancing from the entry point to identify configuration items of the computer system to determine the computer system'"'"'s structure.

3. The method, as set forth in claim 2, wherein the computer system'"'"'s structure is represented as a graph having a plurality of nodes, wherein each node represents one of the respective configuration items.

4. The method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein deriving the skeleton comprises determining a representation of the computer system'"'"'s structure using only a portion of information relating to the computer system'"'"'s structure determined by the full discovery process.

5. The method, as set forth in claim 4, wherein the skeleton comprises information determined to be likely to remain stable over a period of at least a plurality of days.

6. The method, as set forth in claim 4, wherein the skeleton comprises a template related to the computer system'"'"'s structure that includes a division into tiers and application flow between the tiers.

9. The method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein performing the re-discovery process comprises utilizing the skeleton to perform the re-discovery process in less time than the full discovery process.

10. The method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein performing the re-discovery process comprises creating discovery tasks using information stored in the skeleton and performing the discovery tasks until all of the discovery tasks are complete.

11. The method, as set forth in claim 10, wherein performing the re-discovery process comprises creating discovery tasks using information stored in the skeleton and performing the discovery tasks until changes are found that contradict the skeleton.

12. The method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein repeating the full discovery process on at least a portion of the computer system to update the skeleton comprises performing the full discovery process on at least a portion of the computer system that has changed since the skeleton was derived.

13. The method, as set forth in claim 1, wherein the skeleton indicates a tier topology of the computer system.

7. The method, as set forth in clam 3, wherein the skeleton comprises a template related to the graph having a plurality of nodes, wherein multiple similar nodes of the graph are represented as a single node of the template.

8. The method, as set forth in claim 7, wherein multiple nodes of the graph are similar if they have the same incoming connection, the same configuration item type, and/or the same outgoing connection.

14. An apparatus for discovering assets on a computer system, the apparatus comprising:

a processor coupled to a tangible, non-transitory memory, the memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

perform a full discovery process on the computer system to determine the computer system'"'"'s structure;

derive a skeleton of the computer system based on the computer system'"'"'s structure;

perform a re-discovery process on the computer system utilizing the skeleton; and

repeat the full discovery process on at least a portion of the computer system to update the skeleton.

15. The apparatus, as set forth in claim 14, wherein the memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

perform the full discovery process by starting from an entry point of the computer system and advancing from the entry point to identify configuration items of the computer system to determine the computer system'"'"'s structure.

16. The apparatus, as set forth in claim 15, wherein the computer system'"'"'s structure is represented as a graph having a plurality of nodes, wherein each node represents one of the respective configuration items.

17. The apparatus, as set forth in claim 14, wherein the memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

derive the skeleton by determining a representation of the computer system'"'"'s structure using only a portion of information relating to the computer system'"'"'s structure determined by the full discovery process.

18. The apparatus, as set forth in claim 17, wherein the skeleton comprises information determined to be likely to remain stable over a period of at least a plurality of days.

19. The apparatus, as set forth in claim 17, wherein the skeleton comprises a template related to the computer system'"'"'s structure that includes a division into tiers and application flow between tiers.

22. The apparatus, as set forth in claim 14, wherein the memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

perform the re-discovery process by utilizing the skeleton to perform the re-discovery process in less time than the full discovery process.

23. The apparatus, as set forth in claim 14, wherein the memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

perform the re-discovery process by creating discovery tasks using information stored in the skeleton and performing the discovery tasks until all of the discovery tasks are complete.

24. The apparatus, as set forth in claim 23, wherein the memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

perform the re-discovery process by creating discovery tasks using information stored in the skeleton and performing the discovery tasks until changes are found that contradict the skeleton.

25. The apparatus, as set forth in claim 14, wherein the memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

repeat the full discovery process on at least a portion of the computer system to update the skeleton by performing the full discovery process on at least a portion of the computer system that has changed since the skeleton was derived.

26. The apparatus, as set forth in claim 14, wherein the skeleton indicates a tier topology of the computer system.

20. The apparatus, as set forth in clam 16, wherein the skeleton comprises a template related to the graph having a plurality of nodes, wherein multiple similar nodes of the graph are represented as a single node of the template.

21. The apparatus, as set forth in claim 20, wherein multiple nodes of the graph are similar if they have the same incoming connection, the same configuration item type, and/or the same outgoing connection.

27. A method for discovering resources on a computer system, the method comprising:

performing an initial discovery process on the computer system to determine the computer system'"'"'s structure;

deriving a skeleton of the computer system based on the computer system'"'"'s structure;

performing a subsequent discovery process on the computer system utilizing the skeleton; and

repeating the initial discovery process on the computer system to determine whether the skeleton has changed.

28. A method comprising:

performing a discovery process based on at least a first entry point to a computer system to determine the computer system'"'"'s structure, wherein the discovery process identifies a plurality of infrastructure elements of the computer system;

generating a skeleton of the computer system based on the plurality of infrastructure elements, wherein the skeleton reflects a tier topology of the plurality of infrastructure elements; and

updating the discovery process on the computer system utilizing the skeleton.

29. The method, as set forth in claim 28, comprising performing the updated discovery process using a second entry point to the computer system that is different from the first entry point.