Automatic Patch Management

• US 20180285086A1
• Filed: 03/29/2017
• Published: 10/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: O'Malley, John, Ryan, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 10,831,466 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

Managing application changes is provided. Devices within a plurality of devices are grouped to form a set of devices based on configuration data corresponding to the devices. An application change is deployed to a subset of the set of devices in response to determining that the application change is available. Performance data corresponding to the application change is collected from the subset of devices over a predefined time period. The application change is deployed to a remainder of devices in the set of devices in response to the performance data indicating a positive application change to the subset of devices increasing a level of performance of the subset of devices greater than an increased performance threshold level.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method managing application changes, the computer-implemented method comprising:

grouping, by a computer, devices within a plurality of devices to form a set of devices based on configuration data corresponding to the devices;

deploying, by the computer, an application change to a subset of the set of devices in response to determining that the application change is available;

collecting, by the computer, performance data corresponding to the application change from the subset of devices over a predefined time period; and

deploying, by the computer, the application change to a remainder of devices in the set of devices in response to the performance data indicating a positive application change to the subset of devices increasing a level of performance of the subset of devices greater than an increased performance threshold level.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying, by the computer, application exceptions not running on a majority of devices in the set of devices based on monitoring applications running on the set of devices; and

removing, by the computer, the application exceptions running on one or more of the set of devices.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, by the computer, an indication that a new device joined a network corresponding to the computer; and

retrieving, by the computer, configuration data corresponding to the new device via the network.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 further comprising:

placing, by the computer, the new device in a set of devices that are within a predefined configuration threshold distance level of the new device based on the configuration data corresponding to the new device;

determining, by the computer, whether an application change history exists for the set of devices; and

responsive to the computer determining that an application change history does not exist for the set of devices, retrieving, by the computer, performance data from the set of devices.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 further comprising:

cross-referencing, by the computer, the performance data from the set of devices to identify devices with an increased level of performance and to identify application changes corresponding to the increased level of performance; and

identifying, by the computer, a set of application changes corresponding to the increased level of performance in the identified devices that can be applied to the new device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 further comprising:

adding, by the computer, the set of application changes to a change list;

determining, by the computer, whether the change list is empty; and

responsive to the computer determining that the change list is empty, increasing, by the computer, the predefined configuration threshold distance level to increase a number of devices included in the set of devices.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 further comprising:

responsive to the computer determining that the change list is not empty, selecting, by the computer, an application change in the change list;

setting, by the computer, a state of the new device to an evaluating state from a listening state; and

retrieving, by the computer, a device list corresponding to the new device that identifies application change exceptions.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 further comprising:

determining, by the computer, whether the selected application change conflicts with an application change exception identified in the device list;

responsive to the computer determining that the selected application change does not conflict with an application change exception identified in the device list, requesting, by the computer, authorization to apply the application change to the new device;

determining, by the computer, whether the authorization was received; and

responsive to the computer determining that the authorization was received, applying, by the computer, the application change to the new device.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 further comprising:

monitoring, by the computer, performance level changes in the new device over a predetermined period of time after applying the application change; and

generating, by the computer, a performance score corresponding to the performance level changes in the new device over the predetermined period of time.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 further comprising:

requesting, by the computer, user sentiment data from the new device regarding the application change to the new device;

receiving, by the computer, the user sentiment data from the new device regarding the application change; and

generating, by the computer, a sentiment score corresponding to the user sentiment data received from the new device.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 further comprising:

determining, by the computer, whether the sentiment score is a positive sentiment score; and

responsive to the computer determining that the sentiment score is a negative sentiment score, reversing, by the computer, the application change on the new device.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 further comprising:

responsive to the computer determining that the sentiment score is a positive sentiment score, generating, by the computer, an application change rating score based on the performance score and the sentiment score; and

setting, by the computer, the state of the new device to the listening state from the evaluating state.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 further comprising:

determining, by the computer, whether the application change can be modified with one or more other application changes to increase device performance; and

responsive to the computer determining that the application change can be modified with one or more other application changes, chaining, by the computer, the application change with the one or more other application changes to form a chained application change.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 further comprising:

identifying, by the computer, idle devices of similar configuration within the predefined configuration threshold distance level that will benefit from applying the chained application change; and

applying, by the computer, the chained application change to the idle devices of similar configuration within the predefined configuration threshold distance level.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the computer groups the devices to form the set of devices based on device usage data and user profile data corresponding to the set of devices in addition to the configuration data.

16. A computer system for managing application changes, the computer system comprising:

a bus system;

a storage device connected to the bus system, wherein the storage device stores program instructions; and

a processor connected to the bus system, wherein the processor executes the program instructions to;

group devices within a plurality of devices to form a set of devices based on configuration data corresponding to the devices;

deploy an application change to a subset of the set of devices in response to determining that the application change is available;

collect performance data corresponding to the application change from the subset of devices over a predefined time period; and

deploy the application change to a remainder of devices in the set of devices in response to the performance data indicating a positive application change to the subset of devices increasing a level of performance of the subset of devices greater than an increased performance threshold level.

17. A computer program product for managing application changes, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

grouping, by a computer, devices within a plurality of devices to form a set of devices based on configuration data corresponding to the devices;

deploying, by the computer, an application change to a subset of the set of devices in response to determining that the application change is available;

collecting, by the computer, performance data corresponding to the application change from the subset of devices over a predefined time period; and

deploying, by the computer, the application change to a remainder of devices in the set of devices in response to the performance data indicating a positive application change to the subset of devices increasing a level of performance of the subset of devices greater than an increased performance threshold level.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 further comprising:

identifying, by the computer, application exceptions not running on a majority of devices in the set of devices based on monitoring applications running on the set of devices; and

removing, by the computer, the application exceptions running on one or more of the set of devices.

19. The computer program product of claim 17 further comprising:

receiving, by the computer, an indication that a new device joined a network corresponding to the computer; and

retrieving, by the computer, configuration data corresponding to the new device via the network.

20. The computer program product of claim 19 further comprising:

placing, by the computer, the new device in a set of devices that are within a predefined configuration threshold distance level of the new device based on the configuration data corresponding to the new device;

determining, by the computer, whether an application change history exists for the set of devices; and

responsive to the computer determining that an application change history does not exist for the set of devices, retrieving, by the computer, performance data from the set of devices.