Data management interoperability methods for heterogeneous directory structures

• US 6,484,177 B1
• Filed: 01/13/2000
• Issued: 11/19/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Van Huben, Gary A., Mueller, Joseph L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Kim
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ly, Anh
• Application Number:
  US09/482,719
• Time in Patent Office: 1,041 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1-10
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/282 Hierarchical databases, e.g. IMS, LDAP data stores or Lotus Notes
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

A method for use with a data management system (DMS) enabling a directory service such as the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and Microsoft'"'"'s Active Directory to interact with centralized DMS employs a single access application at a user API interface at one or more application layers of the data management system to map transactions for access appropriate to a heterogeneous physical implementation of data storage managed by a virtual control repository used in the DMS. Data objects are classified according to a PFVL Paradigm according to Package, Filetype, Variance and Level as a model for storage of data object in separate DMS storage and directory service storage. Objects in the directory service storage are managed to direct a request in a manner appropriate to the request to a directory service server or if not appropriate to the directory service, to one or more DMS processing managers.

Claims

1. Method for use with a data management system having a plurality of repositories of data and a plurality of data managers operating in one or more application layers, comprising the steps of:

providing a directory service for interacting with said data management system having a plurality of repositories of data and a plurality of data managers operating in one or more application layers,

storing a plurality of data objects in said directory service and

storing other data objects in data repositories of said data management system having a plurality of repositories of data and a plurality of data managers operating in one or more application layers and managing both said data objects and other data objects with a virtual control repository,

and, using a single access application at a User Interface Layer of said one or more application layers of the data management system, mapping application transactions to an access method appropriate to a physical implementation of data storage used in said data management system and in said directory service, and in the process of mapping,

classifying data objects of said directory service and of said data management system as data objects according to a PFVL Paradign according to Package, Filetype, Variance and Level, so that the PFVL Paradign serves as a common storage model for the storage of data objects both in the separate data storage used in said data management system and in the separate data storage used in said directory service, and

managing the data objects residing in separate data storage to enable a directory service to interact with said data management system by;

(a) acting on an initiated request from a client station for data classified according to the PFVL Paradign by determining whether the request should be directed to said directory service or to said data management system,

(b) directing the request to the directory service or to said data management system as appropriate from the initiated request,

(c) and employing one or more of said plurality of managers for processing the request and if the request is appropriate for the directory service causing at a service server for the directory service the processing of said initated request which was initiated from said client station and causing the return of any resulting data objects meeting the request along with related PFVL data associated with the returned data object to cause the addition, modification, or retrieval of data in the directory service, but

(d) if the request is nor appropriate for the directory service, employing one or more of said plurality of managers for processing of said request in a traditional data management system, such as, but not limited to, relational or object oriented databases, meta data, commercially available storage engines or file systems.

2. The method according to claim 1 including the steps of,

with a data manager and with a user input provided to said single access application at a User Interface Layer via an API, performing a plurality of processes on data residing in heterogeneous data repositories of said data storage including promotion, check-in, check-out, locking, searching, initiating automated processing, tracking aggregations, and managing releases under management control of a virtual control repository having one or more physical heterogeneous repositories, and storing, accessing, tracking data residing in said one or more data repositories managed by said virtual control repository.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein data residing in or managed by said directory services is mapped into a Package, Filetype, Variance and Level of said PFVL Paradigm and after mapping within a Variance one or more data objects of a given type are stored at one or more levels.

4. The method according to claim 3 wherein a client initiated query in said directory services uses attributes, object classes, relative domain names, directory entries, or any combination thereof, to map existing directory services functions into the PFVL Paradigm.

5. The method according to claim 3 wherein a single user request initiated using a single access application at a User Interface Layer enables users of directory services to access data and information from either said directory service or from a repository of said data management system which has a traditional database storage, metatdata storage, and file system storage using a common access method.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein command translators are employed to map generic queries in the form of an initiated request into directory service access calls, traditional database queries, metadata and file system accesses.

7. The method according to claim 3 enabling directory services to be organized by level enabling data for an on-line e-business to be associated with a quality indicator, and promoted through a directory structure as a criteria appropriate for a request is met.

8. The method according to claim 2 wherein the directory services and data management system data managers are configurable and can be dynamically or statically combined as modules of a scalable system without the need to alter any underlying directory services protocol.

9. The method according to claim 2 wherein said User Interface Layer for said single access application provides interaction with said directory services clients via said API, and

said mapping into a PFVL paradigm uses tools which can be manipulated by said client and used to access any information governed by the single access application for data objects residing in the directory services and those residing in traditional repositories of said data management system.

10. The method according to claim 2 wherein a data management system application layer contains utilities that a directory service requires to interact with the data management system to process a promotion, check-in, check-out, or lock for a data object, and said utilities are utilized for an initiated request.

11. The method according to claim 1 wherein one or more of data repositories resides completely or partially within the directory service.

12. The method according to claim 2 wherein said single access application uses a scalable client/server interface which permits the data management system to use local services to run in a client-only mode on a directory services client and permitting a combination of local &

remote services to run in a distributed client/server mode across a plurality of servers.

13. The method according to claim 2 wherein said single access application employs command translators to map generic virtual control repository transactions into any required command interface needed to interact with the corresponding physical implementation of a virtual control repository.

14. The method according to claim 2 wherein said directory services communicate with said data management system using directory services protocols selected from a group including X.500, LDAP, Active Directory, TCP/IP, token ring, ethernet, and HTTP, or any protocol capable of establishing a connection between a multitude of clients and servers operating in a directory services environment.

15. The method according to claim 2 wherein directory services is coupled to employ said data management system for directory services replication and synchronization functions and to perform library processing for initiating automated replication and synchronization.