Deployment manager for organizing and deploying an application in a distributed computing environment

• US 6,986,135 B2
• Filed: 09/06/2001
• Issued: 01/10/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/06/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Cognos Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Legault, Christian, Leathers, Burton
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN BA, HOANG VU A
• Application Number:
  US09/948,172
• Publication Number:
  US 20030182656A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,587 Days
• Field of Search: 717168-178, 717/100, 718100-102, 709200-203, 709220-223, 715/513
• US Class Current: 717/177
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment

Abstract

An efficient and reliable method and system for organizing an application in a source environment and deploying the application into a target environment is disclosed. The method comprises steps of (a) defining an application for creating an application definition containing a list of application components, (b) defining a package according to the application definition for creating a package definition including deployment policies, (c) creating an application package according to the package definition, which contains all the information required to install the application, and (d) installing the application package into the target environment. Preferably, the method may further include a step of defining an environment for creating a configuration definition containing information on the source and target environments. The method may further include steps of transferring the application package from the source environment to the target environment before the application package installing step (d), and validating the installation prior to completion.

Claims

1. A method for creating and deploying an application comprising the steps of:

(a) identifying environmental dependencies for the application in a target environment, the target environment and a source enviroment being part of a distributed comprising environment, the application comprising information and data;

(b) defining an application definition comprising a list of application components to be deployed in the target environment;

the application components being available in the source environment, and including at least one application entity;

(c) creating a package definition comprising the application definition, packlet definition asscociated with the application entity, and deployment policy to control deployment of the information and data into the target environment;

(d) executing instruction to create an application package according to the package definition; and

(e) deploying the application from the source environment to target environment by installing the application package in the target environment in accordance with the package definition; and

(f) defining an environment for creating a configuration definition;

wherein the configuration definition is a structured document.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the configuration definition includes a source definition and a target definition containing information on a network location of a source system and a target system respectively.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the configuration definition includes a plurality of source definitions containing information on network locations of plural source systems.

4. A method according to claim 2, wherein the configuration definition includes a plurality of source definitions containing information on network locations of plural source systems.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein, in the environment defining step, an existing configuration definition is changed.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the application definition is a structured document.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein the package definition is updated and used repeatedly.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the application package is updated from an existing application package.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the application package is generated by an unattended operation.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein a file containing a plurality of files listed in the application package is generated and transferred to the target environment.

11. A method according to claim 9, wherein the application package is stored in a shared directory on a network.

12. A method according to claim 1, wherein the application package is installed into plural target environments.

13. A method for creating and deploying an application comprising the steps of:

(a) determining application components which are available from a source enviroment, the application components comprising application entities;

(b) identifying environmental dependencies for the application in a target environment, the target environment and the source environment being part of a distributed computing environment, the application comprising information and data;

(c) defining an application definition comprising a list of application components to be deployed in the target environment, the application components being available in the source environment, and including at least one application entity;

(d) creating a package definition comprising the application definition, packlet definition associated with the application entity, and deployment policy to control deployment of the information and data into the target environment;

(e) executing instructions to create an application package according to the package definition, wherein the application package is a structured document;

(f) deploying the application from the source environment to target environment by installing the application package in the target environment in accordance with the package definition.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein each application entity has a unique identifier.

15. A method according to claim 13, wherein the application definition includes a list of word processor documents, files, folders, and HTML pages.

16. A method according to claim 13, wherein the deployment policy is selected from a group consisting of a global policy, a packing policy, behavioral policy, a mapping policy and combination thereof.

17. A method according to claim 13, further comprising the step of:

singling out a fix-up which is to be resolved in the target environment.

18. A method according to claim 17, wherein a graph is generated during the creating package definition step.

19. A method according to claim 13, further comprising the step of:

specifying information required for installation.

20. A method according to claim 19, wherein the information specifying step comprises step of:

(i) selecting the application components to be installed in the environment;

(ii) mapping references within the application to entities in the target environment required by the application created by the application package creating step (d); and

(iii) defining policies to resolve content conflicts arising during the deploying step.

21. A method according to claim 20, wherein the application components selecting step (i) includes the sep of selecting application entries from a list of application entities which is available from the application package.

22. A method according to claim 20, wherein the entities generated in the mapping step (ii) includes mapping selected from the group consisting of packlet mappings, target mappings, and custom mappings.

23. A method according to claim 20, wherein, in the step (iii) of defining policies, the policies include conflict resolution policies and fix-up policies.

24. A method according to claim 23, wherein the conflict resolution policy for each application entity is shared with one or more application entities.

25. A method for use in a distributed computing environment for creating and deploying an application, the method comprising steps of:

(a) determining application components which are available from a source environment, the application components comprising application entities;

(b) identifying environmental dependencies for the application in a target environment, the target environment and the source environment being part of a distributed computing environment, the application comprising information and data;

(c) defining an application definition comprising a list of application components to be deployed in the target environment, the application components being available in the source environment, and including at least one application entity;

(d) creating a package definition comprising the application definition, packlet definition associated with the application entity, and deployment policy to control deployment of the information and data into the target environment;

(e) executing instructions to create an application package according to the package definition, wherein the aplication packge is a structured document;

(f) specifying information to be required for installing by;

(i) selecting the application components to be installed in the target environment;

(ii) mapping reference within the application to entities in the target environment required by the application created by the application package creating step (e, and

(iii) defining policies to resolve content conflicts which arise during an application package placing step;

(g) deploying the application from the source environment to target environment by installing the application package in the target environment in accordance with the package definition; and

(h) validating the installation by identifying a conflict situation for which no policies have been defined the defining policy step (f) (iii) and defining a policy for the conflict situation.

26. A method according to claim 25, wherein the validating Step (h) is iterated.

27. A system for use in a distributed computing environment, for crating and deploying an application into a target environment, the system comprising:

(a) means for identifying environmental dependencies for the application in a target environment, the target environment and a source environment being part of a distributed computing environment, the application comprising information and data;

(b) means for defining an application definition comprising a list of application components to be deployed in the target environment, the application components being available in the source environment, and including at least one application entity;

(c) means for creating a package definition comprising the application definition, packlet definition associated with the application entity, and deployment policy to control deployment of the information and data into the target environment;

(d) means for executing instructions to create an application package according to the package definition, wherein the application package is a structured document; and

(e) means for deploying the application from the source environment to target environment by installing the application package in the target environment in accordance with the package definition.

28. A system for use in a distributed computing environment for creating and deploying an application into a target environment, the system comprising:

(a) means for determining application components which are available from a source environment, wherein the application components comprising application entities;

(b) means for identifying environmental dependencies for the application in a target environment, the target environment and the source environment being part of a distributed computing environment, the application comprising information and data;

(c) means for defining an application definition comprising a list of application components to be deployed in the target environment, the application components being available in the source environment, and including at least one application entity;

(d) means for creating a package definition comprising the application definition, packlet definitoin associated with the application entity, and deployment policy to control deployment of the information and data into the target environment;

(e) means for executing instructions to create an application package according to the package definition, wherein the application package is a structured document; and

(f) means for deploying the application from the source environment to target environment by installing the application package in the target environment in accordance with the package definition.

29. A system for use in a distributed computing environment for creating and deploying an application into a target environment, the system comprising:

(a) means for determining application components which are available from a source environment, wherein the application components comprise one or more components modelled, organized, and presented so as to solve a business need;

(b) means for creating an application definition;

(c) means for defining a package according to the application definition—

for creating a package definition;

(d) means for creating a packlet associated with each application entity in accordance with the package definition;

(e) means for singling out a fix-up which is to be resolved on the target environment;

(f) means for creating an application package containing all the information required to install an application, at least part of the information being in the form of application entities, wherein the application package is a structured document;

(g) means for specifying information to be required for installing using;

(i) means for selecting the application components to be installed in the target environment;

(ii) means for mapping reference within the application to entities in the target environment required by the application created by the application package creating means (f); and

(iii) means for defining policies to resolve content conflicts which are identified by an application package placing means;

(h) means for placing the application package content into the target environment; and

(i) means for validating the installation by identifying a conflict situation for which no policies have been defined by the means for defining policies (g)(iii), and defining a policy for the conflict situation.