Service descriptor for a multitier compute infrastructure

• US 7,243,306 B1
• Filed: 02/13/2003
• Issued: 07/10/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Or, Yan, Bellur, Umesh, Sundaresan, Vinu, Garimella, Krishna, Joshi, Shashank
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN BA, HOANG VU A
• Application Number:
  US10/366,958
• Time in Patent Office: 1,608 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 715/735
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/24 Object-oriented
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

A descriptor for a multitier compute infrastructure is provided. A multitier topology map contains an inventory of network tier, application tier, and compute tier components and the relationships among the components. A business service can be defined as a logical grouping of components that transactionally implement a business process. A service descriptor includes the component dependencies that define the business service. The business service leverages the component dependencies to provide cross-tier visibility of the business process and performance analysis features.

Claims

1. A method for defining a business service for a multitier compute infrastructure, the method comprising:

receiving input data for describing at least a service access point of the business service by;

querying a multitier topology map for a dependency chain;

determining a head node of the dependency chain; and

analyzing the head node for the service access point, wherein the business service comprises components across the multitier compute infrastructure, and wherein the service access point comprises a starting point of a chain of the component dependencies of the business service;

obtaining a descriptor for a first component of the business service, the descriptor for describing a relationship between the first component and a second component of the business service;

building a business service object representing the business service using at least the service access point and the descriptor; and

integrating the business service object into a multitier topology map.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the descriptor further describes a relationship between the first component and a plurality of components.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the descriptor includes a tagged structure for describing dependency information about a plurality of application components.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the descriptor is configured to define a grouping of components that implement a business process.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining further comprises:

reading the descriptor from a file.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining further comprises:

reading the descriptor from an application package.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the building further comprises:

associating the service access point with at least one component from the multitier topology map.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining further comprises:

querying an interface of the first component for the descriptor.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

repeating the querying for a plurality of components.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

repeating the querying, determining, and analyzing for a plurality of dependency chains to generate a set of candidate service access points; and

selecting the service access point from the set of candidate service access points.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein a servlet identifies the head node.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving further comprises:

analyzing application source code for at least one component relationship; and

generating a descriptor for describing the at least one component relationship.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

writing a file to a storage medium, the file including the descriptor.

14. A system for defining a business service for a multitier compute infrastructure, comprising:

a processor;

a multitier topology map; and

a memory including modules having instructions executed by the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising;

receiving input data for describing at least a service access point of the business service by;

querying the multitier topology map for a dependency chain;

determining a head node of the dependency chain; and

analyzing the head node for the service access point, wherein the business service comprises components across the multitier compute infrastructure, and wherein the service access point comprises a starting point of a chain of the component dependencies of the business service;

obtaining a descriptor for a first component of the business service, the descriptor for describing a relationship between the first component and a second component of the business service;

building a business service object representing the business service using at least the service access point and the descriptor; and

integrating the business service object into the multitier topology map.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the descriptor is configured to define a grouping of components that implement a business process.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the building further comprises:

associating the service access point with at least one component from the multitier topology map.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the receiving further comprises:

analyzing application source code for at least one component relationship; and

generating a descriptor for describing the at least one component relationship.

18. A computer readable medium including program modules executed by a processor to perform operations to define a business service for a multitier compute infrastructure, wherein the operations comprise:

receiving input data for describing at least a service access point of the business service by;

querying a multitier topology map for a dependency chain;

determining a head node of the dependency chain; and

analyzing the head node for the service access point, wherein the business service comprises components across the multitier compute infrastructure, and wherein the service access point comprises a starting point of a chain of the component dependencies of the business service;

obtaining a descriptor for a first component of the business service, the descriptor for describing a relationship between the first component and a second component of the business service;

building a business service object representing the business service using at least the service access point and the descriptor; and

integrating the business service object into a multitier topology map.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the descriptor is configured to define a grouping of components that implement a business process.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the building further comprises:

associating the service access point with at least one component from the multitier topology map.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the receiving further comprises:

analyzing application source code for at least one component relationship; and

generating a descriptor for describing the at least one component relationship.