System and method to facilitate manageable and agile deployment of services in accordance with various topologies

• US 7,340,520 B1
• Filed: 04/01/2002
• Issued: 03/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Jordan, Kenneth Eugene, Lan, Erica Sui-Ching
• Primary Examiner(s): Dalencourt; Yves
• Application Number:
  US10/113,610
• Time in Patent Office: 2,164 Days
• Field of Search: 709/226, 709/310, 709/102, 709/201, 709/203, 705/35, 705/39, 705/40, 705/42, 717/170, 717/176, 719/313, 719/328
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and methodology to facilitate service deployment in a distributed computing and applications environment. A schema is provided that describes various components of a service and various topologies for execution of the services, wherein a deployment engine utilizes the schema in conjunction with user inputs to determine one or more destination locations for the service. The topologies relate to various machine and/or machine types defined for various groups or individuals that employ the service. A user interface can be provided to receive user inputs for topological selections and to facilitate various parametric configurations associated with service deployment and subsequent execution thereof.

Claims

1. A system to deploy services comprising a computer processor for executing the following software components, the software components are recorded on a computer-readable storage medium and capable of execution by a computer, comprising:

a schema to describe the components of a service, the description including at least one topology for execution of the service, wherein topologies, servers, and server types are defined in accordance with the schema and wherein the service is at least one of a billing and a provisioning service, the schema describing at least one application of a service, the at least one application mapping to at least one installation package, the installation package describing the components of the service;

a deployment engine to distribute the components of the service to at least one machine based upon the schema, a selected topology, and user input information, the at least one machine is at least one of a client and a server computer, the at least one of the client and the server computer operative in at least one of a local and a remote configuration; and

a user interface to select the at least one topology and to configure at least one property, the at least one property including at least one of private properties relating to a single installation package, general properties relating to multiple installation packages, user input properties, and application properties, and wherein the application properties further comprise at least one of server list properties to map applications to machines and static properties that are specified as part of an application definition.

2. The system of claim 1, the schema and the deployment engine operate on at least one of a single computer and multiple computers in at least one of a local and a remote environment.

3. The system of claim 1, the components of the service including at least one of an executable, a dynamic link libraries (DLL), a file, a data structure, a database, a registry configuration, and an object.

4. The system of claim 1, the schema and the installation packages stored on a computer readable medium as a deployment package, the computer readable medium including at least one of a database, a CD-ROM, a DVD, a floppy disk, a hard drive.

5. The system of claim 1, the at least one topology defines at least one of a server and a server type that can execute the service.

6. The system of claim 5, the user interface at least one of selects and configures an input property, a topology, an installation package location, a server type, and a subset of servers.

7. The system of claim 1, the schema defines at least one of an XML definition schema and an XML deployment schema.

8. The system of claim 7, the XML definition schema includes at least one of an application, an installation package, a user input property and an application property.

9. The system of claim 7, the XML deployment schema includes at least one of a topology, a server type, and an associated application.

10. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon to perform at least one of processing the schema and deploying the services of claim 1.

11. A method to facilitate deployment of services, comprising:

defining a logical topology to deploy a service, wherein the service is at least one of a billing and a provisioning service;

defining at least one configuration property relating to the logical topology;

defining at least one location of at least one installation package providing the service; and

mapping the at least one installation package to a physical topology based upon the logical topology and the at least one configuration property, the at least one configuration property including at least one of private properties relating to a single installation package, general properties relating to multiple installation packages, user input properties, and application properties, and wherein the application properties further comprise at least one of server list properties to map applications to machines and static properties that are specified as part of an application definition.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising deploying the service based upon the mapping.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising mapping at least one server to a server type.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising generating a deployment plan based upon the logical topology and at least one selected configuration property.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising at least one of:

determining the physical topology; and

determining a bounded property that maps service to at least one machine.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising generating a multiple deployment manifest to describe a plurality of logical topologies.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising generating a multiple deployment plan from the multiple deployment manifest.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising deploying multiple instances of multiple services based upon the multiple deployment plan.

19. The method of claim 17, the multiple deployment plans relate to at least one of a development group, a testing group, and an operations group.

20. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon to perform at least one of the acts of claim 11.

21. A system to facilitate deployment of a service comprising a computer processor, the system is recorded on a computer-readable storage medium and capable of execution by a computer, comprising:

means for defining at least one topology to deploy a service, wherein the service is at least one of a billing and a provisioning service;

means for inputting at least one parameter relating to the topology;

means for locating at least one installation package associated with the service; and

means for mapping the at least one installation package to a physical topology based upon a selection from the at least one topology, the at least one parameter, and user input information, wherein the at least one parameter including at least one of private properties relating to a single installation package, general properties relating to multiple installation packages, user input properties, and application properties, and wherein the application properties further comprise at least one of server list properties to map applications to machines and static properties that are specified as part of an application definition.

22. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, comprising:

a schema including at least one topology relating to a service, the at least one topology being related to at least one machine and at least one machine type, wherein topologies, servers, and server types are defined in accordance with the schema and wherein the service is at least one of a billing and a provisioning service;

at least one installation package that defines at least one component of the service; and

a user interface to select the at least one topology and to configure at least one property, the at least one property including at least one of private properties relating to a single installation package, general properties relating to multiple installation packages, user input properties, and application properties, and wherein the application properties further comprise at least one of server list properties to map applications to machines and static properties that are specified as part of an application definition.