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

• US 7,636,782 B2
• Filed: 01/04/2008
• Issued: 12/22/2009
• 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:
  US11/969,776
• Publication Number:
  US 20080216006A1
• Time in Patent Office: 718 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/203, 709/226, 717/168, 717/170, 717/176, 717/177, 717/178, 715/700, 715/762
• 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 computer system having a user interface to deploy a service, the user interface comprising:

at least one display object to receive user configurations associated with a desired service topology and at least one property, wherein the at least one property includes 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;

at least a second display object to select a machine configuration for execution of the service, wherein a schema is utilized to describe the components of the service such that 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, and wherein the schema is utilized to describe 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; and

at least a third display object to deploy the service, the third display object distributes 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.

2. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising a selection option to select a location for one or more installation packages of the service.

3. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising a selection option to locate an XML schema that describes deployment instructions for the service.

4. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising a selection option in accordance with a machine type.

5. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising at least one selection option to receive account information, the account information relating to at least one of a server name and a password.

6. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising providing display feedback according to at least one of a configuration error and a parameter conflict.

7. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising at least one of a log option, a details option, and a summary option to provide information relating to at least one of a service installation procedure and a service un-installation procedure.

8. The user interface of claim 3, wherein the XML schema defines at least one of an XML definition schema and an XML deployment schema.

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

10. The user interface of claim 8, wherein the XML deployment schema includes at least one of a topology, a server type, and an associated application.

11. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the at least one topology defines at least one of a server and a server type that can execute the service.

12. The user interface of claim 11, wherein 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.

13. The user interface of claim 1, wherein 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.

14. A computer readable storage medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a computer, perform a method to facilitate deployment of services, the method comprising:

receiving user configurations and at least one property associated with a desired service topology, wherein the at least one property includes 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;

selecting a machine configuration for execution of a service;

utilizing a schema to describe the components of the service such that 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;

utilizing the schema to describe at least one application of the service, the at least one application mapping to at least one installation package, the installation package describing the components of the service; and

deploying the service via distributing 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.

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

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

determining the physical topology; and

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

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising generating a multiple deployment manifest to describe a plurality of logical topologies.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising deploying the service based upon the mapping.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising mapping at least one server to a server type.

20. A system having a computer processor to facilitate deployment of a service, the system comprising:

means for receiving user configurations and at least one property associated with a desired service topology, wherein the at least one property includes 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;

means for selecting a machine configuration for execution of the service;

means for utilizing a schema to describe the components of the service such that topologies, servers, and server types are defined in accordance with the schema;

means for utilizing the schema to describe 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; and

means for deploying the service via distributing 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.