System for transactionally deploying content across multiple machines

• US 7,657,887 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2004
• Issued: 02/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Open Text Corporation
• Original Assignee: Interwoven Incorporated (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Cuan, William G., Scallan, Todd, Kothandaraman, Vijayakumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen; Li B
• Application Number:
  US11/000,573
• Publication Number:
  US 20050080801A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,890 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/223, 709/238, 709/248, 709/249, 709/200, 717/176, 717/177, 717/178, 717/171, 717/170, 717/174, 719/311, 719/312, 719/313, 719/318, 719/319, 719/320, 719/310, 719/328, 719/330, 713/152, 713/164, 713/165, 713/166, 713/167
• US Class Current: 717/176
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display

Abstract

A system for transactionally deploying content across multiple machines in a network environment automates and synchronizes secure and reliable distribution of digital assets to multiple network locations, allowing controlled provisioning and synchronization of code and content updates to live applications. A distributed architecture includes at least one receiver—a secure listener configured to process incoming distribution jobs—and at least one base server—a sender that may also act as a receiver. An administration interface allows administrative and reporting services and deployment management. Using the administrative interface, users are enabled to launch, simulate, schedule and monitor activities for any network location at any time. The system provides fan-out and multi-tiered deployment topologies expandable to hundreds of servers. Each deployment is fully transactional, permitting rollback of the system to it “last known good” state in the case of failure.

Claims

1. A computer readable storage medium encoded with instructions, which when loaded into a digital computational device establishes a content deployment system comprising:

a plurality of nodes connected in a network topology wherein each node communicates with at least one other node via a secure connection, said plurality of nodes including;

at least one sender configured both to receive content and deploy content to other nodes across network domains and platforms; and

at least one receiver configured to receive deployed content;

an administration module for management of content deployments;

a base server, said base server comprising a sender, configured to receive content for deployment to any network touchpoint from at least one content repository;

a module for defining and implementing routed and/or multi-tiered content deployments, said module for defining and implementing routed and/or multi-tiered content deployments comprising a deployment configuration composer;

means for making transactional content deployments and rolling them back in case of failure; and

an intelligent delivery module, wherein said intelligent delivery module enables a base server to use content attributes for smart distribution and syndication, wherein said intelligent delivery module comprises an offer/subscription management layer, said offer/subscription management layer including;

means for creating an offer, wherein an offer defines a content source and a metadata query for identifying relevant assets; and

means for creating a subscription, wherein a subscription completes deployment rules for an offer, including any of target nodes, schedule, and delivery mechanism;

wherein a deployment is defined by means of a deployment configuration, said deployment configuration comprising a file that describes a deployment strategy and wherein said deployment configuration defines multi-tiered deployments by chaining deployments from one tier to the next;

wherein said content is transactionally deployed across a plurality of computing devices.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least one sender is configured to receive content deployed from another sender.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein deployments are pushed from one node to another.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein deployments are pulled from one node to another.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said deployed content comprises any of:

data files;

database updates;

markup code;

media files; and

application code.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said connection is secured by means of an authentication process that ensures that communication is with a known machine in a known manner and that data is received from the known machine without interception by a third party.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein a receiver is configured to listen on a specific port for connection from a firewall'"'"'s specific IP (Internet Protocol) address.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said receiver is configured to receive content only from a known, trusted source.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein said connection is secured by a certificate-based authentication process.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein content deployed over said secure connection is encrypted.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein said administration module includes a user interface for accessing a plurality of administrative services included in said module, said user interface including any of event-driven and command-line capabilities.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said plurality of administrative services includes at least one service for managing user rights and authentication.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein said system provides single sign-on capability, so that a user authenticates on said system using authentication credentials for an underlying operating system or user directory.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein said plurality of administrative services includes:

at least one service for managing deployments;

at least one service for creating and viewing schedule entries for automated deployments;

at least one service for any of viewing, editing and uploading deployment configurations;

at least one service for viewing and managing base servers and receivers;

at least one service for creating and running deployment report queries;

at least one service for assigning access rights to base servers and receivers and restricting users'"'"' rights to initiate deployments;

at least one service for configuring database auto-synchronization; and

managing syndicated content offers and subscriptions.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a module for providing event triggers for integrating external programs into a deployment, wherein external tasks are launched on source and/or target systems.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a module that invokes a payload adapter module at the start of a deployment for integrating a sender with an arbitrary source, and wherein said payload adaptor prepares a payload of files to be returned to said sender from the source.

17. The system of claim 1, further comprising a module that invokes a delivery adaptor after files are deployed to a target, wherein said delivery adapter is invoked with a manifest of deployed files, and wherein said adapter processes said deployed files.

18. The system of claim 1, further comprising an interface for programmatic access to system services.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein said system is scalable to include multi-tiered development topologies including servers inside and outside of firewalls.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein deployments distribute only incremental changes between a source and each target.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein a sender is configured to deploy to multiple targets in parallel.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein said deployment configuration defines logical nodes and replication farms that are independent of a physical topology.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein said deployment configuration defines routed deployments by computing a route from a pre-defined set of route segments.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein said deployment configuration specifies rules for including and excluding files and directories.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein said deployment configuration specifies transfer rules to describe how data is to be handled during transfer.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein said deployment configuration specifies permission and ownership rules for deployed files and directories.

27. The system of claim 1, wherein said means for tracking and rolling back transactional deployments comprises a deployment configuration, wherein said deployment configuration specifies that a deployment is transactional, and system services that roll back a deployment transaction and restores each target to its last known good state in the event of failure.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein each leg of a parallel deployment is synchronized with all other legs.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein said deployment configuration specifies a quorum for a parallel deployment, wherein said quorum comprises a defined sub-set of a total number of targets.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein if a deployment to the quorum succeeds, successful targets are committed and failed targets are rolled back.

31. The system of claim 1, further comprising a logging facility, said logging facility providing means for creating log files on sender and receiver systems.

32. The system of claim 31, said logging facility further including a log viewer for viewing said log files.

33. The system of claim 1, further comprising means for any of:

locking down command line invocations to specific hosts; and

confining user authentication for the administration module to one or more specific access services.

34. The system of claim 1, further comprising a module for synchronizing automated deployments of content from a plurality of repositories.

35. The system of claim 1, further comprising a data deployment module for deploying data updates to relational databases.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein said data deployment module comprises means for any of:

specifying type and location of source files;

which schema mapping to use; and

a target database specification.

37. The system of claim 35, wherein said data deployment module comprises means for any of:

mapping document type definition to a target database schema; and

creating a wrapper configuration.

38. The system of claim 35, wherein said data deployment module synchronizes delivery of structured content to a target database with delivery of code and unstructured content file to multiple servers.

39. The system of claim 1, wherein said intelligent delivery module comprises means for any of:

specifying deployment criteria in the form of a metadata query; and

a payload adapter that supports use of a JDBC-compliant database as a metadata repository.

40. The system of claim 1, further comprising a web change management hub for automating secure provisioning of web updates.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein said web change management hub comprises any of:

means for aggregating and coordinating change sets from multiple code and content repositories;

means for aggregating code, content and configuration files that are ready to be provisioned into editions, wherein an edition is deployed to a target.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein an edition deploys incremental changes to a target server, and wherein said edition provides an efficient mechanism for recording current state of said target server at any time.

43. The system of claim 42, wherein said content deployment system rolls back said target server to a previous state based on said recorded current state by deploying files that differ between previous and current editions.

44. The system of claim 41, wherein an edition preserves accurate snapshots of a web application as it existed at specific points in time, so that audit requirements are satisfied.

45. A computer-implemented method for transactionally deploying content comprising steps of:

providing a plurality of nodes in a network topology wherein each node communicates with at least one other node via a secure connection;

said plurality of nodes including;

at least one sender configured both to receive content and deploy content to other nodes across network domains and platforms; and

at least one receiver configured to receive deployed content;

providing centralized management of content deployments in a system including said plurality of nodes by means of an administration module;

configuring at least one base server, said base server comprising a sender, to receive content for deployment to any type of network touchpoint from at least one content repository;

using a deployment configuration composer, defining and implementing routed and/or multi-tiered content deployments;

wherein a deployment is defined by means of a deployment configuration, said deployment configuration comprising a script that describes a deployment strategy and wherein said deployment configuration defines multi-tiered deployments by chaining deployments from one tier to the next;

distributing and syndicating content based on content attributes by means of an intelligent delivery module, wherein said intelligent delivery module enables a base server to use content attributes for smart distribution and syndication wherein distributing and syndicating content based on content attributes by means of an intelligent delivery module comprises;

creating an offer, wherein an offer defines a content source and a metadata query for identifying relevant assets; and

creating a subscription, wherein a subscription completes deployment rules for an offer, including any of target nodes, schedule, and delivery mechanism by means of an offer/subscription management layer; and

making transactional content deployments and rolling them back in case of failure;

wherein said content is transactionally deployed across a plurality of computing devices.

46. The method of claim 45, further comprising a step of configuring said at least one sender to receive content deployed from another sender.

47. The method of claim 45, further comprising a step of pushing deployments from one node to another.

48. The method of claim 45, further comprising a step of pulling deployments from one node to another.

49. The method of claim 45, wherein said deployed content comprises any of:

data files;

database updates;

markup code;

media files; and

application code.

50. The method of claim 45, further comprising a step of securing said connection by means of an authentication process that ensures that communication is with a known machine in a known manner and that data is received from the known machine without interception by a third party.

51. The method of claim 50, further comprising a step of configuring a receiver to listen on a specific port for connection from a firewall'"'"'s specific IP (Internet Protocol) address.

52. The method of claim 51, further comprising a step of configuring a receiver to receive content only from a known, trusted source.

53. The method of claim 50, further comprising a step of securing said connection by a certificate-based authentication process.

54. The method of claim 45, further comprising a step of encrypting content deployed over said secure connection.

55. The method of claim 45, further comprising a step of accessing plurality of services included in said administration module by means of a user interface, said user interface including any of event-driven and command-line capabilities.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein said plurality of services includes at least one service for managing user rights and authentication.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein said system provides single sign-on capability, so that a user authenticates on said system using authentication credentials for an underlying operating system or user directory.

58. The method of claim 55, wherein said plurality of services includes:

at least one service for managing deployments;

at least one service for creating and viewing schedule entries for automated deployments;

at least one service for any of viewing, editing and uploading deployment configurations;

at least one service for viewing and managing base servers and receivers;

at least one service for creating and running deployment report queries;

at least one service for assigning access rights to base servers and receivers and restricting users rights to initiate deployments;

at least one service for configuring database auto-synchronization; and

managing syndicated content offers and subscriptions.

59. The method of claim 45, further comprising a step of providing event triggers for integrating external programs into a deployment, wherein external tasks are launched on source and/or target systems.

60. The method of claim 45, further comprising a step of invoking a payload adapter module at the start of a deployment for integrating a sender with an arbitrary source, wherein said payload adaptor prepares a payload of files to be returned to said sender from the source.

61. The method of claim 45, further comprising a step of invoking a delivery adaptor after files are deployed to a target, wherein said delivery adapter is invoked with a manifest of deployed files, and wherein said adapter processes said deployed files.

62. The method of claim 45, further comprising an interface for programmatic access to system services.

63. The method of claim 45, wherein said system is scalable to include multi-tiered development topologies including servers inside and outside of firewalls.

64. The method of claim 45, further comprising a step of distributing only incremental changes between a source and each target in a deployment.

65. The method of claim 45, wherein a sender is configured to deploy to multiple targets in parallel.

66. The method of claim 65, wherein said deployment configuration defines logical nodes and replication farms that are independent of a physical topology.

67. The method of claim 45, wherein said deployment configuration defines routed deployments by computing a route from a pre-defined set of route segments.

68. The method of claim 45, wherein said deployment configuration specifies rules for including and excluding files and directories.

69. The method of claim 45, wherein said deployment configuration specifies transfer rules to describe how data is to be handled during transfer.

70. The method of claim 45, wherein said deployment configuration specifies permission and ownership rules for deployed files and directories.

71. The method of claim 45, wherein said step of tracking and rolling back transactional deployments comprises steps of:

defining a deployment by means of a deployment configuration, wherein said deployment configuration specifies that a deployment is transactional; and

rolling back a deployment transaction by means of system services to restore each target to its last known good state in the event of failure.

72. The method of claim 71, wherein each leg of a parallel deployment is synchronized with all other legs.

73. The method of claim 71, wherein said deployment configuration specifies a quorum for a parallel deployment, wherein said quorum comprises a defined sub-set of a total number of targets.

74. The method of claim 73, further comprising a step of, if a deployment to the quorum succeeds, committing successful targets and rolling back failed targets.

75. The method of claim 45, further comprising a step of creating log files on sender and receiver systems by means of a logging facility.

76. The method of claim 75, further comprising a step of viewing said log files by means of a log viewer, said log viewer included in said logging facility.

77. The method of claim 45, further comprising any of the steps of:

locking down command line invocations to specific hosts; and

confining user authentication for the administration module to one or more specific access services.

78. The method of claim 45, further comprising a step of synchronizing automated deployments of content from a plurality of repositories.

79. The method of claim 45, further comprising a step of deploying data updates to relational databases by means of a data deployment module.

80. The method of claim 79, wherein said step of deploying data updates to relational databases comprises any of the steps of:

specifying type and location of source files;

specifying which schema mapping to use;

specifying a target database.

81. The method of claim 79, wherein said step of deploying data updates to relational databases comprises any of the steps of:

mapping document type definition to a target database schema; and

creating a wrapper configuration.

82. The method of claim 79, wherein said step of deploying data updates to relational databases comprises a step of:

synchronizing delivery of structured content to a target database with delivery of code and unstructured content file to multiple servers.

83. The method of claim 45, wherein said step of distributing and syndicating content based on content attributes by means of an intelligent delivery module comprises any of the steps of:

specifying deployment criteria in the form of a metadata query; and

providing a payload adapter that supports use of a JDBC-compliant database as a metadata repository.

84. The method of claim 45, further comprising a step of automating secure provisioning of web updates by means of a web change management hub.

85. The method of claim 84, wherein said step of automating secure provisioning of web updates by means of a web change management hub comprises any of the steps of:

aggregating and coordinating change sets from multiple code and content repositories;

aggregating code, content and configuration files that are ready to be provisioned into editions, wherein an edition is deployed to a target.

86. The method of claim 85, wherein an edition deploys incremental changes to a target server, and wherein said edition provides an efficient mechanism for recording current state of said target server at any time.

87. The method of claim 86, wherein said content deployment system rolls back said target server to a previous state based on said recorded current state by deploying files that differ between previous and current editions.

88. The method of claim 85, wherein an edition preserves accurate snapshots of a web application as it existed at specific points in time, so that audit requirements are satisfied.