Configuration inheritance in system configuration

• US 7,870,538 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2005
• Issued: 01/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Mueller, Thomas, Zenz, Ingo
• Primary Examiner(s): Kang; Insun
• Application Number:
  US11/322,965
• Publication Number:
  US 20070168965A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,838 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/121
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses provide configuration inheritance. One configuration can be derived from another (target) configuration, and properties and all content of the target configuration are inherited by the derived configuration. The derived properties and all content may exist virtually at the derived configuration, and local settings can exist locally at the configuration. The configuration architecture may allow for overwriting the derived configuration with local content to allow for modifications of the derived content to adapt to the circumstance/environment of the derived configuration.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

deriving a second configuration from a first configuration, the second configuration being for an associated system;

inheriting properties of the first configuration to the derived second configuration, the inherited properties to exist locally at the first configuration and virtually at the second configuration;

storing the inherited properties and at least one local value setting of the associated system in a storage device as the second configuration, wherein an indirect reference to the properties of the first configuration is stored locally at the second configuration; and

overwriting at least one of the inherited properties with a value local to the second configuration, the value local to the second configuration obtained from the at least one local value setting.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first configuration comprises a default template configuration.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second configuration comprises a system-level configuration implementation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein inheriting the properties of the first configuration comprises:

inheriting all properties of the first configuration to the second configuration.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one local value setting is managed by a configuration machine as though the at least one local value setting were an inherited property.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein overwriting the at least one of the inherited properties with the local value further comprises:

building within the second configuration a structure of the at least one of the inherited properties to store locally the at least one of the inherited properties with the local value.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein building the structure within the second configuration further comprises:

building only the overwritten at least one of the inherited properties and any base structure; and

leaving un-built non-overwritten content of the first configuration structure.

8. An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having content stored thereon to provide instructions to cause a machine to perform operations, including:

deriving a configuration from a default template configuration to generate an implementation of the default template configuration within the context of a system;

inheriting a property of the default template configuration to the derived configuration, the inherited property to exist locally at the default template configuration and virtually at the derived configuration, wherein an indirect reference to the property of the default template configuration is stored locally at the derived configuration; and

modifying the derived configuration to include a local property not derived from the default template configuration, wherein the modifying comprises overwriting the inherited property with the local property.

9. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein the context of the system comprises a cluster of application services of a server in a network.

10. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein the inherited property to exist virtually at the derived configuration comprises:

the inherited property to exist in a memory, and not in a configuration storage at the derived configuration level.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein the instructions to perform modifying the derived configuration to include a local property not derived from the default template configuration further comprises instructions to perform:

generating the local property physically at the derived configuration; and

generating a reference from the local property to the default template configuration, even though the local property does not exist in the default template configuration.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 11, the content further comprising instructions to perform:

inheriting content related to the local property from the default template configuration to the derived configuration if the local property is subsequently added to the default template configuration.

13. An apparatus comprising:

a network interface circuit to connect a network having a configuration consumer device to receive a system-level configuration, and a system configuration store having a system profile for the configuration consumer device; and

a configuration machine coupled to the network interface circuit to derive the system-level configuration from a default-level configuration, the configuration machine to inherit a property from the default-level configuration to the system-level configuration, a data structure of the inherited property to exist within the default-level configuration and virtually at the system-level configuration, and the system-level configuration to include a property local to the system-level configuration different from the default-level configuration and a reference to the data structure, wherein the inherited property is overwritten with the property local to the system-level configuration.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the system profile includes hardware dependencies and system dependencies.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the derived content of the system-level configuration comprises object references to objects of the default-level configuration.

16. A computer-implemented method for configuring a system, comprising:

providing a default configuration, the default configuration to provide default values for configuration properties applicable to multiple configuration instances, the default configuration having content indicated as non-modifiable;

using a configuration machine, deriving a derived configuration from the default configuration;

inheriting the properties of the default configuration to the derived configuration, the inherited properties to exist locally at the default configuration and virtually at the derived configuration, wherein the derived configuration includes a reference to the properties of the default configuration; and

overwriting an inherited configuration property of the inherited properties not indicated as non-modifiable with a value local to the derived configuration.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the default configuration is indicated as a whole to be non-modifiable to indicate all content of the default configuration is non-modifiable.