Automated discovery of a multitier compute infrastructure
First Claim
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1. A computer-implemented method implemented in modules of a computer apparatus for discovering a topology of a multitier compute infrastructure, the method comprising:
- discovering components in the multitier compute infrastructure, including components in an application tier, compute tier, and network tier;
discovering physical relationships between components in the multitier compute infrastructure, including components in the application, compute, and network tiers and a containment of applications on hardware components;
generating an inventory of discovered components and the physical relationships, including a business services component table indicating business services, an application component table, and a network component table, wherein a business service defines relationship between components in the multitier compute infrastructure and business functions; and
deducing non-physical relationships between components in the inventory, based at least in part on information obtained in the operations of discovering components and discovering physical relationships, wherein the deduced non-physical relationships comprise at least one of transactional dependencies indicating connectivity between applications and service dependencies indicating services an application uses, and wherein the deduced non-physical relationships include at least a first relationship table identifying a containment relationship of the network components indicated in the network component table containing application components indicated in the application component table, and a second relationship table identifying business services and the application components indicated in the application component table that perform the business service functions;
generating the topology map of the multitier compute infrastructure to include information from the generated inventory and the deduced non-physical relationships.
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Abstract
A topology of a multitier compute infrastructure is automatically discovered. Discovery can be roughly divided into two phases. In one phase, components and physical relationships are discovered. In the other phase, non-physical relationships between the components are deduced. The second phase typically is based in part on information obtained in the first phase. In one application, the components and relationships that are discovered/deduced are used to build a map of the multitier compute infrastructure.
113 Citations
27 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method implemented in modules of a computer apparatus for discovering a topology of a multitier compute infrastructure, the method comprising:
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discovering components in the multitier compute infrastructure, including components in an application tier, compute tier, and network tier; discovering physical relationships between components in the multitier compute infrastructure, including components in the application, compute, and network tiers and a containment of applications on hardware components; generating an inventory of discovered components and the physical relationships, including a business services component table indicating business services, an application component table, and a network component table, wherein a business service defines relationship between components in the multitier compute infrastructure and business functions; and deducing non-physical relationships between components in the inventory, based at least in part on information obtained in the operations of discovering components and discovering physical relationships, wherein the deduced non-physical relationships comprise at least one of transactional dependencies indicating connectivity between applications and service dependencies indicating services an application uses, and wherein the deduced non-physical relationships include at least a first relationship table identifying a containment relationship of the network components indicated in the network component table containing application components indicated in the application component table, and a second relationship table identifying business services and the application components indicated in the application component table that perform the business service functions; generating the topology map of the multitier compute infrastructure to include information from the generated inventory and the deduced non-physical relationships. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. An interface module implemented in a computer apparatus having a processor, wherein the processor executes the interface module to discover a topology of a multitier compute infrastructure, the interface module comprising:
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a discovery builder for discovering components in the multitier compute infrastructure, for discovering physical relationships between components in the multitier compute infrastructure, including components in an application, compute, and network tiers and a containment of applications on hardware components, and for generating an inventory of discovered components and the physical relationships, including a business services component table, and a network component table, wherein a business service defines relationship between components in the multitier compute infrastructure and business functions; a dependency builder for deducing non-physical relationships between discovered components, based at least in part on information discovered by the discovery builder, wherein the deduced non-physical relationships comprise at least one of transactional dependencies indicating connectivity between applications and service dependencies indicating services an application uses, and wherein the deduced non-physical relationships include at least a first relationship table identifying a containment relationship of the network components indicated in the network component table containing application components indicated in the application component table, and a second relationship table identifying business services and the application components indicated in the application component table that perform the business service functions; and a topology manager for building a multitier topology map of the multitier compute infrastructure based at least in part on information discovered by the discovery builder on the dependency builder. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A dependency builder implemented in a computer apparatus having a processor, wherein the processor executes the dependency builder for deducing non-physical relationships between components in an inventory for a multitier compute infrastructure, the dependency builder comprising:
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a plurality of agents, each agents for deducing a specific non-physical relationship, wherein the deduced non-physical relationships comprise at least one of transactional dependencies indicating connectivity between applications and service dependencies indicating services an application uses, wherein the deduced non-physical relationships are determined from an inventory of discovered components in the multitier compute infrastructure and discovered physical relationships between the components in the multitier compute infrastructure, including components in an application tier, compute tier, and network tier, wherein the inventory includes a business services component table indicating business services, an application component table, and a network component table, wherein a business service defines relationship between components in the multitier compute infrastructure and business functions, and wherein the deduced non-physical relationships include at least a first relationship table identifying a containment relationship of the network components indicated in the network component table containing application components indicated in the application component table, and a second relationship table identifying business services and the application components indicated in the application component table that perform the business service functions; and a dependency manager for dispatching the agents and communicate with a topology manager to maintain a multi-tier topology map. - View Dependent Claims (27)
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Specification