Automated treatment of system and application validation failures

• US 7,962,788 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2007
• Issued: 06/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Manglik, Gaurav, Sastry, Vishwanath S., Paliwal, Bharat
• Primary Examiner(s): Baderman; Scott T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Truong; Loan
• Application Number:
  US11/738,946
• Publication Number:
  US 20070288903A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,513 Days
• Field of Search: 714/25, 714/21, 714/37, 717/124, 717/125, 717/168, 703/1
• US Class Current: 714/25
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment

Abstract

Automated tools to validate a system environment for an application (and/or any other type of software component) and/or repair system environment conditions that might prevent the proper installation and/or functioning of the application or component are presented. Such tools can facilitate the installation and/or upgrade of software by automating the process of ensuring that all necessary requirements for the proper functioning of the software have been met.

Claims

1. A computer system, comprising:

a processor; and

a computer readable medium in communication with the processor, the computer readable medium having encoded thereon a software program, the software program comprising;

a validation engine that is configured to;

receive a set of validation check data for validating a system environment for an application, the validation check data comprising information about one or more requirements for proper functioning of the application;

perform at least one validation check defined by the set of validation check data, the at least one validation check pertaining to at least one of the one or more requirements;

based on the at least one validation check, identify a system environment condition that needs to be repaired for proper functioning of the application; and

generate output comprising information about the identified system environment condition;

a listener that is configured to;

receive the output generated by the validation engine; and

based on the data about the identified system environment condition, invoke a repair engine to repair the identified system environment condition; and

the repair engine that is configured to;

evaluate a repair rule corresponding to the identified system environment condition; and

based at least in part on an evaluation of the repair rule, perform a set of one or more operations to repair the identified system environment condition, so that the application can function properly.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the set of one or more operations are performed in response to the repair engine being invoked by the listener and without user input to the repair engine.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the output generated by the validation engine comprises an event, and wherein the listener is configured to receive the event.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the listener is incorporated with the repair engine.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the identified system environment condition is selected from the group consisting of:

a missing dependency;

an incorrect version of a dependency;

a dependency misconfiguration; and

an operating system misconfiguration.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the listener is further configured to provide the information about the identified system environment condition to the repair engine.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the listener is further configured to provide the repair rule to the repair engine.

8. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the validation engine is further configured to receive the repair rule, and wherein the information about the identified system event comprises the repair rule.

9. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising a data store configured to store a plurality of repair rules.

10. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the repair engine is configured to obtain the repair rule from the data store in response to being invoked by the listener.

11. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the software program is configured to provide output to a user comprising information about the repair rule and a result of the one or more operations performed to repair the identified system environment condition.

12. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the set of validation check data comprises the repair rule.

13. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the repair engine is further configured to generate a set of one or more repair engine events.

14. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the set of one or more repair engine events comprises an event providing notification that a repair operation has begun.

15. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the set of one or more repair engine events comprises an event providing notification of a completion status of a repair operation.

16. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the repair rule comprises a set of executable code that is executable to perform the one or more operations to repair the identified system environment condition.

17. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the set of executable code comprises one or more operating system commands.

18. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the set of executable code comprises one or more Java methods.

19. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the repair rule comprises:

a descriptor file comprising a namespace for the one or more operations to repair the identified system condition;

a plurality of sets of executable code that are executable to perform the one or more operations to repair the identified system condition; and

mapping data that maps the namespace to a first of the plurality of sets of executable code.

20. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the mapping data is specific to a type of system environment corresponding to the system environment for the application, and wherein the first set of executable commands are specific to the type of system environment.

21. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the software program is incorporated within an installation program for the application.

22. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the software program is configured to perform validation and repair procedures for a plurality of applications, based on sets of validation check data and repair rules specific to each of the plurality of applications.

23. The computer system of claim 22, wherein:

the application is a first application, the set of validation check data is a first set of validation check data, the at least one validation check is a first validation check, the system environment condition is a first system environment condition, the output is first output, the repair rule is a first repair rule, and the set of one or more operations is a first set of one or more operations;

the validation engine is further configured to;

receive a second set of validation check data for validating the system environment for a second application;

perform a second validation check defined by the second set of validation check data;

based on the second validation check, identify a second system environment condition that needs to be repaired for proper functioning of the second application; and

generate second output comprising information about the second identified system environment condition;

the listener is further configured to;

receive the second output;

based on the data about the second identified system environment condition, invoke the repair engine to repair the second identified system environment condition; and

the repair engine is further configured to;

evaluate a second repair rule corresponding to second the identified system environment condition; and

based at least in part on an evaluation of the second repair rule, perform a second set of one or more operations to repair the second identified system environment condition, so that the second application can function properly.

24. The computer system of claim 23, wherein the first application is a primary application, and wherein the second application is an integrated application.

25. The computer system of claim 23, wherein the first application and the second application are unrelated applications.

26. A computer-implemented method of validating and repairing a system environment for an application, the method comprising:

receiving a set of validation check data for validating the system environment for the application;

performing, using a processor operatively coupled to a memory, at least one validation check defined by the set of validation check data;

based, at least in part, on the at least one validation check, identifying a system environment condition that needs to be repaired for proper functioning of the application;

evaluating a repair rule corresponding to the identified system environment condition; and

based at least in part on an evaluation of the repair rule, performing one or more operations to repair the identified system environment condition, so that the application can function properly.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the validation check is performed at a validation engine, wherein the method further comprises:

generating, at the validation engine, output comprising information about the identified system environment condition;

receiving the output at a listener; and

invoking a repair engine based at least in part on the information about the identified system condition, wherein the repair rule is evaluated at the repair engine and the one or more operations are performed by the repair engine.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein generating output comprises triggering an event.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein:

the repair rule comprises;

a descriptor file comprising a namespace for the one or more operations to repair the identified system condition;

a plurality of sets of executable commands that are executable to perform the one or more operations to repair the identified system condition; and

mapping data that maps the namespace to a first of the plurality of sets of executable commands, the mapping data being specific to a type of system environment corresponding to the system environment for the application, and wherein the first set of executable commands are specific to the type of system environment; and

evaluating the repair rule comprises;

reading the descriptor file to identify a namespace for the one or more operations to repair the identified system condition;

reading the mapping data to identify, from the plurality of sets of executable commands, a first set of executable commands that corresponds to the system environment for the application; and

loading the first set of executable commands.

30. A tangible computer-readable medium having encoded thereon a set of instructions executable by one or more processors, the set of instructions comprising:

instructions for receiving a set of validation check data for validating the system environment for the application;

instructions for performing at least one validation check defined by the set of validation check data;

instructions for identifying based, at least in part, on the at least one validation check, a system environment condition that needs to be repaired for proper functioning of the application;

instructions for evaluating a repair rule corresponding to the identified system environment condition; and

instructions for performing one or more operations to repair the identified system environment condition, based at least in part on an evaluation of the repair rule, so that the application can function properly.

31. A computer-implemented method comprising:

storing first data that identifies first validation checks for validating a system environment for a first application, wherein the first application uses a second application;

storing second data that identifies second validation checks for validating a system environment for the second application;

storing third data that indicates that the first application uses the second application;

in response to a request to perform an operation that involves the first application, reading the third data to determine that validation checks identified in the first and second data need to be performed;

reading the first and second data to determine which validation checks, of the first and second validation checks, need to be performed;

performing, using a processor operatively coupled to a memory, at least one of the validation checks, from the first and second validation checks, that need to be performed;

based on the at least one of the validation checks, identifying a system environment condition that needs to be repaired for proper functioning of the first application;

evaluating a repair rule corresponding to the identified system environment condition, and

based at least in part on an evaluation of the repair rule, performing one or more operations to repair the identified system environment condition.

32. A computer-implemented method comprising:

storing, in association with an application, data that identifies validation checks for validating a system environment for the application;

wherein the data associates each mode of a plurality of modes with a subset of the validation checks;

in response to a request to perform an operation that involves the application,

determining a mode;

of the plurality of modes, associated with the operation,

based on the data, determining the particular subset of validation checks that are associated with the mode; and

performing, using a processor operatively coupled to a memory, at least one of the validation checks in the particular subset of validation checks;

based on the at least one of the validation checks, identifying a system environment condition that needs to be repaired for proper functioning of the application;

evaluating a repair rule corresponding to the identified system environment condition, and

based at least in part on an evaluation of the repair rule, performing one or more operations to repair the identified system environment condition.