Configuration management database (CMDB) which establishes policy artifacts and automatic tagging of the same

• US 7,971,231 B2
• Filed: 10/02/2007
• Issued: 06/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gupta, Pratik, Rajaraman, Balachandar, Kaminsky, David L., Lindquist, David B., Joshi, Neeraj
• Primary Examiner(s): Cervetti; David Garcia
• Application Number:
  US11/866,243
• Publication Number:
  US 20090089072A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,365 Days
• Field of Search: 726/1, 726/4
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/20 of structured data, e.g. relational data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0866 Checking the configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management

Abstract

The present invention discloses a solution for managing policy artifacts using a configuration management database (CMDB). Policies can be associated with a number of information technology resources, such as servers, businesses applications and the like. The solution permits automatic tagging of the policies (auto-discovery) as they enter the CMDB. For example, when a policy is added, it can be compared against a set of tagging rules. Multiple rules can match a new policy, which results in multiple tags being added for the policy. The policy specific tags can be optionally indexed for faster searching. Once indexed, the CMDB can support policy and policy tag based queries. In one embodiment, policy artifacts can be manipulated within a CMDB tool in a manner consistent with how the CMDB tool handles configuration items (CIs).

Claims

1. A configuration management database (CMDB) system comprising hardware and software comprising:

a plurality of configuration items (CIs) stored in a physical storage medium able to be accessed and utilized by computing equipment, wherein each configuration item is a data structure representing an information technology resource that is placed under configuration management;

a plurality of policy artifacts stored in a physical storage medium able to be accessed and utilized by computing equipment, wherein each policy artifact is associated with a policy related to an information technology resource; and

a plurality of policy tags stored in a physical storage medium able to be accessed and utilized by computing equipment that are related to the policy artifacts, wherein said policy tags are indexed to a set of searchable keywords, which are able to be used when searching for related policy artifacts.

2. The configuration management database system of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of tagging rules stored in a physical storage medium able to be accessed and utilized by computing equipment, which are used by the configuration management database system to automatically select specific ones of the policy tags and to associate the selected policy tags to at least one of the policy artifacts.

3. The configuration management database system of claim 2, wherein a plurality of tagging rules are applicable for at least one of the policy artifacts, which results in a plurality of policy tags, one for each of the tagging rules, being associated with the at least one policy artifact.

4. The configuration management database system of claim 1, further comprising:

an auto-discovery engine for automatically detecting changes to the information technology resources under configuration management and for automatically adjusting the configuration items and the policy artifacts in accordance with the detected changes.

5. The configuration management database system of claim 4, wherein the configuration management database system is a cross-product solution that is configured to centrally manage all policies of an enterprise, said policies comprising usage policies, security policies, access policies, development policies, implementation policies, and training policies.

6. The configuration management database system of claim 4, further comprising:

an administration interface comprising a software program stored in a physical storage medium able to be used by computing equipment for permitting a user to manually manipulate the configuration items, the policy artifacts, the policy tags, and the policy tags.

7. A method for automatically categorizing a usage policy in a configuration management database comprising:

acquiring a policy artifact from computing equipment, wherein the policy artifact defines a usage parameter for one or more resource items contained within a configuration management database;

comparing the acquired policy artifact to at least one tagging rule utilizing computing equipment, wherein the tagging rule specifies a set of programmatic instructions for categorizing policy artifacts;

when the result of the comparing step indicates that the tagging rule is applicable, associating via computing equipment the applicable policy tags with a related policy artifact using the applicable tagging rule, wherein the policy tags are able to be used when searching for the policy artifact; and

during the associating of the policy tags with the related policy artifact, entering the policy tags via computing equipment into a designated attribute field of a database record of the configuration management database that corresponds to the policy artifact, wherein said hardware of said configuration management database system comprises a configuration management server which standardizes, centrally manages, and shares configuration management information, said configuration management database system comprising a user interface permitting a remotely located user accessing the server via a user interface to access managed information of configuration items, policy artifacts, relationships between configuration items and policy artifacts, and to view all pending change and release schedules for configuration items and policy artifacts.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

storing via computing equipment the policy artifact within a policy database table within the configuration management database, wherein storage within the configuration management database allows standard database functions to be performed upon and with the policy table, wherein standard database functions include, at a minimum, adding new records, modifying existing records, deleting existing records, creating relationships between records, and querying existing records.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the comparing and associating of policy artifacts occur automatically in response to the acquiring step.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the comparing of policy artifacts is repeated for a plurality of policy templates, and wherein the associating step is likewise repeated upon the result of the comparing step.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the acquiring step occurs as the result of an automated process initiated by the configuration management database.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the acquiring step occurs as the result of a manual input of the policy artifact into the configuration management database.

13. The method of claim 7, comprising:

detecting changes via computing equipment to information technology resources under configuration management; and

adjusting configuration items and the policy artifacts of the configuration management database using computing equipment responsive to and in accordance with the detected changes, where the adjusting of configuration items and the policy artifacts is not dependent upon manually entered user input.

14. A software program stored in a machine readable medium comprising:

a data repository of information related to all components of an enterprise information system, the data repository recording in a non-transitory storage medium configuration items and details about attributes of each of the configuration items and relationships between configuration items, wherein the data repository also stores at least one policy artifact indexed against configuration items for policies associated with information technology resources; and

a plurality of tagging rules related to policy artifacts, wherein said tagging rules are used to associate policy tags with policy artifacts, wherein the policy tags are associated with a set of keywords that are able to be used when searching for the policy artifacts.

15. The software program of claim 14, further comprising:

an auto-discovery engine configured to automatically detecting changes to the information technology resources under configuration management and for automatically adjusting the configuration items and the policy artifacts in accordance with the detected changes.

16. The software program of claim 14, wherein a single policy artifact is able to be related to at least two tagging rules, which generate at least two policy tags for the policy artifact.

17. The software program of claim 14, wherein the information technology resources comprise servers, storage devices, networks, middleware, application, and data, wherein said software program running in a configuration management server comprising hardware, said software program enabling the configuration management server to standardize, centrally manage, and share configuration management information of said data repository, said software enabling a user interface permitting a remotely located user accessing the server via a user interface to access managed information of the data repository for configuration items, policy artifacts, relationships between configuration items and policy artifacts, and to view all pending change and release schedules for configuration items and policy artifacts.

18. The software program of claim 14, wherein the policy artifacts are acquired as a result of an automated process initiated by a configuration management program.