Method and system for executing system management flows

• US 8,055,773 B2
• Filed: 11/06/2006
• Issued: 11/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lueck, Einar, Spatzier, Thomas, Maass, Ruediger, Breiter, Gerd, Rost, Steffen
• Primary Examiner(s): Hamza; Faruk
• Application Number:
  US11/556,728
• Publication Number:
  US 20080109806A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,828 Days
• Field of Search: 709223-229, 709/203, 718/101
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups

Abstract

Orders are processed within an Order Processing Environment which includes an Order Processing Container, Relationship Registry, and Factory Registry. The Order Processing Environment is extended by a Reference Resolvement Function Component. The RRFC provides the basic functionality for resolving References defined in the Order Document at runtime and make the referenced data available as a usual input parameter for the resources involved in the Order Processing. Each Task in the Order may contain Resource Property References and Resource Property Relationship References which are pointers to properties of resources. These references are resolved by the RRFC during the Order Processing before the Order Document is delegated from one resource to the next. When resolving a Reference, the value of the referenced Resource Property is determined and the Reference is replaced by this value so that it can be used by the resource having it defined in its Task section as a usual input parameter. Hence, by using References, resources are able to get access to the properties of other resources that participate in the Order Processing or are contained in the Resource Topology tree and use them as an input parameter for executing their own Task without having to know where the data is gathered from.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for executing system management flows in system management systems for IT Service Environments, wherein said system management system is an Order Processing Environment, wherein said Order Processing Environment includes at least an Order Processing Container, Relationship Registry, and an Order which is being processed by said Order Processing Container, wherein said Order includes a number of resource specific Tasks without arranging those in a sequence, wherein said Tasks provide actions for creating and/or modifying resource topologies, wherein each Task includes Resource Property References specified by Resource Type and Resource Property Name and Resource Property Relationship References specified by Resource Type and at least one Relation name and Resource Property Name, wherein said method is part of the normal Order Processing and is being executed if said Order is returned from a resource (sending resource) to said Container, the method comprising the steps of:

a) querying said Order for all Resource Property References which specify properties of said sending resource,

b) determining said values of said specified properties of sending resource,

c) replacing said references by said values in said Order,

d) querying said Relationship Registry for a resource which has a relationship to said sending resource by said Order Processing Container,

e) querying said Order for said resource of step d) for resource property relationship references which specify properties of said identified resource as a starting point,

f) querying said Relationship Registry for a resource which has a relationship to said resource of step d) and which is named by a relation name specified in the resource property relationship reference,

g) determining said values of said specified properties of said resource according to step f),

h) replacing said resource property relationship reference by said values in said Order, and

j) repeating said steps a)-h) for all sending resources.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said method further comprises the step of:

each resource providing an interface for querying its resource properties.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein said method further comprises the step of:

said interface providing an additional query functionality for querying all or parts of the resource property names provided by said resource.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said method further comprises the step of:

including an additional Resource Instance Name in said Resource Property References or Resource Property Relationship Reference if more than one Resource Instances of the same Resource Type are referenced by said References.

5. The method according claim 1, wherein said step f)comprises the steps of:

i) querying said Relationship Registry for resources which have relationship to said identified resource according to step d) and which is named by the first relation name specified in the resource property relationship reference; and

ii) storing said identified resource, and repeating said step i) for all subsequent relation names in said Resource Property Relationship Reference.

6. The method according claim 1, wherein said method further comprises the step of:

each resource providing an interface for processing said Order.

7. System for executing system management flows in system management systems for IT Service Environments, wherein said system management system is an Order Processing Environment, wherein said Order Processing Environment includes a computer having at least an Order Processing Container, Relationship Registry, and an Order which is being processed by said Order Processing Container, wherein said Order includes a number of resource specific Tasks without being arranged in a sequence, wherein said Tasks provide actions for creating and/or modifying resource topologies, wherein each Task includes Resource Property References specified by Resource Type and Resource Property Name and Resource Property Relationship References specified by Resource Type and at least one Relation name and Resource Property Name, wherein said system includes a Reference Resolvement Function Component which extends the Order Processing Environment and becomes involved if said Order is returned from a resource (sending resource) to said Container, wherein said system is configured to perform a method comprising:

a) querying said Order for all Resource Property References which specify properties of said sending resource,

b) determining said values of said specified properties of said sending resource,

c) replacing said references by said values in said Order,

d) querying said Relationship Registry for resources which have a relationship to said first resource by said Order Processing Container,

e) querying said Order for said first resource for resource property relationship references which specify properties of said identified resource as a starting point,

f) querying said Relationship Registry for a resource which has a relationship to said identified resource and which is named by a relation name specified in the resource property relationship reference,

g) determining said values of said specified properties of said resource,

h) replacing said resource property relationship reference by said values in said Order, and i) activating a)-h) for each sending resource.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein each resource provides an interface for querying its resource properties by said Reference Resolvement Function Component.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein said interface provides an additional query functionality for querying all or parts of the resource property names provided by said resource.

10. The system according to claim 7, wherein said Resource Property References or Resource Property Relationship Reference includes an additional Resource Instance Name if more than one Resource Instances of the same Resource Type are referenced by said References.

11. The system according claim 7, wherein each resource provides an interface for processing said Order.

12. A computer program product stored on non-transitory computer usable medium comprising computer readable program instructions for causing a computer to perform the following method steps when said computer program is executed on a computer, said computer comprising a system management system, wherein said system management system is an Order Processing Environment, wherein said Order Processing Environment includes at least an Order Processing Container, Relationship Registry, and an Order which is being processed by said Order Processing Container, wherein said Order includes a number of resource specific Tasks without arranging those in a sequence, wherein said Tasks provide actions for creating and/or modifying resource topologies, wherein each Task includes Resource Property References specified by Resource Type and Resource Property Name and Resource Property Relationship References specified by Resource Type and at least one Relation name and Resource Property Name, wherein said method is part of the normal Order Processing and is being executed if said Order is returned from a resource (sending resource) to said Container, the method steps comprising:

a) querying said Order for all Resource Property References which specify properties of said sending resource,

b) determining said values of said specified properties of sending resource,

c) replacing said references by said values in said Order,

d) querying said Relationship Registry for a resource which has a relationship to said sending resource by said Order Processing Container,

e) querying said Order for said resource of step d) for resource property relationship references which specify properties of said identified resource as a starting point,

f) querying said Relationship Registry for a resource which has a relationship to said resource of step d) and which is named by a relation name specified in the resource property relationship reference,

g) determining said values of said specified properties of said resource according to step f),

h) replacing said resource property relationship reference by said values in said Order, and

j) repeating said steps a)-h) for all sending resources.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 further comprising additional computer readable program instructions for causing said computer to perform the step of:

each resource providing an interface for querying its resource properties.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising additional computer readable program instructions for causing said computer to perform the step of:

said interface providing an additional query functionality for querying all or parts of the resource property names provided by said resource.

15. The computer program product of claim 12 further comprising additional computer readable program instructions for causing said computer to perform the step of:

including an additional Resource Instance Name in said Resource Property References or Resource Property Relationship Reference if more than one Resource Instances of the same Resource Type are referenced by said References.

16. The computer program product of claim 12 further comprising additional computer readable program instructions wherein said step f)comprises the steps of:

i) querying said Relationship Registry for resources which have relationship to said identified resource according to step d) and which is named by the first relation name specified in the resource property relationship reference; and

ii) storing said identified resource, and repeating said step i) for all subsequent relation names in said Resource Property Relationship Reference.

17. The computer program product of claim 12 further comprising additional computer readable program instructions for causing said computer to perform the step of:

each resource providing an interface for processing said Order.