Application change control

• US 8,195,931 B1
• Filed: 10/29/2008
• Issued: 06/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: McAfee, LLC
• Original Assignee: McAfee, Inc. (McAfee, LLC)
• Inventors: Sharma, Rosen, Bhargava, Rishi, Vittal, Chiradeep, Eranky, Shyam
• Primary Examiner(s): Wang, Albert
• Application Number:
  US12/290,380
• Time in Patent Office: 1,315 Days
• Field of Search: 713/100, 703/21, 703/22, 709/221, 726/22
• US Class Current: 713/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A change management system for and method of change management control, monitoring, and analysis is disclosed. A change management system comprises a means for generating configuration item change information, and a means for processing configuration item change information for logical system groups according to an information structure. The information structure for the logical groups is comprised at least one of change rule information for the configuration items, interrelationship information between the configuration items and the system components, interrelationship information between system components. The method can be used as a monitoring tool for determining the effect of configuration changes. The configuration item change information is analyzed according to an information structure which comprises at least one of information structure that defines one or more configuration item change rules, interrelationship information between the at least one configuration item and one or more system components, and interrelationship information between one or more system components.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a program memory for storing data; and

a central processing unit operable to execute instructions associated with the data, wherein the central processing unit and the program memory cooperate, such that the apparatus is configured for;

receiving change information for a configuration item associated with a system component; and

processing the change information according to an information structure, comprising;

a logical group associated with at least one of;

the configuration item and the system component;

change rule information for the configuration item;

interrelationship information between the configuration item and a second configuration item;

change rule information for the system component;

interrelationship information between the configuration item and the system component;

interrelationship information between the system component and a second system component;

change rule information for the logical group; and

interrelationship information between the logical group logical group,

comprises a selected one of a group of activities, the group consisting of;

(a) monitoring configuration changes to the logical group;

(b) simulating a change to the configuration item according to the change information; and

(c) using the information structure to configure one or more change controllers to control changes to the configuration item according to the change information.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising one or more system components and one or more configuration items, wherein each system component comprises one or more configuration items.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein each logical group consists of one or more system components, and one or more configuration items, wherein each system component comprises at least one configuration item.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is further configured for:

generating one or more notifications when the change information is processed according to the information structure.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the notification includes at least one of a report, an email, an SMS text message, a page, an SNMP message, and an automated phone message.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the change rule information comprises parameters for at least one of:

an authorized user, an authorized program, a time window, and a data value.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the interrelationship information between the configuration item and the system component, and the interrelationship information between the system component and the second system component further comprise an indicator of an effect of a change in the one or more system components or configuration item on each logical group.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the change information is generated from an application coupled to a least one of the system component and the configuration item.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the configuration item is selected from a group consisting of a file, a registry, a database, and a virtual machine.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the change information comprises:

a file creation, a file deletion, a file data, a registry creation, a registry deletion, a registry change value, a virtual machine setting change, a virtual machine setting value, a database change, a time of processing the change information, a program making the change information, an operational program making the change information, a reason for a change failure or a combination thereof.

11. A method comprising

generating change information for a configuration item associated with a system component;

and

processing the change information according to an information structure, comprising;

a logical group associated with at least one of;

the configuration item and the system component;

change rule information for the configuration item;

interrelationship information between the configuration item and a second configuration item;

change rule information for a system component;

interrelationship information between the configuration item and the system component;

interrelationship information between the system component and a second system component;

change rule information for the logical group; and

interrelationship information between the logical group and another logical group,

wherein the processing comprises a selected one of a group of activities, the group consisting of;

(a) monitoring configuration changes to the logical group;

(b) simulating a change to the configuration item according to the change information; and

(c) using the information structure to configure one or more change controllers to control changes to the configuration item according to the change information.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of generating a notification based on the processing of the change information according to the information structure.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the notification comprises at least one of a report, an email, an SMS text message, a page, SNMP message, and an automated phone message.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the change rule information for the configuration item comprises parameters for at least one or more of:

an authorized user, an authorized program, a time window, and a data value.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the interrelationship information between the configuration item and the system component, and the interrelationship information between the system component and the second system component includes an indicator of an effect of a configuration item change to the logical group.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the configuration item is comprised of:

one or more files, registries, databases, virtual machines, or a combination thereof.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the change information is selected form a group consisting of:

a file creation, a file deletion, a file data, a registry creation, a registry deletion, a registry change value, a virtual machine setting change, a virtual machine setting value, a database change, time of processing the change information, a program making the change information, and any combination thereof.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the change information is provided by a change monitoring application coupled to at least one of:

the configuration item and the system component.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the change information further controls changes to configuration item in accordance with configuration parameters.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the configuration parameters are determined from the information structure.

21. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

a. processing a plurality of logical group information structures associated with one or more logical groups, wherein the processing the plurality of logical group information structures comprises determining interrelationship information between each logical group, wherein each logical group information structure comprises

interrelationship information between the logical group and a second logical group; and

b. generating the information structure.

22. A method comprising:

generating simulated change information for a configuration item associated with a system component;

accessing an information structure, comprising;

a logical groups group associated with at least one of the configuration item and the system component

change rule information for the configuration item;

interrelationship information between the configuration item and a second configuration item;

change rule information for the system component;

interrelationship information between the configuration item and the system component;

interrelationship information between the system component and a second system component;

change rule information for the logical group; and

interrelationship information between the logical group and logical group; and

interpreting the simulated change information for the logical group according to the information structure, wherein the interpreting the simulated change information comprises a selected one of a group of activities, the group consisting of;

(a) determining if a configuration change according to the configuration change information violated a rule;

(b) interpreting change failures; and

(c) mapping a change in the configuration item to the system component.