Constructing change plans from component interactions

• US 8,229,778 B2
• Filed: 11/16/2006
• Issued: 07/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Keller, Alexander, DePauw, Wim
• Primary Examiner(s): RANKINS, WILLIAM E
• Application Number:
  US11/560,525
• Publication Number:
  US 20080120617A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,077 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.11, 705/7.22
• US Class Current: 705/7.27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/46 Multiprogramming arrangements
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining of resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Techniques for constructing change plans from one or more component interactions are provided. For example, one computer-implemented technique includes observing at least one interaction between two or more components of at least one distributed computing system, consolidating the at least one interaction into at least one interaction pattern, and using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan, wherein the at least one change plan is useable for managing the at least one distributed computing system. In another computer-implemented technique, a partial order of two or more changes is determined from at least one component interaction in at least one distributed computing system, the partial order of two or more changes is automatically transformed into at least one ordered task, wherein the at least one ordered task is linked by at least one temporal ordering constraint, and the at least one ordered task is used to generate at least one change plan useable for managing the distributed computing system is generated, wherein the change plan is based on at least one requested change.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for constructing at least one change plan, the method comprising the steps of:

observing interactions associated with two or more components of at least one distributed computing system in which invocation of at least a first component leads to invocation of at least a second component, wherein the interactions are observed at least in part by tracking respective invocations of the two or more components;

consolidating at least a portion of the observed interactions into at least one interaction pattern; and

using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan, wherein the at least one change plan is useable for managing the at least one distributed computing system;

wherein the steps are performed by a computer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan comprises constructing at least one change plan in a machine-readable format by taking into account at least one change management operation and at least one change management pattern.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan comprises reverse-engineering a blueprint of at least one staging system at run-time.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan comprises identifying at least one algorithm applicable to changing the at least one distributed computing system.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the steps of:

facilitating an administrator to identify the at least one algorithm for the at least one distributed computing system as a whole or for selected parts of the at least one distributed computing system; and

expressing the at least one identified algorithm in at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of storing the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program for subsequent reuse.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of facilitating retrieval of the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program to build a production system automatically, wherein building the production system comprises:

loading the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program into an automated deployment and provision system; and

executing the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of observing interactions associated with two or more components of at least one distributed computing system comprises observing the interactions at run-time.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of storing the at least one change plan for subsequent reuse and processing in a change plan library.

10. An apparatus for constructing at least one change plan, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and operative to;

observe interactions associated with two or more components of at least one distributed computing system in which invocation of at least a first component leads to invocation of at least a second component, wherein the interactions are observed at least in part by tracking respective invocations of the two or more components;

consolidate at least a portion of the observed interactions into at least one interaction pattern; and

use the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan, wherein the at least one change plan is useable for managing the at least one distributed computing system.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is operable to construct at least one change plan in a machine-readable format by taking into account at least one change management operation and at least one change management pattern.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is operable to construct at least one change plan by reverse-engineering a blueprint of at least one staging system at run-time.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is operable to construct at least one change plan by identifying at least one algorithm applicable to changing the at least one distributed computing system.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the at least one processor is operable to:

facilitate an administrator in identifying the at least one algorithm for the at least one distributed computing system as a whole or for selected parts of the at least one distributed computing system; and

express the at least one identified algorithm in at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the at least one processor is operable to store the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program for subsequent reuse.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the at least one processor is operable to facilitate retrieval of the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program to build a production system automatically, wherein building the production system comprises:

loading the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program into an automated deployment and provision system; and

executing the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program.

17. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is operable to observe the interactions associated with the two or more components of the at least one distributed computing system at run-time.

18. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is operable to store the at least one change plan for subsequent reuse and processing in a change plan library.

19. A computer program product comprising a computer useable storage medium having computer useable program code for constructing at least one change plan, the computer program product including:

computer useable program code for observing interactions associated with two or more components of at least one distributed computing system in which invocation of at least a first component leads to invocation of at least a second component, wherein the interactions are observed at least in part by tracking respective invocations of the two or more components;

computer useable program code for consolidating at least a portion of the observed interactions into at least one interaction pattern; and

computer useable program code for using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan, wherein the at least one change plan is useable for managing the at least one distributed computing system.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the computer useable program code for using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan comprises constructing at least one change plan in a machine-readable format by taking into account at least one change management operation and at least one change management pattern.

21. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the computer useable program code for using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan comprises reverse-engineering a blueprint of at least one staging system at run-time.

22. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the computer useable program code for using the at least one interaction pattern to construct at least one change plan comprises identifying at least one algorithm applicable to changing the at least one distributed computing system.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, further including computer useable program code for:

facilitating an administrator in identifying the at least one algorithm for the at least one distributed computing system as a whole or for selected parts of the at least one distributed computing system; and

expressing the at least one identified algorithm in at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program.

24. The computer program product of claim 23, further including computer useable program code for storing the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program for subsequent reuse.

25. The computer program product of claim 24, further including computer useable program code for facilitating retrieval of the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program to build a production system automatically, wherein the building the production system comprises:

loading the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program into an automated deployment and provision system; and

executing the at least one workflow and/or at least one computer program.

26. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the computer useable program code for observing interactions associated with the two or more components of the at least one distributed computing system comprises observing the interactions at run-time.

27. The computer program product of claim 19, further including computer useable program code for storing the at least one change plan for subsequent reuse and processing in a change plan library.