Specifying an order for changing an operational state of software application components

• US 8,370,802 B2
• Filed: 09/18/2007
• Issued: 02/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Pacifici, Giovanni, Shaikh, Hidayatullah Habeebullah, Yin, Jian
• Primary Examiner(s): MORRISON, JAY A
• Application Number:
  US11/856,871
• Publication Number:
  US 20090077090A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,967 Days
• Field of Search: 717/120
• US Class Current: 717/120
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5017 Task decomposition
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/506 Constraint
• 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 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455

Abstract

Managing a distributed software application is provided. Metadata describing a set of dependencies of a set of software components is identified in the distributed software application from data associated with the set of software components. Then, a sequence for changing an operational state of the set of software components of the distributed software application is identified from the metadata to form an identified sequence. Thereafter, the operational state of the set of software components is changed using the identified sequence.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for managing a distributed software application, the computer implemented method comprising:

identifying metadata describing a set of dependencies of a set of software components in the distributed software application from data associated with the set of software components, wherein the metadata is included in a template that includes a set of virtual machine images, each virtual machine image in the set of virtual machine images is a virtual machine that hosts a different software component in the set of software components;

identifying a sequence for changing an operational state of the set of software components of the distributed software application from the metadata to form an identified sequence; and

changing the operational state of the set of software components using the identified sequence, wherein the metadata further describes a set of temporal limitations that is one or more time-based conditions specifying a window of time when a software component in the set of software components is not available to change the operational state of the software component.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to forming the identified sequence, presenting the identified sequence for verification before changing the operational state of the set of software components.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein changing the operational state of the set of software components comprises suspending an activity of the set of software components.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein changing the operational state of the distributed software application comprises:

restarting the set of software components after an activity of the set of software components has been suspended.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the set of software components are restarted on a remote computing device.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the data associated with the set of software components is at least one of configuration data, application logs, and application code.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the metadata is identified by at least one of static compiler analysis, dynamic analysis, rule-based system analysis, and data mining.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the changing step further comprises:

responsive to detecting that a first operational state of a first software component has completed, initiating a change of a second operational state of a second software component.

9. A computer program product for managing a distributed software application, the computer program product comprising:

a computer recordable storage medium;

program code stored on the computer recordable storage medium for parsing data associated with a set of software components to extract metadata describing a set of dependencies of the set of software components, wherein the metadata is included in a template that includes a set of virtual machine images, each virtual machine image in the set of virtual machine images is a virtual machine that hosts a different software component in the set of software components;

program code stored on the computer recordable storage medium for analyzing the metadata to identify a sequence for changing an operational state of the set of software components of the distributed software application to form an identified sequence; and

program code stored on the computer recordable storage medium for changing the operational state of the distributed software, wherein the metadata further describes a set of temporal limitations that is one or more time-based conditions specifying a window of time when a software component in the set of software components is not available to change the operational state of the software component.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, further comprising:

program code stored on the computer recordable storage medium for presenting the sequence to a user for verification before changing the operational state of the set of software components in response to forming the identified sequence.

11. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the program code stored on the computer recordable storage medium for changing the operational state of the set of software components comprises program code stored on the computer recordable storage medium for suspending an activity of the set of software components.

12. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the program code stored on the computer recordable storage medium for changing the operational state of the distributed software application comprises program code stored on the computer recordable storage medium for restarting the set of software components after an activity of the set of software components has been suspended.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the set of software components are restarted on a remote computing device.

14. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the data associated with the set of software components is at least one of configuration data, application logs, and application code.

15. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the metadata is identified by at least one of static compiler analysis, dynamic analysis, rule-based system analysis, and data mining.

16. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the program code stored on the computer recordable storage medium for performing the changing of the operational state of the distributed software application further comprises:

program code stored on the computer recordable storage medium for initiating a change of a second operational state of a second software component in response to detecting that a first operational state of a first software component has completed.

17. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the metadata further describes a set of temporal limitations.

18. A system for managing a distributed software application comprising a set of software components, the system comprising:

a set of machines, wherein the set of machines are operable for executing the set of software components, and wherein the set of machines comprise at least one of a set of virtual machines and a set of physical machines; and

an application component manager, wherein the application component manager identifies metadata describing a set of dependencies of the set of software components in the distributed software application from data associated with the set of software components, wherein the metadata is included in a template that includes a set of virtual machine images, each virtual machine image in the set of virtual machine images is a virtual machine that hosts a different software component in the set of software components;

identifies a sequence for changing an operational state of the set of software components of the distributed software application from the metadata to form an identified sequence; and

changes the operational state of the set of software components using the identified sequence, wherein the metadata further describes a set of temporal limitations that is one or more time-based conditions specifying a window of time when a software component in the set of software components is not available to change the operational state of the software component.

19. An apparatus comprising:

a bus system;

a processor unit connected to the bus system;

a storage device connected to the bus system, wherein the storage device stores program code executed by the processor unit for identifying metadata describing a set of dependencies of a set of software components in a distributed software application from data associated with the set of software components, wherein the metadata is included in a template that includes a set of virtual machine images, each virtual machine image in the set of virtual machine images is a virtual machine that hosts a different software component in the set of software components;

identifying a sequence for changing an operational state of the set of software components of the distributed software application from the metadata to form an identified sequence; and

changing the operational state of the set of software components using the identified sequence, wherein the metadata further describes a set of temporal limitations that is one or more time-based conditions specifying a window of time when a software component in the set of software components is not available to change the operational state of the software component.