Resolving information in a multitenant database environment

• US 8,443,085 B2
• Filed: 04/26/2011
• Issued: 05/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Jensen-Horne, Nathan, Burki, Dileep, Harley, Walter Sims, Small, Matthew, Scott, Kenneth Douglas, Brooks, David Andrew, Peddada, Prasad, Patel, Hemang, Chawla, Gaurav, Vietvu, Theresa, Gurram, Shriman
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Quang N
• Application Number:
  US13/094,545
• Publication Number:
  US 20110276674A1
• Time in Patent Office: 749 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/223, 709/224, 709/225, 709/226, 707/101, 707/808
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/783 Distributed allocation of resources, e.g. bandwidth brokers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

Disclosed herein are techniques for creating a representation of dependency relationships between computing resources within a computing environment. In some implementations, one or more sources for dependency analysis may be identified. Each source may be capable of being accessed to provide computing functionality via the computing environment. Each source may include one or more references to a respective one or more computing resources. Each computing resource may define a unit of the computing functionality available within the computing environment. A plurality of dependency relationships may be identified based on the one or more sources. A dependency relationship representation may be created based on the identified dependency relationships.

Claims

1. A method of creating a representation of dependency relationships between computing resources within a computing environment, the method comprising:

identifying, at a computing device, one or more sources for dependency analysis, each source capable of being accessed to provide computing functionality via the computing environment, each source including one or more references to a respective one or more computing resources, each computing resource defining a unit of the computing functionality available within the computing environment, one or more of the computing resources having an activated state in which the computing functionality defined by the computing resource is available for use and a deactivated state in which the computing functionality defined by the computing resource is not available for use;

identifying a plurality of dependency relationships based on the one or more sources, each dependency relationship providing a logical relationship between a respective first one of the computing resources and a second one of the computing resources, wherein the first computing resource can have the activated state only when the second computing resource has the activated state;

generating a canonical resource representation of each of the referenced computing resources, the canonical representation allowing different references to the referenced computing resources to be compared for identity;

creating a dependency relationship representation based on the identified dependency relationships, the dependency relationship representation comprising a graphical depiction of the identified dependency relationships between the computing resources, wherein creating the dependency relationship representation comprises specifying dependency relationships using the generated canonical resource representations; and

displaying the dependency relationship representation on a display device.

2. The method recited in claim 1, wherein creating the dependency relationship representation comprises:

determining, for each identified dependency relationship, whether the dependency relationship is already represented in the dependency relationship representation, and

adding the dependency relationship to the dependency relationship representation only if the identified dependency relationship is not already represented in the dependency relationship representation.

3. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the activated state and the deactivated state are each established by assigning a respective one or more values to a variable defined by a setting associated with the respective computing resource.

4. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the activated or deactivated state of a first computing resource that defines a first unit of the computing functionality differs between a plurality of entities accessing the computing environment, wherein the computing functionality is accessible to a first one of the entities if the first computing resource has an activated state for that entity, and wherein the computing functionality is not accessible to the first entity if the first computing resource has a deactivated state for that entity.

5. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the computing resources are arranged in a hierarchical framework in which certain computing resources contain other computing resources.

6. The method recited in claim 1, wherein each computing resource contains at least one setting that defines a variable that specifies at run time whether the computing resource is in the activated state or the deactivated state.

7. The method recited in claim 1, the method further comprising:

displaying at least a portion of the dependency representation on a display device in communication with a computing device used to administer the on-demand service environment.

8. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the computing environment comprises an on-demand computing services environment configured to provide on-demand computing services to a plurality of entities via a network.

9. The method recited in claim 1, wherein data for the organizations is stored in one or more multitenant databases accessible via the on-demand computing services environment.

10. A computing system comprising:

one or more computing devices configured to;

identify, at a computing device, one or more sources for dependency analysis, each source capable of being accessed to provide computing functionality via the computing environment, each source including one or more references to a respective one or more computing resources, each computing resource defining a unit of the computing functionality available within the computing environment, one or more of the computing resources having an activated state in which the computing functionality defined by the computing resource is available for use and a deactivated state in which the computing functionality defined by the computing resource is not available for use;

identify a plurality of dependency relationships based on the one or more sources, each dependency relationship providing a logical relationship between a respective first one of the computing resources and a second one of the computing resources, wherein the first computing resource can have the activated state only when the second computing resource has the activated state;

generate a canonical resource representation of each of the referenced computing resources, the canonical representation allowing different references to the referenced computing resources to be compared for identity;

create a dependency relationship representation based on the identified dependency relationships, the dependency relationship representation comprising a graphical depiction of the identified dependency relationships between the computing resources, wherein creating the dependency relationship representation comprises specifying dependency relationships using the generated canonical resource representations; and

display the dependency relationship representation on a display device.

11. The computing system recited in claim 10, wherein creating the dependency relationship representation comprises:

determining, for each identified dependency relationship, whether the dependency relationship is already represented in the dependency relationship representation, and

adding the dependency relationship to the dependency relationship representation only if the identified dependency relationship is not already represented in the dependency relationship representation.

12. The computing system recited in claim 10, wherein the activated state and the deactivated state are each established by assigning a respective one or more values to a variable defined by a setting associated with the respective computing resource.

13. The computing system recited in claim 10, wherein the activated or deactivated state of a first computing resource that defines a first unit of the computing functionality differs between a plurality of entities accessing the computing environment, wherein the computing functionality is accessible to a first one of the entities if the first computing resource has an activated state for that entity, and wherein the computing functionality is not accessible to the first entity if the first computing resource has a deactivated state for that entity.

14. The computing system recited in claim 10, wherein the computing resources are arranged in a hierarchical framework in which certain computing resources contain other computing resources.

15. The computing system recited in claim 10, wherein each computing resource contains at least one setting that defines a variable that specifies at run time whether the computing resource is in the activated state or the deactivated state.

16. The computing system recited in claim 10, the one or more computing devices being configured to:

display at least a portion of the dependency representation on a display device in communication with a computing device used to administer the on-demand service environment.

17. One or more non-transitory computer readable media having instructions stored thereon for performing a method of creating a representation of dependency relationships between computing resources within a computing environment, the method comprising:

identifying, at a computing device, one or more sources for dependency analysis, each source capable of being accessed to provide computing functionality via the computing environment, each source including one or more references to a respective one or more computing resources, each computing resource defining a unit of the computing functionality available within the computing environment, one or more of the computing resources having an activated state in which the computing functionality defined by the computing resource is available for use and a deactivated state in which the computing functionality defined by the computing resource is not available for use;

identifying a plurality of dependency relationships based on the one or more sources, each dependency relationship providing a logical relationship between a respective first one of the computing resources and a second one of the computing resources, wherein the first computing resource can have the activated state only when the second computing resource has the activated state;

generating a canonical resource representation of each of the referenced computing resources, the canonical representation allowing different references to the referenced computing resources to be compared for identity;

creating a dependency relationship representation based on the identified dependency relationships, the dependency relationship representation comprising a graphical depiction of the identified dependency relationships between the computing resources, wherein creating the dependency relationship representation comprises specifying dependency relationships using the generated canonical resource representations; and

displaying the dependency relationship representation on a display device.

18. The one or more computer readable media recited in claim 17, wherein creating the dependency relationship representation comprises:

determining, for each identified dependency relationship, whether the dependency relationship is already represented in the dependency relationship representation, and

adding the dependency relationship to the dependency relationship representation only if the identified dependency relationship is not already represented in the dependency relationship representation.

19. The one or more computer readable media recited in claim 17, wherein the activated state and the deactivated state are each established by assigning a respective one or more values to a variable defined by a setting associated with the respective computing resource.

20. The one or more computer readable media recited in claim 17, wherein the activated or deactivated state of a first computing resource that defines a first unit of the computing functionality differs between a plurality of entities accessing the computing environment, wherein the computing functionality is accessible to a first one of the entities if the first computing resource has an activated state for that entity, and wherein the computing functionality is not accessible to the first entity if the first computing resource has a deactivated state for that entity.