Constructing change plans from component interactions

• US 8,515,799 B2
• Filed: 04/17/2012
• Issued: 08/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• 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:
  US13/448,716
• Publication Number:
  US 20130104133A1
• Time in Patent Office: 490 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, a 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 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 and 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 is used to generate at least one change plan useable for managing the distributed computing system, wherein the change plan is based on at least one requested change.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for automatically determining at least one change plan from at least one component interaction, the method comprising the steps of:

observing at least one interaction between 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 at least one interaction is observed at least in part by tracking respective invocations of the two or more components;

determining a partial order of two or more changes from the at least one observed to component interaction in the at least one distributed computing system;

automatically transforming the partial order of two or more changes into at least one ordered task, wherein the at least one ordered task is linked by at least one temporal ordering constraint; and

using the at least one ordered task to generate at least one change plan useable for managing the at least one distributed computing system, wherein the at least one change plan is based on at least one requested change;

wherein the steps are performed by a computer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of using the at least one ordered task to generate at least one change plan comprises minimizing total change time by exploiting parallelism between two or more components.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of using the at least one ordered task to generate at least one change plan comprises an administrator accepting the at least one requested change and explicitly identifying the at least one computing system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of using the at least one ordered task to generate at least one change plan comprises computing at least one change plan by observing at least one interaction between two or more computing systems.

5. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer useable storage medium having computer useable program code for automatically determining at least one change plan from at least one component interaction, the computer program product including:

computer useable program code for observing at least one interaction between 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 at least one interaction is observed at least in part by tracking respective invocations of the two or more components;

computer useable program code for determining a partial order of two or more changes from the at least one observed component interaction in at least one distributed computing system;

computer useable program code for automatically transforming the partial order of two or more changes into at least one ordered task, wherein the at least one ordered task is linked by at least one temporal ordering constraint; and

computer useable program code for using the at least one ordered task to generate at least one change plan useable for managing the at least one distributed computing system, wherein the at least one change plan is based on at least one requested change.

6. The computer program product of claim 5, wherein the computer useable program code for using the at least one ordered task to generate at least one change plan comprises minimizing total change time by exploiting parallelism between two or more components.

7. The computer program product of claim 5, wherein the computer useable program code for using the at least one ordered task to generate at least one change plan comprises an administrator accepting the at least one requested change and explicitly identifying the at least one computing system.

8. The computer program product of claim 5, wherein the computer useable program code for using the at least one ordered task to generate at least one change plan comprises computing at least one change plan by observing at least one interaction between two or more computing systems.