Normalization engine to manage configuration management database integrity
DCFirst Claim
1. A computer system including instructions tangibly embodied on a non-transitory computer useable medium, and executable by at least one processor, the system comprising:
- one or more knowledge bases configured to store one or more normalization rules; and
a normalization engine in communication with the knowledge bases and configured to cause the at least one processor to;
select one or more Configuration Items (CIs) from one or more external data providers to be automatically normalized including identifying one or more duplicate CIs from the one or more external data providers through a discovery process;
after selecting the one or more CIs to be automatically normalized, select one or more normalization rules from the one or more knowledge bases;
after selecting the one or more normalization rules from the one or more knowledge bases, apply the one or more selected normalization rules to the one or more selected CIs to determine if there are any inconsistencies between the one or more selected CIs and the one or more selected normalization rules; and
for at least one of the one or more selected CIs, when there is an inconsistency determined between the one or more selected CIs and the one or more selected normalization rules, automatically normalize incoming data related to the one or more selected CIs from the one or more external data providers by taking an appropriate remedial action including cleaning the incoming data to remove the inconsistency and reconcile the one or more duplicate CIs before storing the at least one of the one or more selected CIs in a data repository.
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Abstract
Data is often populated into Configuration Management Databases (CMDBs) from different sources. Because the data can come from a variety of sources, it may have inconsistencies—and may even be incomplete. A Normalization Engine (NE) may be able to automatically clean up the incoming data based on certain rules and knowledge. In one embodiment, the NE takes each Configuration Item (CI) or group of CIs that are to be normalized and applies a rule or a set of rules to see if the data may be cleaned up, and, if so, updates the CI or group of CIs accordingly. In particular, one embodiment may allow for the CI'"'"'s data to be normalized by doing a look up against a Product Catalog and/or an Alias Catalog. In another embodiment, the NE architecture could be fully extensible, allowing for the creation of custom, rules-based plug-ins by users and/or third parties.
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Citations
43 Claims
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1. A computer system including instructions tangibly embodied on a non-transitory computer useable medium, and executable by at least one processor, the system comprising:
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one or more knowledge bases configured to store one or more normalization rules; and a normalization engine in communication with the knowledge bases and configured to cause the at least one processor to; select one or more Configuration Items (CIs) from one or more external data providers to be automatically normalized including identifying one or more duplicate CIs from the one or more external data providers through a discovery process; after selecting the one or more CIs to be automatically normalized, select one or more normalization rules from the one or more knowledge bases; after selecting the one or more normalization rules from the one or more knowledge bases, apply the one or more selected normalization rules to the one or more selected CIs to determine if there are any inconsistencies between the one or more selected CIs and the one or more selected normalization rules; and for at least one of the one or more selected CIs, when there is an inconsistency determined between the one or more selected CIs and the one or more selected normalization rules, automatically normalize incoming data related to the one or more selected CIs from the one or more external data providers by taking an appropriate remedial action including cleaning the incoming data to remove the inconsistency and reconcile the one or more duplicate CIs before storing the at least one of the one or more selected CIs in a data repository. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A computer system including instructions tangibly embodied on a non-transitory computer useable medium, and executable by at least one processor, the system comprising:
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a first data store; and a normalization engine in communication with the first data store and configured to cause the at least one processor to; define selection criteria for automatic data normalization, wherein the defined selection criteria comprise; the selection of one or more classes of Configuration Items (CIs) including duplicate CIs; the selection of one or more attributes from each of the one or more selected classes of CIs including the duplicate CIs; and the selection of one or more normalization rules from one or more knowledge bases; select one or more CIs that meet the defined selection criteria from one or more external data providers through a discovery process including applying the one or more selected normalization rules to the one or more selected CIs to determine if there are any inconsistencies between the one or more selected CIs and the one or more selected normalization rules; and before storing at least one of the one or more selected CIs that meet the defined selection criteria in the first data store; compare a value for at least one of the one or more selected attributes to a corresponding specified attribute value stored in the first data store; and automatically normalize incoming data related to the one or more selected CIs from the one or more external data providers by cleaning the incoming data related to the selected CIs including the duplicate CIs by replacing the value of each compared attribute with the corresponding specified attribute value if the value of the compared attribute does not equal the corresponding specified attribute value to thereby remove inconsistencies of the incoming data and reconcile the duplicate CIs. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A program storage device, readable by a programmable control device, comprising instructions stored on the program storage device for causing the programmable control device to:
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select one or more Configuration Items (CIs) from one or more external data providers to be automatically normalized by including identifying one or more duplicate CIs from the one or more external data providers through a discovery process; after selecting the one or more CIs to be automatically normalized, select one or more normalization rules from one or more knowledge bases; after selecting the one or more normalization rules from the one or more knowledge bases, apply the one or more selected normalization rules to the one or more selected CIs to determine if there are any inconsistencies between the one or more selected CIs and the one or more selected normalization rules; and for at least one of the one or more selected CIs, when there is an inconsistency determined between the one or more selected CIs and the one or more selected normalization rules, automatically normalize incoming data related to the one or more selected CIs from the one or more external data providers by taking take an appropriate remedial action including cleaning the incoming data to remove the inconsistency and reconcile the one or more duplicate CIs before storing the at least one of the one or more selected CIs in a data repository. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A computer-implemented data normalization method, the method comprising:
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selecting one or more Configuration Items (CIs) from one or more external data providers to be automatically normalized by including identifying one or more duplicate CIs from the one or more external data providers through a discovery process; after selecting the one or more CIs to be automatically normalized, selecting one or more normalization rules from one or more knowledge bases; after selecting the one or more normalization rules from the one or more knowledge bases, applying the one or more selected normalization rules to the one or more selected CIs to determine if there are any inconsistencies between the one or more selected CIs and the one or more selected normalization rules; and for at least one of the one or more selected CIs, when there is an inconsistency determined between the one or more selected CIs and the one or more selected normalization rules, automatically normalizing incoming data related to the one or more selected CIs from the one or more external data providers by taking take an appropriate remedial action including cleaning the incoming data to remove the inconsistency and reconciling the one or more duplicate CIs before storing the at least one of the one or more selected CIs in a data repository. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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Specification