Apparatus and method for providing software configurations on a plurality of platforms

• US 8,566,819 B2
• Filed: 05/09/2011
• Issued: 10/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Wookey, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lee, Marina
• Application Number:
  US13/103,820
• Publication Number:
  US 20110214119A1
• Time in Patent Office: 897 Days
• Field of Search: 717/175
• US Class Current: 717/175
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/658 Incremental updates; Differential updates

Abstract

A virtual installation map, and method involving installing a software functionality using the same, the virtual installation map including a first software installation map including a plurality of software elements representative of a related software file, the software elements also including at least one dependency to another software element. The virtual installation map further including a second software installation map also including a second plurality of software elements representative of related software file along with related dependencies. The first and second software installation maps may be hosted in separate databases and may relate to software products provided by different vendors. One or both software installation maps may include a pointer or other reference to the other installation map thereby providing a virtual installation map, in one example.

Claims

1. A system including a processor and at least one memory, the memory storing instructions for execution on the processor, the instructions configured to cause the processor to reproduce a software configuration of a source client to at least a target client, the system comprising:

a software installation map configured to receive a source software manifest from the source client reflecting a source software configuration describing a plurality of source software files residing on the source client;

the software installation map further configured to generate a first software installation route describing a plurality of software files, associated a plurality of dependency pointers representing dependencies between each of the plurality of software files and a confidence factor associated with the dependency pointers of the first software installation route, the confidence factor indicating at least a number of a plurality of successful prior installations involving the dependency pointers of the first software installation route, the first software installation route being a function of the source software manifest; and

the software installation map further configured to provide the first software installation route to the target client, the first route providing an identification of software files to reproduce the source software configuration of the source client on the target client.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the source client has a source software load, the source client further having a source software agent running on the source client, the source software agent configured to track changes to the source software manifest.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the software agent of the source client is configured to perform the operations comprising:

comparing the software files described in the first software installation route against the source software manifest; and

communicating with the software installation map to obtain software files identified on the first software installation route but not present in the source software manifest.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the software agent of the source client is configured to perform the operations of:

identifying any removal software files that exist on the source client but are not described in the first software installation route;

removing the removal software files from the source client;

identifying any additional software files that are described in the first software installation route but do not exist on the source client; and

installing the additional software files on the source client.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the target client has a target software load, the target client further having a target software agent running on the target client, the target software agent configured to receive the first software installation route to reproduce the source software manifest.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the target software agent of the target client is configured to perform the operations comprising:

receiving the first software installation route;

analyzing the target software load and identifying any software files that exist in the target software load but are not described in the first software installation route;

creating a first de-installation list of at least one software file that is not part of the first software installation route;

analyzing a file manifest of each software file in the first de-installation list and performing a file-level dependency check on each software file in the first de-installation list to identify additional files that are created at runtime but are not under the control of a target software manifest;

creating a second de-installation list describing any additional files created at run-time but are not under the control of the target software manifest; and

deleting the software files described in the first and second de-installation lists.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the system is further configured to provide a bare metal provision to the target client.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the operation of providing a bare metal provision to the target client further comprises providing a target software agent for installation on the target client.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the software installation map comprises:

a plurality of software elements representing a plurality of software files; and

a plurality of dependency pointers representing dependencies between the plurality of software files.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the source software configuration further comprises a listing of every software application installed on the source client and the plurality of source software files includes every software element on the source client.

11. A method for reproducing a software configuration of a source client to at least a target client comprising:

receiving a request for reproducing a software configuration from the source client to the target client, the source client having a source software manifest listing the source software files residing on the source client and the target client having a target software load listing the target software files residing on the target client;

receiving the source software manifest;

generating a first software installation route based on the source software manifest, the first software installation route generated from a software installation map comprising a plurality of software files, a plurality of dependency pointers representing dependencies between each of the plurality of software files and a confidence factor associated with the dependency pointers of the first software installation route, the confidence factor indicating at least a number of a plurality of successful prior installations involving the dependency pointers of the first software installation route; and

providing the first software installation route to the target client.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the source client further performs the operations comprising:

comparing the plurality of software files described in the first software installation route against a source software load; and

altering the source software load to match the plurality of files described in the first software installation route.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising installing a software agent on the source client.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the target client further performs the operations comprising:

receiving the first software installation route;

analyzing the target software load and identifying any software files that exist in the target software load but are not described in the first software installation route;

creating a first de-installation list of the software files that are not part of the first software installation route;

analyzing a file manifest of each software file in the first de-installation list and performing a file-level dependency check on each software file in the first de-installation list to identify additional files that are created at runtime but are not under the control of a target software manifest;

creating a second de-installation list describing any additional files created at run-time but are not under the control of the target software manifest; and

deleting the software files described in the first and second de-installation lists.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising installing a software agent on the target client.

16. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

providing a bare metal provision to the target client.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the operation of providing a bare metal provision to the target client comprises an installation for a minimal operating system for installation on the target client wherein the minimal operating system is a same operating system existing on the source client.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the operation of providing a bare

metal provision to the target client further comprises providing a target software agent for installation on the target client.

19. A computer system comprising at least one processor and a memory, the computer system configured to perform the operations of claim 11.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein source software manifest comprises a listing of every software application installed on the source client and the source software files include every software element on the source client.