Collaborative data redundancy for configuration tracking systems

• US 8,712,959 B1
• Filed: 09/28/2005
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Lim, Swee B., Wookey, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): VU, BAI DUC
• Application Number:
  US11/238,492
• Time in Patent Office: 3,135 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/633
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1415 at system level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3051 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0859 by keeping history of different configuration generations or by rolling back to previous configuration versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0863 by rolling back to previous configuration versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0873 Checking configuration conflicts between network elements

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method and apparatus for collaborative data redundancy for configuration management database is disclosed. The method includes requesting, by a server of a configuration tracking system, an agent of the configuration tracking system to retrieve asset data when a copy of the asset data located in the server becomes corrupted, retrieving by the agent the requested asset data from one or more assets, and transferring by the agent the asset data to the server without utilizing data redundancy services performed outside of the configuration tracking system. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

obtaining, by an agent for a configuration tracking system, asset data from an asset, wherein the asset data for the asset is descriptive of how the asset is configured at a snapshot in time, wherein the asset comprises one or more of a computer, a storage device, a network device, or a software package;

transferring the asset data from the agent to a server of the configuration tracking system;

storing at the server the asset data or asset information based on the asset data, wherein the server stores the asset data or the asset information within an underlying data store comprising one or more of a database, a file system, or a disk volume;

providing, by the server, access to the asset data or the asset information to one or more clients;

determining that the asset data or the asset information stored at the server is lost or corrupted;

in response to determining that the asset data or the asset information stored at the server is lost or corrupted, reconstructing the asset data or the asset information at the server or another server of the configuration tracking system, wherein said reconstructing comprises;

requesting, by the server or the other server, the agent to retrieve current asset data;

retrieving by the agent the requested current asset data from the asset such that the asset serves as an authoritative source for the current asset data for said reconstructing at the server or the other server; and

transferring by the agent the current asset data to the server or the other server for reconstructing the asset data or the asset information at the server or the other server;

wherein said reconstructing is performed without utilizing data redundancy services provided by said underlying data store or any other underlying data store within the configuration tracking system, such that the configuration tracking system actively participates in replication and recovery of asset data to selectively replicate and recover said asset data without dependence on a replication mechanism provided by said underlying data store or any other underlying data store within the configuration tracking system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration tracking system comprises an application to store configuration information associated with the asset data.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining a copy of the asset data on the agent; and

transferring the copy of the asset data on the agent to the server when the server requests a copy of the asset data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining a plurality of versions of the asset data in at least one of the server and the agent, wherein a recovery scheme of the configuration tracking system recovers more recent versions of the asset data before less recent versions of the asset data.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the plurality of versions are maintained for a period of time determined by a data retention policy of the asset data.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the plurality of versions are each identified by at least one of an automatically generated version number and a timestamp.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising operating an aggregation server as an aggregation point in the configuration tracking system to maintain historical and current copies of the asset data for the server and for the agent, wherein the aggregation server is distinct from the one or more clients.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein current and historical copies of the asset data are distributed among a plurality of server pods of the configuration tracking system, the plurality of server pods including the server.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein one or more of the plurality of server pods operates as a back-up pod for a primary server pod of the plurality of server pods by storing additional copies of the asset data that is located in the primary server pod.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the back-up pod operates by utilizing a historical copy of the asset data if a current copy of the asset data is not available.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the server processes the asset data to create the asset information relating to the asset data, the asset information including at least one of consistency of the asset data, storage reformatting information, or links to track relationships among the asset and one or more other assets.

12. An article of manufacture, comprising a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium including data stored thereon that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving, at a server of a configuration tracking system from an agent for the configuration tracking system, asset data obtained by the agent from an asset, wherein the asset data for the asset is descriptive of how the asset is configured at a snapshot in time, wherein the asset comprises one or more of a computer, a storage device, a network device, or a software package;

storing at the server the asset data or asset information based on the asset data, wherein the server stores the asset data or the asset information within an underlying data store comprising one or more of a database, a file system, or a disk volume;

providing, by the server, access to the asset data or the asset information to one or more clients;

determining that the asset data or the asset information stored at the server is lost or corrupted;

in response to determining that the asset data or the asset information stored at the server is lost or corrupted, reconstructing the asset data or the asset information at the server, wherein said reconstructing comprises;

requesting, by the server, the agent to retrieve current asset data;

receiving, by the server from the agent, the requested current asset data from the asset such that the asset serves as an authoritative source for the current asset data for said reconstructing at the server; and

wherein said reconstructing is performed without utilizing data redundancy services provided by said underlying data store or any other underlying data store within the configuration tracking system, such that the configuration tracking system actively participates in replication and recovery of asset data to selectively replicate and recover said asset data without dependence on a replication mechanism provided by said underlying data store or any other underlying data store within the configuration tracking system.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 12, wherein the machine-readable storage medium further includes data that cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

maintaining a copy of the asset data on the agent; and

transferring the copy of the asset data on the agent to the server when the server requests a copy of the asset data.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 12, wherein the configuration tracking system comprises an application to store configuration information associated with the asset data.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 12, wherein current and historical copies of the asset data are distributed among a plurality of server pods of the configuration tracking system, wherein the plurality of server pods includes the server.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein one or more of the plurality of server pods operates as a back-up pod for a primary server pod of the plurality of server pods by storing additional copies of the asset data located in the primary server pod.

17. An apparatus, comprising:

a computer-implemented server of a computer-implemented configuration tracking system application communicatively coupled to a computer-implemented agent for the configuration tracking system application, operating to;

receive, at a server from the agent, asset data obtained by the agent from an asset, wherein the asset data for the asset is descriptive of how the asset is configured at a snapshot in time, wherein the asset comprises one or more of a computer, a storage device, a network device, or a software package;

store at the server the asset data or asset information based on the asset data, wherein the server stores the asset data or the asset information within an underlying data store comprising one or more of a database, a file system, or a disk volume;

provide, by the server, access to the asset data or the asset information to one or more clients;

the server or another server of the configuration tracking system application configured to reconstruct the asset data or the asset information at the server or the other server in response to determining that the asset data or the asset information stored at the server is lost or corrupted, wherein to reconstruct the asset data or the asset information the server or the other server is configured to;

request the agent to retrieve current asset data;

receive the current asset data from the agent such that the asset serves as an authoritative source for the current asset data for said reconstructing at the server or the other server;

wherein said reconstructing is performed without utilizing data redundancy services provided by said underlying data store or any other underlying data store utilized by the computer-implemented configuration tracking system application, such that the configuration tracking system application actively participates in replication and recovery of asset data to selectively replicate and recover said asset data without dependence on a replication mechanism provided by said underlying data store or any other underlying data store utilized by the configuration tracking system application.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the computer-implemented agent maintains a copy of the asset data to transfer to the computer-implemented server if the asset data on the computer-implemented server becomes corrupted.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the computer-implemented server and the computer-implemented agent maintain a plurality of versions of the asset data that are available to asset data consumers if the copies of the asset data on the computer-implemented server and computer-implemented agent become corrupted, and wherein a recovery scheme of the configuration tracking system recovers more recent versions of the asset data before less recent versions of the asset data.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the computer-implemented configuration tracking system application comprises a service to store configuration information associated with the asset data.