Statistical identification of instances during reconciliation process

• US 8,712,979 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2010
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BMC Software Incorporated (KKR & Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: BMC Software Incorporated (KKR & Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Morozov, Vitaly, Humphrey, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Shmatov, Alexey
• Application Number:
  US12/860,334
• Publication Number:
  US 20110238637A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,348 Days
• Field of Search: 707/694, 707/999.203, 707/603
• US Class Current: 707/694
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24564 Applying rules; Deductive queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2462 Approximate or statistical queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90324 using system suggestions

Abstract

A system for reconciling object for a configuration management databases employs statistical rules to reduce the amount of manual identification required by conventional reconciliation techniques. As users manually identify matches between source and target datasets, statistical rules are developed based on the criteria used for matching. Those statistical rules are then used for future matching. A threshold value is adjusted as the statistical rules are used, incrementing the threshold value when the rule successfully matches source and target objects. If the threshold value exceeds a predetermined acceptance value, the system may automatically accept a match made by a statistical rule. Otherwise, suggestions of possibly applicable rules may be presented to a user, who may use the suggested rules to match objects, causing adjustment of the threshold value associated with the suggested rules used.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

selecting a first configuration item from a source dataset;

failing to identify the first configuration item with configuration items in a target dataset of a configuration management database using identification rules without automatically modifiable acceptance criteria;

evaluating a rule against the first configuration item and a second configuration item of the target dataset;

marking the first configuration item as identified with the second configuration item upon successful evaluation of the rule if a threshold value for the rule exceeds a predetermined acceptance value; and

automatically adjusting the threshold value responsive to the act of marking.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

marking the first configuration item for manual identification responsive to the act of evaluating when evaluation was not successful or the threshold value does not exceed the predetermined acceptance value for the rule;

displaying information about the rule for a user performing manual identification of the first configuration item;

receiving a manual identification from the user; and

adjusting the threshold value responsive to receiving the manual identification.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the act of adjusting the threshold value responsive to the manual identification by the user comprises:

incrementing the threshold value if the user uses the rule to match the first configuration item with the second configuration item in the configuration management database.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the act of adjusting the threshold value responsive to the manual identification by the user comprises:

decrementing the threshold value if the user does not use the rule to match the first configuration item with the second configuration item in the configuration management database.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the act of displaying information about the rule for the user comprises:

displaying a plurality of rules for the user; and

ordering the plurality of rules responsive to their associated threshold values.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of adjusting the threshold value responsive to the act of marking comprises:

incrementing the threshold value associated with the rule responsive to successful evaluation of the rule.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of adjusting the threshold value responsive to the act of marking comprises:

decrementing the threshold value associated with the rule responsive to unsuccessful evaluation of the rule.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of evaluating the rule comprises:

selecting a ruleset corresponding to the first configuration item;

determining whether the ruleset contains any rules; and

selecting the rule from the ruleset.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the act of evaluating the rule further comprises:

selecting a next rule from the ruleset;

evaluating the next rule against the first configuration item and the second configuration item; and

adjusting a threshold value associated with the next rule upon successful evaluation of the next rule if the threshold value associated with the next rule exceeds the predetermined acceptance value.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of marking the first configuration item as identified with the second configuration item is not performed if the first configuration item has previously been marked as identified with another configuration item from the target dataset.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of selecting the first configuration item from the source dataset comprises:

selecting the first configuration item from a plurality of configuration items of the source dataset marked for statistical identification.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising, when evaluation was not successful:

determining criteria used by a user to manually mark the first configuration item as identified with a third configuration item of the target dataset;

generating another rule responsive to determining the criteria; and

associating a predetermined default value for the threshold value associated with the another rule, the predetermined default value not exceeding a predetermined acceptance value.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

configuring the predetermined default value for the threshold value; and

configuring the predetermined acceptance value.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the rule is selected based on a class of the first configuration item and the acceptance value is for the class of the first configuration item.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium with instructions for a programmable control device stored thereon wherein the instructions cause the programmable control device to perform the method of claim 1.

16. A networked computer system comprising:

a plurality of computers communicatively coupled, at least one of the plurality of computers programmed to perform at least a portion of the method of claim 1, wherein the entire method of claim 1 is performed collectively by the plurality of computers.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the reconciliation engine is integrated with the statistical rules engine.

17. A configuration management database system, comprising:

a configuration management database server;

a configuration management database, coupled to the configuration management database server;

a reconciliation engine, coupled to the configuration management database server, and configured to match a plurality of configuration items provided to the configuration management database system from a plurality of source datasets with configuration items contained in the configuration management database using identification rules, the identification rules being without automatically modifiable acceptance criteria; and

a statistical rules engine, coupled to the configuration management database server and configured to apply a statistical rule to match a first configuration item of the plurality of configuration items with a second configuration item contained in the configuration management database, the matching being successful when a threshold value for the statistical rule exceeds a default acceptance value after the rule has been successfully applied, the threshold value being automatically modified responsive to application outcomes of the rule, the application of the rule occurring when the first configuration item was not matched with any configuration items contained in the configuration management database using the identification rules.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the reconciliation engine is configured to mark configuration items of the plurality of configuration items for statistical identification or manual identification when the configuration items are not matched with any configuration items in the configuration management database using the identification rules, and wherein the first configuration item is marked for statistical identification.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the configuration management database server is configured to receive reconciliation requests from a configuration management database client and to transmit reconciliation results to the configuration management database client.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the configuration management database server is configured to discover configuration items provided by the plurality of source datasets.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the statistical rules engine is configured to suggest the statistical rule to a user performing manual identification.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein the statistical rules engine is configured to select the rule based on a class of the first configuration item.