Server system and method for discovering digital assets in enterprise information systems

• US 8,713,062 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2010
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Op40 Holdings, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Op40 Holdings, Inc.
• Inventors: Bobick, Mark, Pace, Charles P., DeForest, Darin S., Chen, Shuang
• Primary Examiner(s): Trujillo, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Black, Linh
• Application Number:
  US12/925,718
• Publication Number:
  US 20120005205A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,279 Days
• Field of Search: 707796-798, 707/953, 707/962, 717100-102, 717/144
• US Class Current: 707/796
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/549 Remote execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/15 Synchronised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5088 involving task migration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/102 applying security measure for e-commerce
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/12 Applying verification of the received information cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/168 above the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/288 Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 : Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 : Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 : Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 : Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 : Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 : in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 : for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 : Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

Member object(s) of a computer system part(s) in an Enterprise Information System (EIS) are identified (discovered) and topographical relationship(s) are established among them to create digital assets by traversing computer file system(s) to find member object(s). For each member object found, a digital asset identifier thereof is placed in an intermediate representation, such as a graph with nodes and edges. Each digital asset identifier corresponds to a node. The edges represent the topographical relationship. A digital asset is created by placing the member object in a logic/data section of the digital asset, attaching an extended environment data structure to the logic/data section and storing the digital asset in an asset inventory container object. This is repeated for each found member object until the intermediate representation fully describes the computer system part and the asset inventory container object is a complete inventory of the digital assets in the computer system part.

Claims

1. A discovery method executable by a computer with one or more memories and one or more central processing units (CPUs), the method comprising the steps of:

a. determining a starting point in a sub part of one or more application programs in an Enterprise Information System comprising the computer and having at least one network connection, the sub part of the application program having a path of execution;

b. determining one or more edges of the path of execution and one or more elements of the sub part of the application program, each of the elements connected by at least one of the edges;

c. placing the elements in an asset candidate list;

d. classifying one or more of the elements in the asset candidate list according to an asset type;

e. determining one or more of the elements in the asset candidate list that is to be included in an asset package, said package comprising the sub part of the one or more application programs from the Enterprise Information System and having at least one asset, each asset having an asset type and at least two asset layers, a first asset layer being a logic/data layer and a second asset layer being an extended environment layer, the logic/data layer having information that includes a function of the asset and the extended environment layer being a subset of the Enterprise Information System and having portions of the enterprise information system necessary to support the respective logic/data layer; and

f. storing the asset package in an asset cache in a component distribution server/asset distribution server system that comprises;

a package specification process that receives the asset package;

a process adapter process that translates at least one of the asset layers of at least one asset in the package so that the asset performs the asset function on a target base environment of at least one target computer; and

a target process that changes the at least one layer of the discovered asset to provide specific information for the target computer, whereby a transformed asset is an asset that is translated by the process adapter process and changed by the target process.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the path of execution is at least one of:

a call graph, an execution call graph, a dependency tree, a set of one or more hyperlinks, an expressed call graph, and an implied call graph.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the edges are identified as at least one of:

a hyperlink, a method call, a program call, a sub routine call, a program name in an execution list, and a call to an external program.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the sub part is an entire application program.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the edges are determinable by a text search of the part of the application program or of a reverse engineered application program.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the starting point is a top-level page in a set of web pages, each of said web pages related to one another by the path of execution, wherein one or more hyperlinks are edges of the path of execution, at least one of said hyperlinks connecting each of the elements of the subpart of the application.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the top-level page is a Java Server Page (JSP).

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the top-level page includes at least one of:

HTML and Java source code.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the elements are java objects that the top-level page instantiates.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the asset types are determined by which classes of java objects are loaded by a servlet and the classes are mapped by a Java Servlet specification.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein one or more of the elements has a static HTML asset type.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein static HTML text of the static HTML asset type has one or more image tags and an additional element is created in the asset candidate list for one or more of the image tags.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the image tag includes at least one of:

IMG and A.

14. The method of claim 6, wherein one or more of the elements has an asset type of a java class file (JC).

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising the step of:

generating an external call graph for the JC, the external call graph for the JC being a list of method calls made within a class representation of the JC.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the external call graph for the JC is generated by at least one of:

byte code examination and de-compilation technology.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein one or more of the method calls of the external call graph for the JC creates an element in the asset candidate list.

18. The method of claim 6, wherein one or more of the elements has a JAR file asset type or an EJB asset type.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of generating an external call graph for each java class in the JAR file, the external call graphs for the java classes in the JAR file being a list of JAR method calls made within a class representation of the JAR file.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the external call graph for the JAR file is generated by at least one of:

byte code examination and de-compilation technology.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising the steps of:

a. matching a method signature against an interface of one or more of the EJB asset types; and

b. adding an EJB digital asset to the asset candidate list if there is no match.