System and method for managing changes in a network datacenter

• US 8,745,188 B2
• Filed: 08/25/2010
• Issued: 06/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus Software, Inc. (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Westerfeld, Kurt Andrew, Warren, Hugh
• Primary Examiner(s): Colin, Carl
• Assistant Examiner(s): ZHAO, DON GORDON
• Application Number:
  US12/868,507
• Publication Number:
  US 20110302290A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,378 Days
• Field of Search: 709223-226, 726 22- 28
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route

Abstract

The system and method described herein may include a configuration management database containing various configuration items describing every known resource in a datacenter. Upon receiving a request proposing changes to the datacenter, the proposed changes may be approved for automated execution (i.e., without human intervention) in response to analyzing relationships modeled in the configuration management database and determining that the proposed changes have no potential impacts on essential or critical resources. Otherwise, an impact workflow may be created to coordinate interaction between various human participants to resolve the potential impacts. Further, in contexts where multiple proposed changes have been approved, the multiple proposed changes may be analyzed to detect any potential conflicts. Thus, the multiple proposed changes may be approved for automated execution in response to detecting no potential conflicts, or a conflict workflow may be created to similarly coordinate human interaction to resolve the conflicts.

Claims

1. A system for managing one or more changes in a datacenter, comprising:

a configuration management database comprising a plurality of configuration items, wherein each of the plurality of configuration items describes at least one of a plurality of resources of the datacenter, and wherein the configuration management database models one or more relationships between the plurality of configuration items; and

a change management engine comprising one or more physical processors that are programmed to execute one or more computer readable instructions that cause the change management engine to;

receive a request proposing a change that adds, removes, or modifies a resource of the datacenter;

identify one or more configuration items that represent one or more resources of the datacenter that will be impacted by the proposed change, wherein the one or more identified configuration items are at least a subset of the plurality of configuration items;

determine one or more domain-specific inclusions or exclusions that are tuned for removing information unnecessary to determining whether or not to approve the proposed change;

determine one or more heuristics or rules that are tuned to a particular implementation for the configuration management database;

generate a navigational traversal for the one or more identified configuration items based on the one or more relationships, the one or more determined domain-specific inclusions or exclusions, and the one or more determined heuristics or rules;

determine whether the one or more resources include a resource that is predetermined to be essential or critical to the datacenter based on the generated navigational traversal;

output an indication that the proposed change is approved in response to a determination that the one or more resources do not include a resource that is predetermined to be essential or critical to the datacenter; and

output a change approval request in response to a determination that the one or more resources include a resource that has been predetermined to be essential or critical to the datacenter.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more physical processors further cause the change management engine to generate an impact report with support data that corroborates approval of the proposed change.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more physical processors further cause the change management engine to receive a decision to approve the change approval request from one or more human participants wherein an impact report includes support data that corroborates the decision to approve the change approval request.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more physical processors further cause the change management engine to receive a decision not to approve the change approval request from one or more human participants wherein an impact report includes support data that corroborates the decision not to approve the change approval request.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more physical processors further cause the change management engine to:

queue the proposed change for automated execution in the datacenter;

queue another set of one or more proposed changes to the datacenter;

output an indication that the proposed change and the another set of one or more proposed changes are approved in response to a determination that the proposed change and the another set of one or more proposed changes do not conflict;

output another change approval request in response to a determination that the proposed change and the another set of one or more proposed changes conflict.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the one or more physical processors further cause the change management engine to receive a decision to approve or to reject the another change approval request from one or more human participants.

2. The system of 1, wherein the navigational traversal includes a graph data structure having a set of pathways that model the one or more relationships.

8. A computer-implemented method of managing one or more changes in a datacenter, the method being implemented by a computer system that includes one or more physical processors executing one or more computer program instructions which, when executed, perform the method, the method comprising:

populating a configuration management database with a plurality of configuration items, wherein each of the plurality of configuration items describes at least one of a plurality of resources of the datacenter;

modeling one or more relationships between the plurality of configuration items in the configuration management database;

receiving a request proposing a change that adds, removes, or modifies a resource of the datacenter;

identifying one or more configuration items that represent one or more resources of the datacenter that will be impacted by the proposed change, wherein the one or more identified configuration items are at least a subset of the plurality of configuration items;

determining one or more domain-specific inclusions or exclusions that are tuned for removing information unnecessary to determining whether or not to approve the proposed change;

determining one or more heuristics or rules that are tuned to a particular implementation for the configuration management database;

generating a navigational traversal for the one or more identified configuration items based on the one or more relationships, the one or more determined domain-specific inclusions or exclusions, and the one or more determined heuristics or rules;

determining whether the one or more resources include a resource that is predetermined to be essential or critical to the datacenter based on the generated navigational traversal;

outputting an indication that the proposed change is approved in response to a determination that the one or more resources do not include a resource that is predetermined to be essential or critical to the datacenter; and

outputting a change approval request in response to a determination that the one or more resources include a resource that is predetermined to be essential or critical to the datacenter.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the navigational traversal includes a graph data structure having a set of pathways that model the one or more relationships.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more configuration items comprise a first configuration item and a second configuration item that has a relationship with the first configuration item, wherein the first configuration item represents the resource to be added, removed, or modified by the proposed change, and wherein generating the navigational traversal comprises identifying the second configuration item from the first configuration item and from the one or more relationships modeled in the configuration management database.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein at least a portion of the set of pathways starts with the first configuration item and emanates to the second configuration item.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising generating an impact report with support data that corroborates approval of the proposed change.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving a decision to approve the change approval request from one or more human participants, wherein an impact report includes support data that corroborates the decision to approve the change approval request.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving a decision not to approve the change approval request from one or more human participants wherein an impact report includes support data that corroborates the decision not to approve the change approval request.

15. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

queuing the proposed change for automated execution in the datacenter;

queuing another set of one or more proposed changes to the datacenter;

outputting an indication that the proposed change and the another set of one or more proposed changes are approved in response to a determination that the proposed change and the another set of one or more proposed changes do not conflict;

outputting another change approval request in response to a determination that the proposed change and the another set of one or more proposed changes conflict.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising receiving a decision to approve or to reject the another change approval request from one or more human participants.