Defining and using templates in configuring information technology environments

• US 8,751,283 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2007
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bobak, Mythili K., McConnell, Tim A., Swanson, Michael D., Wood, Brian O.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pats, Justin M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Goldberg, Ivan R
• Application Number:
  US11/965,845
• Publication Number:
  US 20090171705A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,356 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.27, 705/7.26, 705/348, 705/301, 717/104, 717/105
• US Class Current: 705/7.27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/188 Electronic negotiation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0843 based on generic templates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0879 Manual configuration through operator

Abstract

Templates are provided and used in an Information Technology (IT) environment. A template represents a pattern of resources and resource relationships of the IT environment. Templates are applied to automatically generate recommendations of programmatic representations of artifacts of the IT environment. The artifacts include Recovery Segments, Redundancy Groups, Business Resilience Manager deployment configurations and/or resource pairing represented by relationship data stores, as examples.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of facilitating configuration of an information technology (IT) environment, the computer-implemented method comprising:

obtaining, by a processor, a template for the IT environment, said template representing a pattern of resource types and relationship types between those resource types;

obtaining, by the processor, a resource graph representing a customer'"'"'s topology of the IT environment, wherein the resource graph has a plurality of nodes including one or more source nodes and one or more destination nodes;

forming a management artifact of the IT environment, the formed management artifact comprising at least one of a group of resources and one or more relationships between resources of the group of resources, the forming comprising applying the pattern of the template to automatically generate by the processor a recommendation as to one or more resources or one or more relationships to be included in the management artifact, wherein the applying comprises;

searching, by the processor, the template to determine whether a resource type of a current node of the plurality of nodes exists in the pattern of the template;

evaluating by the processor, when the resource type of the current node does not exist in the template, another of the plurality of nodes of the customer'"'"'s topology for matching the resource type with the template until there are no more nodes of the plurality of nodes to evaluate;

traversing by the processor, when the resource type of the current node exists in the template, relationships of the current node to determine whether there are matches between the template and the customer'"'"'s topology, wherein the matches include one or more of;

a resource type of a source node, a resource type of a destination node, a relationship type between source and destination nodes, property values on a source node, or property values on a destination node;

based on there being one or more matches, marking the one or more matches in the customer'"'"'s topology as matched; and

when at least one match does not exist in the pattern of the template, providing a user with an option to extend a definition of the template to include the unmatched relationship and node; and

providing a result of the searching, the result to be used in determining whether one or more instances of one or more resources or one or more relationships that match the pattern are to be included in the management artifact; and

employing the formed management artifact to manage the IT environment to a quantifiable management goal.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the management artifact comprises a Recovery Segment.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the management artifact comprises a Redundancy Group.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the template comprises a definition template.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the definition template provides direction of how to define the management artifact.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining the template comprises defining a plurality of templates for the IT environment, each template representing a pattern of resource types and resource relationship types, and wherein the plurality of templates comprise at least one of one or more definition templates or one or more deployment templates.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising modifying the template.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising associating with the template one or more characteristics of the management artifact, wherein the one or more characteristics comprise property value pairs for resources or trigger values for relationships.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the pattern represents a best practice associated with the management artifact.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining the template comprises at least one of:

receiving from a vendor the template representing best practices;

defining the template;

defining the template as a result of modifying a vendor provided template;

or

retrieving an open source provided template.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining the template comprises:

searching a data store of templates for a list of one or more templates that meets one or more predefined criteria associated with the management artifact; and

selecting from the list the template to be applied.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising modifying the selected template, and wherein the modified template is the template to be applied.

13. A computer system of facilitating configuration of an information technology (IT) environment, the computer system comprising:

a memory having a template for the IT environment, said template representing a pattern of resource types and relationship types between those resource types; and

a processor in communications with the memory, wherein the computer system is configured to perform a method, the method comprising;

obtaining a resource graph representing a customer'"'"'s topology of the IT environment, wherein the resource graph has a plurality of nodes including one or more source nodes and one or more destination nodes;

forming a management artifact of the IT environment, the formed management artifact comprising at least one of a group of resources and one or more relationships between resources of the group of resources, the forming comprising applying the pattern of the template to automatically generate by the processor a recommendation as to one or more resources or one or more relationships to be included in the management artifact, wherein the applying comprises;

searching, by the processor, the template to determine whether a resource type of a current node of the plurality of nodes exists in the pattern of the template;

evaluating by the processor, when the resource type of the current node does not exist in the template, another of the plurality of nodes of the customer'"'"'s topology for matching the resource type with the template until there are no more nodes of the plurality of nodes to evaluate;

traversing by the processor, when the resource type of the current node exists in the template, relationships of the current node to determine whether there are matches between the template and the customer'"'"'s topology, wherein the matches include one or more of;

a resource type of a source node, a resource type of a destination node, a relationship type between source and destination nodes, property values on a source node, or property values on a destination node;

based on there being one or more matches, marking the one or more matches in the customer'"'"'s topology as matched; and

when at least one match does not exist in the pattern of the template, providing a user with an option to extend a definition of the template to include the unmatched relationship and node; and

providing a result of the searching, the result to be used in determining whether one or more instances of one or more resources or one or more relationships that match the pattern are to be included in the management artifact; and

employing the formed management artifact to manage the IT environment to a quantifiable management goal.

14. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the pattern represents a best practice associated with the management artifact to be generated.

15. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the template comprises a definition template.

16. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises obtaining the template, the obtaining the template comprising at least one of:

receiving from a vendor the template representing best practices;

defining the template;

defining the template as a result of modifying a vendor provided template;

or

retrieving an open source provided template.

17. A computer program product for facilitating configuration of an information technology (IT) environment, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium readable by a processor and storing instructions for execution by the processor for performing a method comprising;

obtaining a template for the IT environment, said template representing a pattern of resource types and relationship types between those resource types; and

obtaining a resource graph representing a customer'"'"'s topology of the IT environment, wherein the resource graph has a plurality of nodes including one or more source nodes and one or more destination nodes;

forming a management artifact of the IT environment, the formed management artifact comprising at least one of a group of resources and one or more relationships between resources of the group of resources, the forming comprising applying the pattern of the template to automatically generate by the processor a recommendation as to one or more resources or one or more relationships to be included in the management artifact, wherein the applying comprises;

searching, by the processor, the template to determine whether a resource type of a current node of the plurality of nodes exists in the pattern of the template;

evaluating by the processor, when the resource type of the current node does not exist in the template, another of the plurality of nodes of the customer'"'"'s topology for matching the resource type with the template until there are no more nodes of the plurality of nodes to evaluate;

traversing by the processor, when the resource type of the current node exists in the template, relationships of the current node to determine whether there are matches between the template and the customer'"'"'s topology, wherein the matches include one or more of;

a resource type of a source node, a resource type of a destination node, a relationship type between source and destination nodes, property values on a source node, or property values on a destination node;

based on there being one or more matches, marking the one or more matches in the customer'"'"'s topology as matched; and

when at least one match does not exist in the pattern of the template, providing a user with an option to extend a definition of the template to include the unmatched relationship and node; and

providing a result of the searching, the result to be used in determining whether one or more instances of one or more resources or one or more relationships that match the pattern are to be included in the management artifact; and

employing the formed management artifact to manage the IT environment to a quantifiable management goal.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the management artifact comprises one of a Recovery Segment or a Redundancy Group.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the obtaining the template comprises:

searching a data store of templates for a list of one or more templates that meets one or more predefined criteria associated with the artifact; and

selecting from the list the template to be applied.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the obtaining the template comprises at least one of:

receiving from a vendor the template representing best practices;

defining the template;

defining the template as a result of modifying a vendor provided template;

or

retrieving an open source provided template.