Generating an encoded package profile

• US 8,762,931 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2010
• Issued: 06/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Vidal, Seth Kelby, Antill, James
• Primary Examiner(s): DAO, THUY CHAN
• Application Number:
  US12/788,139
• Publication Number:
  US 20110296394A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,490 Days
• US Class Current: 717/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/453 Data distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors

Abstract

Generation of cached representations of an encoded package profile. A physical or virtual client machine can host a set of installed software packages, including operating system, application, and/or other software. A package manager installed on the client machine can track the installed package complement, and updates available for those packages. The package manager can be configured to capture attributes of the set of installed packages, and generate an encoded identification of the installed packages using a hash or other algorithm. The encoded identification can be transmitted to one or more package servers or other management platform. The package server(s) can receive and decode the identifier, and insert that identifier and other package-related data into a local package cache. The package server(s) or other platform can configure package update or other activity using the cached representation of package profiles for one or more client machines.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, by a server from a host machine, an encoded identification of a set of installed packages on the host machine, the encoded identification being generated by encoding a set of attributes of the set of installed packages on the host machine;

entering the encoded identification into a package cache record maintained by a remote management platform, the package cache record comprising a plurality of encoded identifications of a plurality of host machines;

generating a target group in view of at least a portion of the plurality of host machines that each comprise a matching encoded identification for their respective set of installed packages; and

generating, by the server, a remote management command to transmit to the target group, wherein the remote management command comprises a command to initiate a package update on each of the plurality of host machines in the target group.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoded identification is captured by a local package manager installed on the host machine.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of attributes comprises at least one of a package name identifier, a package version identifier, a package epoch identifier, a package timestamp identifier, a package size identifier, a file name identifier, a file version identifier, a file timestamp identifier, or a file size identifier.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the encoded identification is generated by applying a hash function to the set of attributes of the set of installed packages.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of installed packages comprises at least one of a set of installed packages or a set of component files associated with the set of installed packages.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a package update notification in the remote management platform when a package update is installed in the host machine.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising receiving an updated encoded identification of the set of installed packages in the remote management platform in response to the package update notification.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising replacing the encoded identification stored in the package cache record with the updated encoded identification.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the updated encoded identification is generated in view of a set of predetermined criteria.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the set of predetermined criteria comprises a predetermined update schedule.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the host machine comprises a virtual machine.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the virtual machine is hosted in a cloud-based network.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the host machine comprises a hardware-based machine.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the package cache record comprises a record stored in an electronic memory in the remote management platform to store a cached representation of package information associated with host machine.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising storing the package cache record to a long-term data store of the remote management platform.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote management platform comprises at least one of one package server or one network management platform.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the package cache record is located within the server.

17. A system, comprising:

a network interface to a host machine; and

a processor, to communicate with the host machine via the network interface, the processor to;

receive, from the host machine, an encoded identification of a set of installed packages on the host machine, the encoded identification being generated by encoding a set of attributes of the set of installed packages on the host machine,

enter the encoded identification into a package cache record maintained by a management platform, the package cache record comprising a plurality of encoded identifications of a plurality of host machines,

generate a target group in view of at least a portion of the plurality of host machines that each comprise a matching encoded identification for their respective set of installed packages, and

generate a command to initiate an operation on the target group, wherein the operation comprises a command to initiate a package update on each of the plurality of host machines in the target group.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the encoded identification is captured by a local package manager installed on the host machine.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the host machine comprises at least one of a virtual machine or a hardware-based machine.

21. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving an encoded identification of a set of installed packages on a host machine, the encoded identification being generated by encoding a set of attributes of the set of installed packages on the host machine;

entering the encoded identification into a package cache record maintained by a remote management platform, the package cache record comprising a plurality of encoded identifications of a plurality of host machines

generating a target group in view of at least a portion of the plurality of host machines that each comprise a matching encoded identification for their respective set of installed packages; and

generating, by the processor, a remote management command to transmit to the target group, wherein the remote management command comprises a command to initiate a package update on each of the plurality of host machines in the target group.