Systems and methods for managing applications

• US 8,832,492 B1
• Filed: 01/25/2013
• Issued: 09/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Symantec Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Kruck, Joshua, Christensen, Aaron, Westenberg, Guido, Jorapurkar, Girish
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong, Loan L. T.
• Application Number:
  US13/751,005
• Time in Patent Office: 592 Days
• Field of Search: 714/2, 714/3, 714/4.4, 714/4.12, 714/6.12, 709/238, 718/103
• US Class Current: 714/4.12
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation

Abstract

A method for maintaining applications may include: (1) receiving a request to recover a first application, (2) identifying a first production topology of the first application that identifies a set of resources upon which the application depends, (3) maintaining a template for transforming the first production topology of the first application into a first recovery topology for the first application, the template comprising information for mapping the first production topology to the first recovery topology, (4) applying the template to the first production topology at a first point in time to create the first recovery topology, and (5) recovering the first application to a first computing system using the first recovery topology. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing applications, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:

discovering a set of resources upon which an application depends;

generating an application topology that identifies the set of resources;

for each resource in the set of resources;

identifying a computer-executable command programmed to change a state of the resource;

including the computer-executable command in the application topology in a manner that associates the computer-executable command with the resource.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to change a state of the application;

changing the state of the application by;

traversing the application topology to identify a resource whose state needs to be changed;

reading, from the application topology, the computer-executable command programmed to change the state of the resource;

changing the state of the resource by executing the computer-executable command.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein:

the request to change the state of the application comprises a request to recover the application;

changing the state of the resource comprises onlining the resource.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein:

the request to change the state of the application comprises a request to shut down the application;

changing the state of the resource comprises offlining the resource.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein traversing the application topology to identify the resource whose state needs to be changed comprises:

determining that the resource is not in a predetermined state.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one resource in the set of resources comprises a file system.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one resource in the set of resources comprises a database.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein identifying the computer-executable command and including the computer-executable command in the application topology is performed while the application topology is being generated.

9. A system comprising:

a discovery module programmed to;

discover a set of resources upon which an application depends;

generate a first production topology that identifies the set of resources;

a command-identification module programmed to, for each resource in the set of resources;

identify a computer-executable command programmed to change a state of the resource;

include the computer-executable command in the first production topology in a manner that associates the computer-executable command with the resource;

a template-retention module programmed to maintain a template for transforming the first production topology of the application into a recovery topology for the application, the template comprising information for mapping the first production topology to the recovery topology;

a recovery module programmed to;

receive a request to recover the application;

identify the first production topology;

apply the template to the first production topology at a point in time to create the recovery topology;

recover the application to a computing system using the recovery topology;

at least one processor programmed to execute the discovery module, the command-identification module, the template-retention module, and the recovery module.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the template-retention module is programmed to maintain the template by:

storing a set of changes that map the first production topology to the recovery topology.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the template-retention module is programmed to:

retrieve the template;

present at least a portion of information stored in the template to a user via a graphical user interface;

receive, via the graphical user interface, input that modifies at least one value stored in the template.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein:

the first production topology and the recovery topology comprise markup-language documents;

the template comprises a markup-language transformation document.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising one or more computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to:

discover a set of resources upon which an application depends;

generate an application topology that identifies the set of resources;

for each resource in the set of resources;

identify a computer-executable command programmed to change a state of the resource;

include the computer-executable command in the application topology in a manner that associates the computer-executable command with the resource.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the one or more computer-executable instructions are further programmed to cause the computing device to:

receive a request to change a state of the application;

change the state of the application by;

traversing the application topology to identify a resource whose state needs to be changed;

reading, from the application topology, the computer-executable command programmed to change the state of the resource;

changing the state of the resource by executing the computer-executable command.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein:

the request to change the state of the application comprises a request to recover the application;

the one or more computer-executable instructions are further programmed to change the state of the resource by onlining the resource.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein:

the request to change the state of the application comprises a request to shut down the application;

the one or more computer-executable instructions are further programmed to change the state of the resource by offlining the resource.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the one or more computer-executable instructions are programmed to traverse the application topology to identify the resource whose state needs to be changed by:

determining that the resource is not in a predetermined state.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein at least one resource in the set of resources comprises a file system.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein at least one resource in the set of resources comprises a database.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the one or more computer-executable instructions are programmed to identify the computer-executable command and include the computer-executable command in the application topology after the application topology is generated.