Discovery of network software relationships

• US 8,990,368 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2009
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: DeHaan, Michael Paul, Likins, Adrian Karstan, Vidal, Seth Kelby
• Primary Examiner(s): Keehn, Richard G
• Application Number:
  US12/395,511
• Publication Number:
  US 20100223609A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,216 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 715/735
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/24 Resetting means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/07 Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1675 Temporal synchronisation or re-synchronisation of redundant processing components
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/34 Signalling channels for network management communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for automatic discovery of network software relationships. A set of managed machines, such as personal computers or servers, can be managed by a network management platform communicating with the machines via a secure channel. The network management platform can issue a set of discovery commands interrogating nodes of the network to report software or services which they consume. The network management platform can build a dependency map encoding the dependency or other relationships between nodes in the managed network based on their use of software resources. Network restorations can therefore be conducted in a rational order, maintaining stability in the restored nodes and network.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

issuing a discovery command to a plurality of nodes of a network, the discovery command requesting information about dependencies between software installed on the plurality of nodes;

receiving responses to the discovery command from the plurality of nodes of the network, the responses comprising the information about the dependencies;

generating, based on the responses, a dependency map representing a plurality of dependency relationships between the software installed on the plurality of nodes of the network;

determining an ordered set comprising;

software installations for each software installed on the plurality of nodes, comprising a first software and second software, wherein installing the first software and the second software comprises retrieving a first reverse automatic installation file and a second reverse automatic installation file, and

a machine re-initialization order to be carried out in view of the dependency map after an interruption in the managed network;

saving the ordered set as network reconstruction data;

installing, by a processor and according to the ordered set in the network reconstruction data, the first software on a first node of the plurality of nodes and the second software on a second node of the plurality of nodes; and

re-initializing, after an interruption, machines in the network in a sequential order according to the software installations and machine re-initialization order determined in the ordered set.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing a record of the installation of the first software and the second software.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the dependency map comprises at least one of a tree, a linked list, a table, or a database.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of dependency relationships comprises a representation of a first plurality of software applications whose output comprises input to a second plurality of software applications.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of dependency relationships comprises a representation of a first plurality of software applications whose network-enabled services are accessed by a second plurality of software applications.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein installing the first software and the second software comprises retrieving a first reverse kickstart file and a second reverse kickstart file.

7. A system comprising:

a memory to store a dependency map representing a plurality of dependency relationships between software installed on a plurality of nodes of a network; and

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor to;

issue a discovery command to the plurality of nodes of the network, the discovery command requesting information about dependencies between software installed on the plurality of nodes;

receiving responses to the discovery command from the plurality of nodes of the network, the responses comprising the information about the dependencies;

generate, based on the responses, the dependency map;

determine an ordered set comprising;

software installations for each software installed on the plurality of nodes, comprising a first software and second software, wherein the processor is to install the first software and the second software by retrieving a first reverse automatic installation file and a second reverse automatic installation file from the memory, and

a machine re-initialization order to be carried out in view of the dependency map after an interruption in the managed network;

save the ordered set as network reconstruction data;

install, according to the ordered set in the network reconstruction data, the first software on a first node of the plurality of nodes and the second software on a second node of the plurality of nodes; and

re-initialize, after an interruption, machines in the network in a sequential order according to the software installations and machine re-initialization order determined in the ordered set.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor is further to store a record of the installation of the first software and the second software.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the dependency map comprises at least one of a tree, a linked list, a table, or a database.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the plurality of dependency relationships comprises a representation of a first plurality of software applications whose output comprises input to a second plurality of software applications.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the plurality of dependency relationships comprises a representation of a first plurality of software applications whose network-enabled services are accessed by a second plurality of software applications.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor is to install the first software and the second software by retrieving a first reverse kickstart file and a second reverse kickstart file from the memory.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

issue a discovery command to a plurality of nodes of a network, the discovery command requesting information about dependencies between software installed on the plurality of nodes;

receive responses to the discovery command from the plurality of nodes of the network, the responses comprising the information about the dependencies;

generate, in view of the responses, a dependency map representing a plurality of dependency relationships between the software installed on the plurality of nodes of the network;

determine an ordered set comprising;

software installations for each software installed on the plurality of nodes, comprising a first software and second software, wherein installing the first software and the second software comprises retrieving a first reverse automatic installation file and a second reverse automatic installation file, and

a machine re-initialization order to be carried out in view of the dependency map after an interruption in the managed network;

saving the ordered set as network reconstruction data;

install, by the processor and according to the ordered set in the network reconstruction data, the first software on a first node of the plurality of nodes and the second software on a second node of the plurality of nodes; and

re-initialize, after an interruption, machines in the network in a sequential order according to the software installations and machine re-initialization order determined in the ordered set.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the operations to further cause the processing device to store a record of the installation of the first software and the second software.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the dependency map comprises at least one of a tree, a linked list, a table, or a database.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the plurality of dependency relationships comprises a representation of a first plurality of software applications whose output comprises input to a second plurality of software applications.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the plurality of dependency relationships comprises a representation of a first plurality of software applications whose network-enabled services are accessed by a second plurality of software applications.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein to install the first software and the second software the processing device to retrieve a first reverse kickstart file and a second reverse kickstart file.