Communicating status regarding application of compliance policy updates

• US 9,432,405 B2
• Filed: 07/10/2014
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Zhang, Hao, Parthasarathy, Krishna Kumar, Chao, Lucy, Libman, Mashuri, Koretsky, Anatoly, Gao, Liphi, Xie, Yongjun, Blyth, David Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Nalven, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): RUPRECHT, CHRISTOPHER S
• Application Number:
  US14/327,886
• Publication Number:
  US 20150249681A1
• Time in Patent Office: 782 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A set of compliance policy updates are received. The compliance policy updates are sent to workloads for application. A status of the application of the compliance policies to the workloads is received from the workloads and output.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

using a computer processor to send a compliance policy update from a compliance policy authoring system to a workload for deployment to the workload;

sending bindings from the compliance policy authoring system to the workload, the bindings being indicative of which portions of the workload that the compliance policy update applies to;

automatically receiving a compliance policy status indicator from the workload indicative of a status of deployment of the compliance policy update to the workload, the compliance policy status indicator including;

an error indication indicative of an error in application of the compliance policy update to the workload; and

a binding level error indication indicative of a portion of the workload where the error occurred; and

based on the compliance policy status indicator, displaying a status display element indicative of whether the compliance policy update is currently being deployed to to the workload or whether deployment of the compliance policy update to the workload has completed, the status display element indicating the error in application of the compliance policy update and the portion of the workload where the error occurred.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the binding level error indication is indicative of a plurality of different portions of the workload that the compliance policy update was unsuccessfully deployed to, and, for each of the different portions, an error that occurred during deployment of the compliance policy update, and wherein displaying a status display element comprises:

displaying a status display element that identifies each of the different portions of the workload and the error that occurred in each different portion.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein displaying the status display element indicative of the compliance policy update being deployed with errors comprises:

displaying the binding level error indication along with a drill user input mechanism actuatable to display an error detail display showing details corresponding to the binding level error indicator.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the workload comprises a multi-tenant workload and wherein displaying the status display element comprises:

displaying a status display element indicative of a deployment status of the compliance policy update across all tenants in the multi-tenant workload.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 wherein sending comprises:

sending the compliance policy update to a plurality of different workloads for deployment to the plurality of different workloads.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 wherein displaying the status display element comprises:

displaying a status display element indicative of a deployment status of the compliance policy update across all of the plurality of different workloads.

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

receiving the user input indicative of a remedy for the error; and

displaying a redeploy user input mechanism to redeploy the compliance policy update after the error has been remedied.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, and further comprising:

receiving an indication of user actuation of the redeploy user input mechanism; and

redeploying the compliance policy update to the workload based on the user actuation of the redeploy user input mechanism.

9. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a compliance policy update at a workload;

receiving bindings at the workload indicative of which portions of the workload that the compliance policy update applies to;

using a computer processor to automatically deploy the compliance policy update to different portions of the workload identified by the received bindings;

automatically identifying a deployment status indicative of whether the deployment of the compliance policy update to the workload is in progress or has completed;

automatically identifying a binding level status indicative of a status of the deployment to each of the different portions of the workload and whether an error occurred in deployment of the compliance policy update to each portion; and

sending the deployment status and the binding level status to a compliance policy authoring and management system.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 wherein the workload comprises a multi-tenant workload, wherein sending a deployment status comprises:

sending a deployment status and a binding level status for a plurality of tenants in the multi-tenant workload.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 wherein identifying a deployment status comprises:

if the deployment is completed, identifying whether the compliance policy update is deployed successfully or with errors.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 wherein identifying a deployment status comprises:

if the deployment is completed with errors, identifying the errors, and further comprising re-deploying the compliance policy update to the workload when the identified errors are remedied.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein re-deploying comprises:

receiving an indication from the compliance policy authoring and management system that the identified errors have been remedied.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 wherein redeploying comprises:

deploying a modified version of the compliance policy update.

15. A compliance policy system, comprising:

a policy distribution system configured to;

distribute a compliance policy update to a plurality of different workloads; and

send bindings to each of the workloads indicative of which portions of each workload that the compliance policy update applies to;

a policy status processing system configured to;

receive a status indicator from each of the workloads indicative of a deployment status of the compliance policy update to the workload, the status indicator including;

an error indication indicative of an error in application of the compliance policy update to the workload; and

a binding level error indication indicative of a portion of the workload where the error occurred; and

generate a policy status display element based on the status indicators, the policy status display element indicating a status of deployment of the compliance policy update to each of the plurality of different workloads;

a user interface component configured to display the policy status display element, wherein, for each workload, the policy status display element is indicative of whether the compliance policy update is currently being deployed to the workload or whether deployment of the compliance policy update to the workload has completed, and the policy status display element indicates the error in application of the compliance policy and the portion of the workload where the error occurred; and

a computer processor that is a functional part of the system and is activated by the policy distribution system, the policy status processing system and the user interface component to facilitate distributing, generating and displaying.

16. The compliance policy system of claim 15 wherein the workloads are multi-tenant workloads and wherein the status processing system generates the policy status display element to identify a deployment status across a plurality of tenants in the multi-tenant workloads.

17. The compliance policy system of claim 15, wherein the binding level error indication is indicative of a plurality of different portions of the workload that the compliance policy update was unsuccessfully deployed to, and, for each of the different portions, an error that occurred during deployment of the compliance policy update.

18. The compliance policy system of claim 17, wherein the user interface component is configured to display the binding level error indication along with a drill user input mechanism actuatable to display an error detail display showing details corresponding to the binding level error indicator.

19. The compliance policy system of claim 15, wherein the user interface component is configured to:

receive a user input indicative of a remedy for the error; and

display a redeploy user input mechanism to redeploy the compliance policy update.

20. The compliance policy system of claim 15, wherein the user interface component is configured to receive an indication of user actuation of the redeploy user input mechanism, and wherein the policy distribution system is configured to redeploy the compliance policy update to at least one of the workloads based on the user actuation of the redeploy user input mechanism.