Defining configurable characteristics of a product and associating configuration with enterprise resources

• US 9,632,764 B2
• Filed: 08/28/2013
• Issued: 04/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Bryan, Jeffrey J., Kavantzas, Nickolas
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao, Thuy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Franco, Christopher
• Application Number:
  US14/012,892
• Publication Number:
  US 20140189681A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,336 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1063 Application servers providing network services systems providing special services to telephonic subscribers H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54

Abstract

A computer-controlled method of managing third party installations within an enterprise can include inventorying the third party installations, specifying a number of configuration parameters for each third party installation, and storing the configuration parameters for the third party installations in a WSM metadata repository.

Claims

1. A computer-controlled method of managing at least one third party installation within an enterprise, the method comprising:

inventorying the at least one third party installation within the enterprise, wherein the inventorying comprises tracking at least one statistic about the at least one third party installation;

specifying a plurality of configuration parameters for the at least one third party installation;

storing the plurality of configuration parameters for each of the at least one third party installation in a web services manager (WSM) metadata repository, the at least one statistic comprising a version of a WSM application in use with the third party installation;

an agent instance retrieving its plurality of configuration parameters from the WSM metadata repository;

attaching a web service (WS) policy to the WSM application; and

saving the plurality of configuration parameters responsive to the attaching of the WS policy to the WSM application.

2. The computer-controlled method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of configuration parameters includes cache refresh rates.

3. The computer-controlled method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of configuration parameters includes nonce timeout.

4. The computer-controlled method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of configuration parameters includes clock skew.

5. The computer-controlled method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of configuration parameters includes policy manager (PM) connection information.

6. The computer-controlled method of claim 1, wherein the inventorying comprises determining whether the at least one third party installation is configured to support a third party agent.

7. The computer-controlled method of claim 1, wherein the inventorying comprises tracking at least a second statistic about the at least one third party installation.

8. The computer-controlled method of claim 7, wherein the at least a second statistic includes version information pertaining to the at least one third party installation.

9. The computer-controlled method of claim 7, wherein the at least a second statistic includes hosting platform information.

10. The computer-controlled method of claim 1, further comprising detecting a change to at least one of the plurality of configuration parameters.

11. The computer-controlled method of claim 1, further comprising the agent instance updating its active configuration responsive to a change to the plurality of configuration parameters.

12. The computer-controlled method of claim 11, wherein the change to the plurality of configuration parameters includes the addition of a new configuration parameter.

13. The computer-controlled method of claim 11, wherein the change to the plurality of configuration parameters includes the modification of a configuration parameter.

14. The computer-controlled method of claim 11, wherein the change to the plurality of configuration parameters includes the removal of a configuration parameter.

15. The computer-controlled method of claim 11, further comprising the agent instance persisting the updated configuration locally for the next time it initializes.

16. The computer-controlled method of claim 1, further comprising the WS policy defining default behavior of the WSM application.

17. The computer-controlled method of claim 1, further comprising detaching the WS policy from the WSM application.

18. The computer-controlled method of claim 17, further comprising saving the plurality of configuration parameters responsive to the detaching of the WS policy from the WSM application.

19. One or more non-transitory, computer-readable memories containing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a computer-controlled method of managing at least one third party installation within an enterprise, the method including:

inventorying the at least one third party installation within the enterprise, wherein the inventorying comprises tracking at least one statistic about the at least one third party installation;

specifying a plurality of configuration parameters for the at least one third party installation;

storing the plurality of configuration parameters for each of the at least one third party installation in a web services manager (WSM) metadata repository, the at least one statistic comprising a version of a WSM application in use with the third party installation;

retrieving a plurality of configuration parameters for an agent instance from the WSM metadata repository;

attaching a web service (WS) policy to the WSM application; and

saving the plurality of configuration parameters responsive to the attaching of the WS policy to the WSM application.