Collision detection using state management of configuration items

• US 9,853,863 B1
• Filed: 10/08/2014
• Issued: 12/26/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Inventors: Chandrashekar, Sridhar, Gupta, Manish, Narayanan, Magesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Vostal, O. C.
• Application Number:
  US14/509,419
• Time in Patent Office: 1,175 Days
• Field of Search: 709220
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2255 Hash tables
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/23 Updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/381 using identifiers, e.g. barcodes, RFIDs for URLs G06F16/9554
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9014 hash tables
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/08 Sorting, i.e. grouping record carriers in numerical or other ordered sequence according to the classification of at least some of the information they carry by merging two or more sets of carriers in ordered sequence G06F7/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/20 Comparing separate sets of record carriers arranged in the same sequence to determine whether at least some of the data in one set is identical with that in the other set or sets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0813 characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0856 by backing up or archiving configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0869 Validating the configuration within one network element

Abstract

Implementations of a system, method and apparatus described herein receive, for a configuration item in a configuration management database, status indicating an operational state and an automation state associated with the configuration item, and determine whether a conflict will occur with at least one of the operational state or the automation state of the configuration item as a result of a process affecting the configuration item. When the conflict will not occur, a change is made to at least one of the operational state or the automation state of the configuration item in accordance with the process. Upon a conclusion of the process, the change is removed. If the conflict will occur, the process not allowed to continue.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a memory; and

a processor configured to execute instructions stored in the memory to;

execute a state management application program interface that is configured to determine, for a configuration item representing a component within a cloud computing infrastructure system in a configuration management database, an operational state and an automation state associated with the configuration item;

determine whether at least one of the operational state and the automation state is incompatible with one or more intended actions associated with a process affecting the configuration item, wherein the one or more intended actions include one or more cloud automation actions;

in response to determining that at least one of the operational state and the automation state is incompatible with the one or more intended actions, determine whether a conflict will occur with at least one of the operational state and the automation state of the configuration item; and

responsive to determining that the conflict will not occur;

change at least one of the operational state and the automation state of the configuration item in accordance with the process; and

upon a conclusion of the process, remove the change to the at least one of the operational state and the automation state of the configuration item.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the configuration item is one of a set of configuration items and the process affects each of the set of configuration items;

and wherein the processor is configured to determine whether the conflict will occur by;

determining whether the operational state or the automation state of any configuration item within a set of configuration items is incompatible with an operation occurring within the process.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the processor is configured to make the change to at least one of the operational state or the automation state of each configuration item of the set of configuration items.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the set of configuration items includes a customer instance, at least one database server instance, at least one application server instance and at least one web server instance.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to:

selectively filter monitoring alerts on the configuration item during the process based on the operational state and the automation state.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to make the change by adding a new automation state to the automation state that exists before the process begins;

and the processor is configured to remove the change by removing the new automation state to return the automation state to the automation state existing before the process began.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to make the change by:

setting the operational state of the configuration item to a new operational state.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the processor is configured to remove the change by:

returning the operational state of the configuration item to the operational state before the new operational state.

9. A method, comprising:

executing a state management application program interface, using a processor, that is configured to determine, for a configuration item representing a component within a cloud computing infrastructure system in a configuration management database, an operational state and an automation state associated with the configuration item;

determining whether at least one of the operational state and the automation state is incompatible with one or more intended actions associated with a process affecting the configuration item, wherein the one or more intended actions include one or more cloud automation actions;

in response to determining that at least one of the operational state and the automation state is incompatible with the one or more intended actions, determining, using the processor, whether a conflict will occur with at least one of the operational state and the automation state of the configuration item; and

responsive to determining that the conflict will not occur;

change, using the processor, at least one of the operational state and the automation state of the configuration item in accordance with the process; and

upon a conclusion of the process, removing the change to the at least one of the operational state and the automation state using the processor.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

selectively filtering monitoring alerts on the configuration item during the process based on the operational state and the automation state.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein making the change comprises:

adding a new automation state to the automation state that exists before the process begins.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein removing the change comprises:

removing the new automation state to return the automation state to the automation state existing before the process began.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein making the change comprises:

setting the operational state of the configuration item to a new operational state.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

upon a condition that the conflict will occur, blocking the process from occurring.

15. The method of claim 9 wherein an operational state of a configuration item reflects one of:

the configuration item is within normal operating parameters;

the configuration item is in an error condition;

the configuration item is under repair;

or

the configuration item is retired.

16. The method of claim 9 wherein the automation state reflects at least one of:

the configuration item is currently undergoing a cloning process;

the configuration item is currently undergoing a renaming process;

the configuration item is currently undergoing a moving process;

the configuration item is currently undergoing a patching process;

the configuration item is currently undergoing a provisioning process;

the configuration item is currently undergoing a maintenance process;

or

the configuration item is currently undergoing a retirement process.

17. The method of claim 9 wherein the configuration item is a database server instance.

18. The method of claim 9 wherein the configuration item is one of a set of configuration items and the process affects each of the set of configuration items;

and wherein determining whether the conflict will occur comprises determining that the conflict will occur when the operational state or the automation state of any configuration item within the set of configuration items is incompatible with an operation occurring within the process.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein making the change comprises making a same change to at least one of the operational state or the automation state of each configuration item of the set of configuration items.

20. A system comprising:

a memory; and

a processor configured to execute instructions stored in the memory to;

execute a state management application program interface that is configured to determine, for a configuration item representing a component within a cloud computing infrastructure system in a configuration management database, an operational state and an automation state associated with the configuration item;

determine whether at least one of the operational state and the automation state is incompatible with one or more intended actions associated with a process affecting the configuration item, wherein the one or more intended actions include one or more cloud automation actions;

in response to determining that at least one of the operational state and the automation state is incompatible with the one or more intended actions, determine whether a conflict will occur between at least one of the operational state and the automation state; and

responsive to determining that a conflict will occur, block the process from occurring.