Template configuration tool for application servers

• US 20060242626A1
• Filed: 04/21/2005
• Published: 10/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Zenz, Ingo, Pham, Quang D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,984,119 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/121
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files

Abstract

A template configuration tool includes a template tool core and template processor plug-ins. The template processor plug-ins auto-configure components of an Application Server (“AS”) instance based on component templates containing configuration information. The template tool core loads the components templates and the processor plug-ins and invokes functions of the template processor plug-ins to auto-configure the components of the AS instance.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

loading component templates containing configuration information to configure an Application Server (“

AS”

) instance;

loading template processor plug-ins; and

applying the component templates to a current installation configuration of the AS instance using the template processor plug-ins to configure components of the AS instance based on the component templates.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the current installation configuration comprises a default installation configuration of the AS instance installed on a server node.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

saving a backup of a first one of the components of the current installation configuration of the AS instance prior to applying a corresponding one of the template processor plug-ins; and

restoring the backup, if the corresponding one of the template processor plug-ins fails to validly configure the first one of the components of the current installation configuration.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein applying the component templates, saving the backup, and restoring the backup includes invoking methods implemented by the template processor plug-ins and accessible through a common interface.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising inspecting a registration file correlating the component templates to the template processor plug-ins to determine which of the template processor plug-ins is to apply which of the component templates to the current installation configuration of the AS instance, the registration file further to identify the template processor plug-ins to be loaded.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein at least one of the component templates includes use-case dependent parameters including information to configure a first one of the components of the AS instance for operating specified software applications and hardware platform dependent parameters including information to configure the first one of the components based on hardware resources available in the server node.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the hardware platform dependent parameters include logic to dynamically determine hardware dependent configuration settings of the first one of the components of the AS instance.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the template processor plug-ins auto-extract parameters from a hardware platform supporting the AS instance during applying the component templates to configure the components of the AS instance.

9. A system, comprising:

component templates containing configuration information to configure components of an Application Server (“

AS”

) instance;

template processor plug-ins to auto-configure the components of the AS instance based on the component templates; and

a template tool core to load the component templates and the processor plug-ins and to invoke functions of the template processor plug-ins to auto-configure the components of the AS instance.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a common interface to provide the template tool core a common access point through which the functions of the template processor plug-ins are invoked.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the component templates include hardware platform dependent parameters, software platform dependent parameters, use-case dependent parameters.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein at least one of the component templates includes logic to extract at least a first portion of the hardware dependent parameters from a hardware platform during auto-configuration of the components of the AS instance and to dynamically configure the at least one of the components based on arithmetic manipulation of the extracted first portion of the hardware dependent parameters.

13. A machine-accessible medium that provides instructions that, if executed by a machine, will cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

loading component templates containing configuration information to configure an Application Server (“

AS”

) instance;

loading template processor plug-ins; and

applying the component templates to a current installation configuration of the AS instance using the template processor plug-ins to configure components of the AS instance based on the component templates.

14. The machine-accessible medium of claim 13, further providing instructions that, if executed by the machine, will cause the machine to perform further operations, comprising:

saving a backup of a first one of the components of the current installation configuration of the AS instance prior to applying a corresponding one of the template processor plug-ins; and

restoring the backup, if the corresponding one of the template processor plug-ins fails to validly configure the first one of the components of the current installation configuration.

15. The machine-accessible medium of claim 14, wherein applying the component templates, saving the backup, and restoring the backup includes invoking methods implemented by the template processor plug-ins and accessible through a common interface.

16. The machine-accessible medium of claim 13, further providing instructions that, if executed by the machine, will cause the machine to perform further operations, comprising:

inspecting a registration file correlating the component templates to the template processor plug-ins to determine which of the template processor plug-ins is to apply which of the component templates to the current installation configuration of the AS instance, the registration file further to identify the template processor plug-ins to be loaded.

17. The machine-accessible medium of claim 13, wherein at least one of the component templates includes hardware platform dependent parameters including information to configure the first one of the components based on hardware resources.

18. The machine-accessible medium of claim 17, wherein the hardware platform dependent parameters include logic to dynamically determine hardware dependent configuration settings of the first one of the components of the AS instance during the applying of the one of the component templates.

19. The machine-accessible medium of claim 13, wherein at least one of the component templates includes use-case dependent parameters including information to configure a first one of the components of the AS instance for operating specified software applications.

20. The machine-accessible medium of claim 13, wherein the template processor plug-ins auto-extract parameters from a hardware platform supporting the AS instance during applying the component templates to configure the components of the AS instance.