Discovering, defining, and implementing computer application topologies

• US 20070156861A1
• Filed: 12/30/2005
• Published: 07/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kashansky, Maor, Nedelcu, Laurentiu, Ionescu, Radu
• Granted Patent: US 7,774,446 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/02 Standardisation; Integration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

A method and system for discovering, defining, and implementing an application topology through the user of a graphical user interface is provided. A topology system may analyze the topology of an enterprise and provide a graphical representation of the application topology. The topology system may discover the application topology of an enterprise by accessing various configuration data stores of the enterprise. The topology system provides a graphical representation of the application topology and allows a user to modify the topology using a graphical user interface. The topology system may then control the implementation of the application topology.

Claims

1. A method in a computer system for specifying an application topology, the method comprising:

displaying indications of computers of a network;

receiving from a user a selection of a computer and an application to be associated with the selected computer;

displaying an indication that the selected application is associated with the selected computer; and

creating an installation package for the computers specifying that the applications associated with a computer are to be executed on that computer.

2. The method of claim 1 including providing application constraints of a computer that is to execute the application and ensuring that the application is associated with a computer that satisfies the constraints.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein a user can specify the constraints of an application.

4. The method of claim 1 including displaying an indication of applications that can be associated with a computer.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein when a computer is selected, displaying indications of those applications whose constraints are satisfied by the selected computer.

6. The method of claim 1 including providing a description of the computers of the topology.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the providing includes discovering the computers of a network.

8. The method of claim 1 including distributing to each computer an installation package so that the computer can execute applications indicated by the installation package.

9. A computer-readable medium containing a data structure describing an application topology, comprising:

an indication of domains of the application topology;

an indication of each computer along with roles and domains of the computer and networks to which the computer is connected; and

an indication of available applications and their roles.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 including for each application configuration settings for a computer that is to execute the application.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 including for each application constraints of the computer that is to execute the application.

12. A computer system for specifying an application topology, the computer system comprising:

a topology store that stores for each computer an indication of networks to which the computer is connected and an indication of applications that are associated with the computer;

a display component that displays an indication of each computer of the topology store along with an indication of the applications associated with each computer;

a topology update component that receives from a user a selection of a computer and an application to be associated with the selected computer and that associates the selected application with the selected computer; and

a package creation component that creates for each of the computers an installation package specifying that the applications associated with a computer are to be executed on that computer.

13. The computer system of claim 12 including a constraints store that specifies for each application constraints on the computers with which the application is to be associated.

14. The computer system of claim 12 including a component that determines whether a computer satisfies the constraints of an application.

15. The computer system of claim 13 including a component that displays indications of those applications whose constraints are satisfied by the selected computer.

16. The computer system of claim 12 including a discovery component that discovers the computers of a network along with the applications associated with the computers.

17. The computer system of claim 16 wherein the discovery component discovers the networks to which a computer is connected.

18. The computer system of claim 12 including a component that creates an installation package that can be used by each computer to execute the application associated with the computer.

19. The computer system of claim 18 including a component that distributes to each computer its installation package so that the computer can execute applications indicated by the installation package.

20. The computer system of claim 12 including an application store that specifies the applications and their corresponding parameters wherein a user can modify the application store to modify the applications that can be associated with a computer.