SERVICE CONFIGURATION ASSURANCE

• US 20130132550A1
• Filed: 01/10/2013
• Published: 05/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: PELLETIER, Stephan, PANA, Mircea, BUTT, Ian
• Granted Patent: US 9,219,652 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0604 using filtering, e.g. reduction of information by using priority, element types, position or time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0866 Checking the configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5012 determining service availability, e.g. which services are available at a certain point in time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5064 Customer relationship management

Abstract

Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with service configuration assurance are described. One example method includes comparing an expected device configuration model with an actual device configuration model for the network device and communicating service identifiers in the expected device configuration for which there is no corresponding service configuration item in the actual device configuration model to a user. The example method may also include generating a service-impact event notification when a likely service-impacting configuration change is detected.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

identifying an expected device configuration model for a network device, where the expected device configuration model comprises one or more expected service configuration items associated with the network device;

identifying an actual device configuration model of the network device, where the actual device configuration model comprises one or more service configuration items associated with the network device;

comparing the expected device configuration model with the actual device configuration model by;

for at least one service provided by the network device, identifying expected service configuration items that realize the service with a service identifier for the service;

matching identified expected service configuration items with service configuration items in the actual device configuration model;

associating service identifiers for expected service configuration items with matching service configuration items in the actual device configuration model;

identifying an expected service configuration item in the expected device configuration model that includes a service identifier and for which there is no corresponding service configuration item in the actual device configuration model;

communicating the identified configuration item and the service identifier to the user.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, the method comprising:

retrieving one or more service definitions for the network device;

retrieving service realization algorithms for the network device type for the service; and

generating the expected service configuration items based at least in part on the service realization algorithms.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, the method comprising:

generating the actual device configuration model for the network device; and

displaying the actual device configuration model for the network device to the user.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 3, where generating the actual device configuration model for the network device comprises:

retrieving a device access method for the network device from a library of network device access methods;

retrieving service configuration modeling patterns for the network device type;

retrieving a current device configuration from the network device using the network device access method;

identifying service-related service configuration items in the current device configuration using the service configuration modeling patterns; and

merging the identified service configuration items to compile the actual device configuration model of the network device.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, where comparing the expected device configuration model with the actual device configuration comprises:

for each service associated with the network device, identifying all expected service configuration items that realize the service;

tagging the identified expected service configuration items with a service identifier for a corresponding service;

retrieving service configuration modeling equivalence rules associated with the network device type; and

matching the expected service configuration items with configuration items in the actual device configuration model based on the service configuration modeling equivalence rules.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, the method comprising:

applying the service identifier tags from the expected service configuration items to matching service configuration items in the actual device configuration model; and

communicating the matching service configuration items and service identifier tags to the user.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6, the method comprising:

identifying expected service configuration items in the expected device configuration model for which there is no corresponding service configuration item in the actual device configuration model; and

communicating the service configuration items and the service identifier tags to the user.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7, the method comprising:

identifying configuration items in the actual device configuration model for which there are no corresponding expected service configuration item;

retrieving service configuration modeling patterns for the device type;

determining whether the identified configuration items match any of the service configuration modeling patterns;

and communicating the matching service configuration items and the service identifier tags to the user.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, the method comprising:

tagging each identified configuration item with service identifiers for all the expected service configuration items that define a context for the identified configuration item;

retrieving service configuration item association rules for the device type;

for each identified configuration item associate any expected service configuration items using service configuration association rules;

tagging each identified configuration item with service identifiers for all expected service configuration items associated using service configuration association rules; and

communicating the service configuration items and the service identifier tags to the user.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, the method comprising:

monitoring device events for the network device; and

where the comparing of the expected device configuration model and the actual device configuration model is performed when a monitored device event meets rules specified by a monitoring policy.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, the method comprising generating a service-impact event notification that identifies service impact information for the service-impact event.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, the method comprising, in response to a user or system command, reconfiguring the network device to the expected device configuration model.

13. A computing system that provides a service-related configuration model for a network device, the system comprising:

an audit logic configured to;

identify an expected device configuration model that includes one or more expected service configuration items associated with a network device;

identify an actual device configuration model that includes one or more service configuration items associated with the network device; and

compare the expected device configuration model to the actual device configuration model by;

for at least one service provided by the network device, associating expected service configuration items that realize the service with a service identifier for the service;

matching expected service configuration items with service identifiers with configuration items in the actual device configuration model;

applying the service identifier tags from expected service configuration items to matching configuration items in the actual device configuration model;

identifying a configuration item in the actual device configuration model that includes a service identifier and for which there is no corresponding expected service configuration item; and

associating service identifiers for expected service configuration items that define a context for the identified configuration item with the identified configuration item; and

a communication device configured to communicate the identified configuration item and the service identifiers associated with the identified configuration item to the user.

14. The computing system of claim 13, comprising an actual device configuration model generation logic comprising:

a network device configuration logic configured to retrieve a current configuration from the network device;

a service configuration item identification logic configured to identify service-related service configuration items in the current configuration and to merge the identified service-related service configuration items to compile the actual device configuration model for the network device; and

where the communication device communicates the service-related service configuration items in the actual device configuration model.

15. The computing system of claim 13, comprising a configuration event filter logic configured to monitor device events and trigger the audit logic to compare the expected device configuration model to the actual device configuration model when a monitored device event meets rules specified by a monitoring policy.

16. The computing system of claim 13 comprising a service-impact event notification generation logic to generate a service-impact event notification based on the comparison of the expected device configuration model and the actual device configuration model.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method that provides a service related configuration model for a network device, the method comprising:

monitoring device events for the network device;

when a monitored device event meets rules specified by a monitoring policy, comparing an expected device configuration model and an actual device configuration model, where the expected device configuration model comprises one or more expected service configuration items associated with the network device and the actual device configuration model comprises one or more service configuration items associated with the network device; and

identifying an expected service configuration item in the expected device configuration model that includes a service identifier and for which there is no corresponding service configuration item in the actual device configuration model;

communicating the identified configuration item and the service identifier to the user.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 where the instructions include:

retrieving a current configuration from the network device;

identifying service-related service configuration items in the current configuration; and

merging the identified service-related service configuration items to compile the actual device configuration model for the network device.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 where the instructions include generating service-impact event notifications that communicate service-impact information based on the results of the comparison between the actual device configuration model and the expected device configuration model.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, the method comprising:

retrieving one or more service definitions for the network device;

retrieving service realization algorithms for the network device type for services provided by the network device; and

generating the expected service configuration items based at least in part on the service realization algorithms.