System, Method, and Computer Program Product For Managing Software Updates

• US 20150178066A1
• Filed: 06/20/2014
• Published: 06/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: Horn, Ophir, Walia, Nancy, Sprague, Jason, Rosa, Francisco
• Granted Patent: US 9,471,455 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2028 eliminating a faulty processor or activating a spare
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3051 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/323 Visualisation of programs or trace data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/328 Computer systems status display G06F11/327 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3452 Performance evaluation by statistical analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0894 : Packet rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 : involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 : Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display

Abstract

A method performed by a monitoring tool in a computer system, the method including: identifying a software update applied to a plurality of computer system assets, retrieving a first status of a first one of the assets from a first time period before the software update was applied to the first asset, retrieving a second status of the first asset from a second time period after the software update was applied to the first asset, determining a first effectiveness of the software update for the first asset based on comparing the first status and the second status, and displaying within a Graphical User Interface (GUI) an identification of the software update, an identification of the first asset, and a recommendation for the software update based on the first effectiveness.

Claims

1. A method of managing software updates, the method performed by an application hosted in a server, the method comprising:

identifying a software update applied to a plurality of computer system assets;

retrieving a first status of a first one of the assets from a first time period before the software update was applied to the first asset;

retrieving a second status of the first asset from a second time period after the software update was applied to the first asset;

determining an effectiveness of the software update for the first asset based on comparing the first status and the second status; and

displaying within a Graphical User Interface (GUI) an identification of the software update, an identification of the first asset, and a recommendation for the software update based on the effectiveness of the software update for the first asset.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first status is based on an ability of the first asset to respond to echo requests.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first status is based on an ability of the first asset to be configured.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first status is based on performance information associated with the first asset during the first time period.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the recommendation is selected from a group consisting of an approval recommendation, a roll back recommendation, and a replace recommendation.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein retrieving the first status comprises reading one or more logs associated with the first asset.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

reading one or more records retained from when the software update was applied to the plurality of assets to determine which assets of the plurality of assets have the software update.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving a third status of a second one of the assets asset from a third time period before the software update was applied to the second asset;

retrieving a fourth status of the second asset from a fourth time period after the software update was applied to the second asset;

determining an effectiveness of the software update for the second asset by comparing the third status and the fourth status; and

further displaying within the GUI an identification for the second asset, and a recommendation for the software update further based on the effectiveness of the software update for the second asset.

18. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the first status is based on an ability of the first asset to respond to echo requests.

19. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the first status is based on an ability of the first asset to be configured.

20. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the first status is based on performance information associated with the first asset during the first time period.

9. A system for managing software updates to a plurality of computer system assets, the system comprising:

a processor; and

memory accessible by the processor and storing computer-readable instructions, the processor performing the following actions by executing the instructions;

identifying a software update applied to a subset of the assets;

retrieving a first status of a first one of the assets from a time period before the software update was applied to the first asset;

retrieving a second status of the first asset from a time period after the software update was applied to the first asset;

determining an effectiveness of the software update for the first asset based on a status change from the first status to the second status; and

generating a Graphical User Interface displaying an identification of the software update, and identification of the first asset, and a recommendation as to whether the software update should be approved or rolled back based on the effectiveness.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor and memory are located a server in a network storage system, the action being performed by an application on a virtual machine.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the application on the virtual machine monitors computer system assets of the network storage system.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein processor retrieves the first and second statuses from a system log, the system log comprising:

a plurality of records, the records including information regarding whether the first asset was responding to polling requests;

information regarding whether the first asset was successfully configured;

information regarding whether the first asset was performing during a time period prior to the application of the software update; and

information regarding errors of the first asset.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein the first status is based on an ability of the first asset to respond to echo requests.

14. The system of claim 9 wherein the first status is based on an ability of the first asset to be configured.

15. The system of claim 9 wherein the first status is based on performance information associated with the first asset during the time period before the software update was applied to the first asset.

16. A computer program product having a computer readable medium tangibly recording computer program logic for managing software updates in a computer system, the computer system in communication with a software update management tool, the computer program product comprising:

code to access a system log having status information for a plurality of assets of the computer system;

code to retrieve from the system log a first status of a first one of the assets from before a software update was applied to the first asset;

code to retrieve from the system log a second status of the first asset after the software update was applied to the first asset;

code to compare the first status and the second status to determine a change in the first asset attributable to the software update; and

code to render a Graphical User Interface (GUI) having visual depictions of an identifier of the asset, an identifier of the software update, and information indicating the change in the first asset attributable to the software update.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising:

code to display within the GUI information for additional assets and additional software updates.