Discovery and Service Mapping of Serverless Resources

• US 20190306692A1
• Filed: 03/26/2019
• Published: 10/03/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Inventors: Garty, Asaf, Rosh, Haviv, Biran, Noam, Tal, Hail
• Granted Patent: US 10,708,755 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4806 Task transfer initiation or dispatching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/085 Retrieval of network configuration; Tracking network configuration history
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

A computing system may include a database disposed within a remote network management platform that manages a managed network, and a software application associated with the platform. The software application may be configured to: obtain a unit of programmatic code from a third-party computing system, where the unit of programmatic code is hosted by the third-party computing system on behalf of the managed network, and where a program using the unit of programmatic code is executable by computing resources of the third-party computing system that are assigned on demand; parse the unit of programmatic code for a pattern indicative of respective relationships between the unit of programmatic code and service(s) provided by the third-party computing system; generate an association between the unit of programmatic code and the service(s); and store, in the database, representations of the unit of programmatic code, the service(s), and the association therebetween as discovered configuration items.

Claims

1. A computing system comprising:

persistent storage; and

a software application configured to carry out operations including;

obtaining a unit of programmatic code deployable on an external computing system that is physically separated from the computing system by one or more networks;

parsing the unit of programmatic code for a pattern indicative of respective relationships between the unit of programmatic code and one or more services provided by the external computing system or by another computing system; and

based on the pattern being present in the unit of programmatic code, storing, in the persistent storage, respective associations between the unit of programmatic code and the one or more services.

2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the software application is configured to execute on a server device that is:

(i) disposed within a remote network management platform associated with an enterprise network that has access to the external computing system, or (ii) disposed within the enterprise network.

3. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the unit of programmatic code comprises one or more of:

source code, object code, a configuration file, a log file, or an environment variable.

4. The computing system of claim 1, wherein a program using the unit of programmatic code is executable by computing resources of the external computing system in response to a trigger event, and wherein the trigger event is initiated by the software application or by a different software application, wherein the different software application is:

(i) operating on a remote network management platform associated with an enterprise network that has access to the external computing system, (ii) operating on a client device configured to remotely access the external computing system, or (iii) associated with the external computing system.

5. The computing system of claim 1, wherein obtaining the unit of programmatic code comprises:

transmitting, to the external computing system, a request for the unit of programmatic code, and

receiving, from the external computing system, the unit of programmatic code in response to the request.

6. The computing system of claim 1, wherein one or more of the parsing or the storing occurs independently from a program using the unit of programmatic code being executed by computing resources of the external computing system.

7. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the one or more services comprise one or more of:

(i) a further unit of programmatic code, (ii) a further software application deployable on the external computing system, (iii) a further persistent storage disposed within the external computing system, or (iv) a server device disposed within the external computing system.

8. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the unit of programmatic code comprises source code or a configuration file, and wherein parsing the unit of programmatic code comprises ignoring non-operative comments in the unit of programmatic code.

9. The computing system of claim 1, wherein parsing the unit of programmatic code comprises:

determining that the unit of programmatic code includes a particular variable that has a particular format and that identifies a particular service, from among the one or more services, in accordance with the particular format.

10. The computing system of claim 9, wherein the particular variable is one or more of:

a uniform resource locator (URL), a fully qualified domain name (FQDN), a resource name, or a function name.

11. The computing system of claim 9, wherein the software application has access to formatting information that specifies a unique format respectively for each of a plurality of types of services provided by the external computing system or by another computing system, and wherein the software application is configured to use the formatting information as a basis for determining that the unit of programmatic code includes the particular variable.

12. The computing system of claim 11, wherein the formatting information is contained in one or more of:

(i) the persistent storage, (ii) further persistent storage disposed within the external computing system, or (iii) the software application.

13. The computing system of claim 1, wherein parsing the unit of programmatic code comprises:

determining that the unit of programmatic code includes a particular environmental variable that is mapped to a particular value; and

determining that the particular value has a particular format and identifies a particular service, from among the one or more services, in accordance with the particular format.

14. The computing system of claim 13, wherein the software application has access to mapping information that maps a plurality of environmental variables to respective values, and wherein the software application is configured to use the mapping information as basis for determining that the unit of programmatic code includes the particular environmental variable.

15. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the pattern includes a programmatic or environmental variable, wherein the operations further include:

verifying that the programmatic or environmental variable is to be used by a program when the program is executed by computing resources of the external computing system, wherein storing the respective associations is responsive to the verifying.

16. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the software application is further configured to:

generate a definition of a graph that represents the unit of programmatic code as a node, the one or more services as respective nodes, and the respective associations therebetween as respective links; and

store, in the persistent storage, the definition of the graph.

17. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the software application is further configured to:

provide, to a client device, a representation of a graphical user interface that displays the graph in accordance with the definition of the graph as stored.

18. The computing system of claim 17, wherein the graphical user interface includes one or more selectable controls that enable editing of the graph by way of the graphical user interface.

19. A method comprising:

obtaining, by a computing system, a unit of programmatic code deployable on an external computing system that is physically separated from the computing system by one or more networks;

parsing, by the computing system, the unit of programmatic code for a pattern indicative of respective relationships between the unit of programmatic code and one or more services provided by the external computing system or by another computing system; and

based on the pattern being present in the unit of programmatic code, storing, by the computing system and in a persistent storage, respective associations between the unit of programmatic code and the one or more services.

20. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by a computing system that includes persistent storage, cause the computing system to perform operations comprising:

obtaining a unit of programmatic code deployable on an external computing system that is physically separated from the computing system by one or more networks;

parsing the unit of programmatic code for a pattern indicative of respective relationships between the unit of programmatic code and one or more services provided by the external computing system or by another computing system; and

based on the pattern being present in the unit of programmatic code, storing, in the persistent storage, respective associations between the unit of programmatic code and the one or more services.