Managing client configuration data

• US 7,590,669 B2
• Filed: 04/06/2004
• Issued: 09/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Toivonen, Anthony, Newaskar, Rahul Shrikant, Chen, Rui, Chan, Kok Wai, Yip, Ying-Kin Tony
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam; Hosain T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Saeed; Usmaan
• Application Number:
  US10/819,834
• Publication Number:
  US 20050234931A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,988 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/224
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/044 comprising hierarchical management structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0859 by keeping history of different configuration generations or by rolling back to previous configuration versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• 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

Abstract

Method for providing an interface to a function that manages a plurality of entities. Computer-executable instructions receive a request to implement a change in configuration data. The configuration data is stored in a memory area and relates to an operation of one or more entities. In response to the received request, computer-executable instructions identify a plurality of the entities affected by the change and implement the change for the identified plurality of entities in accordance with the function.

Claims

1. A method for providing an interface to a function that manages entities, said method comprising:

receiving a request to implement a change for modifying data associated with the entities in a first client device, said each of the entities includes data stored in a data structure representing a topology data of one of the entities in a memory area of the first client device, wherein a name of the each of the entities is stored in an entity namespace field of the data structure and entity data identifying the each of the entities is stored in an entity field of the data structure, said entity data including at least a transaction identifier data representing an entity change transaction and a date/time data indicating a date and time when a transaction represented by the transaction identifier is deleted, wherein the each of the entities includes properties associated therewith, said properties being stored in a property field of the data structure;

in response to the received request, identifying a subset of each of the entities subject to the change based on a relationship data and a relationship type data, said identified subset of each of the entities stores a version of the data included in each of the entities, said relationship data defining a relationship between the entities, said relationship data being stored in a relationship field of the data structure, said relationship type data describing a type of the relationship between an entity and the another entities, said relationship type data being stored in a relationship type field of the data structure, wherein the received request comprises one of the following changes;

a rollback request for changing the identified subset from a current configuration state identified by a current transaction identifier to a complete configuration state identified by a previous transaction identifier and a roll-forward request to change the identified subset from the current configuration state to a next configuration state identified by a next transaction identifier, said complete configuration state being represented by a last known good configuration data;

if the received request is the rollback request,

identifying the transaction identifier of the identified subset associated with the complete configuration state;

setting the date/time data associated with the identified transaction to a current date and time if the transaction identifier data of the identified subset is greater than the previous transaction identifier;

appending the current transaction identifier to a transaction stack for the identified subset; and

setting the previous transaction identifier as the current transaction identifier;

or if the received request is the roll-forward request,

setting the date/time data associated with the identified subset to null if the transaction identifier data of the identified subset is greater than the current transaction identifier but less than a last entry in the transaction stack;

setting the current transaction identifier to that of the last entry in the transaction stack; and

removing the last entry from the transaction stack; and

implementing the change to the identified subset in response to the request by modifying the data associated with the identified subset of the one or more entities;

receiving another request, said other request specifying the identified subset of the entities, and wherein said implementing the change in the data comprises implementing the chance in the version of the data associated with the identified subset of the entities, wherein the received other request further specifies a time interval to effect the change in the data stored in the memory area, and wherein said implementing the change in the data comprises effecting the change to the data stored in the memory area in accordance with the specified time interval.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request comprises receiving the request from an interface component, and wherein the identified subset of the entities represent the topology data provided to the interface component.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the identified entities stores a version of the data, and further comprising:

changing the version of the data stored by each of the identified entities in accordance wit the function.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending the received request to a memory area associated with an authorization service, said authorization service authorizing the received request; and

in response to sending the received request, receiving, from the authorization service, an indication whether the received request is authorized to implement the change in the data.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving data defining a relationship between an operation of the identified entities and the data,

in response to the received data, including the defined relationship in the topology data in accordance with the function, and

wherein as a result of including the defined relationship in the topology data, the data relates to an operation of the identified entities.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the identified subset of the entities comprise a server included in a server group, said server group executing the service included in a service class, wherein the received data further defines a relationship among the server, the server group, the service class, and the data, and further comprising storing in the memory area the defined relationship among the server, the server group, the service class, and the data as the topology data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the received request to implement the change in the data comprises a request to change an operational state of the identified entities, said operational state being defined by the data and indicating whether the identified entities are executing the service.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising providing the operational state of the identified entity to an interface component in accordance with the function.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more computer storage media have computer-executable instructions, and further comprising executing said computer-executable instructions to perform said receiving, said identifying, and said implementing.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the first client is a server included in a server group, said server group executing a service included in a service class, wherein the relationship field stores data indicating a relationship among the server, the server group, the service class, and the configuration data.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing data representing a formation of the relationship in a relationship template field of the data structure.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the namespace field stores data representing one of more of the following entity namespaces:

an object type namespace storing data representing an object type, an object namespace storing data identifying an instance of the object type, a property namespace storing data defining the object type, and a property attribute namespace storing data defining a property of the object type.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein said relationship type field stores data representing one or more of the following entity relationship types:

is an attribute of an object type, is a property of an object type, has all attributes of an object type, has all properties of an object type, is an attribute of a property, has all attributes of a property, is an instance of an object type, is a child of an object, and is associated with an object.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing data for tracking a task to manage a plurality of clients in a second data structure, said storing comprises storing at least the following in the second data structure:

a processed task field storing data specifying a task being processed, and

a task status log field storing data representing a stats log of the specified task.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising storing one of the following in the second data structure:

a task status field derived from the task status log field by indicating a current status of the specified task included in the task status log field, and

a task status type field derived from the task status log field by indicating a type of the specified task included in the task status log field.

10. One or more computer storage media having stored thereon an application programming interface for managing entities, said application programming interface having computer-executable instructions to:

receiving a request to implement a change for modifying configuration data associated with the entities in a first client device, said each of the entities includes data stored in a data structure representing a topology data of the one of the entities in a memory area of the first client device, wherein a name of the each of the entities is stored in an entity namespace field of the data structure and entity data identifying the each of the entities is stored in an entity field of the data structure, said entity data including at least a transaction identifier data representing an entity change transaction and a date/time data indicating a date and time when a transaction represented by the transaction identifier is deleted, wherein the each of the entities includes properties associated therewith, said properties being stored in a property field of the data structure;

in response to the received request, identifying one or more entities subject to the change based on a relationship data and a relationship type data, said identified entities storing a version of the configuration data, said relationship data defining a relationship between the entities, said relationship data being stored in a relationship field of the data structure, said relationship type data describing a type of the relationship between an entity and the another entities, said relationship type data being stored in a relationship type field of the data structure, wherein the received request comprises one of the following changes;

a rollback request for changing the identified entities from a current configuration state identified by a current transaction identifier to a complete configuration state identified by a previous transaction identifier and a roll-forward request to change the identified entities from the current configuration state to a next configuration state identified by a next transaction identifier, said complete configuration state being represented by a last known good configuration data;

if the received request is the rollback request,

identifying the transaction identifier of the identified entities associated with the complete configuration state;

setting the date/time data associated with the identified transaction to a current date and time if the transaction identifier data of the identified entities is greater than the previous transaction identifier;

appending the current transaction identifier to a transaction stack for the identified entities; and

setting the previous transaction identifier as the current transaction identifier;

or if the received request is the roll-forward request,

setting the date/time data associated with the identified entities to null if the transaction identifier data of the identified entities is greater than the current transaction identifier but less than a last entry in the transaction stack;

setting the current transaction identifier to that of the last entry in the transaction stack; and

removing the last entry from the transaction stack; and

implementing the change to the identified entities in response to the request by modifying the configuration data associated with the identified entities;

wherein the application programming interface further comprises computer-executable instructions to receive another request, said other request specifying the identified entities, and implement the change in the version of the configuration data associated with the identified entities, wherein the received other request further specifies a time interval to effect the change in the configuration data stored in the memory area, and wherein the implementing the change in the configuration data comprises effecting the change in the configuration data stored in the memory area in accordance with the specified time interval.

11. The computer storage media of claim 10, wherein the computer-executable instructions are further adapted to:

receive data defining a relationship between an operation of the identified entities and the configuration data;

including the defined relationship in the topology data in response to the received data; and

wherein as a result of including the defined relationship in the topology data, the configuration data relates to an operation of the identified entities.

12. The computer storage media of claim 11, wherein the identified entities comprise a server included in a server group, said server group executing the service included in a service class, wherein the received data further defines a relationship among the server, the server group, the service class, and the configuration data, and wherein the computer-executable instructions are further adapted to store in the memory area the defined relationship among the server, the server group, the service class, and the configuration data as the topology data.

13. The computer storage media of claim 10, wherein the received request to implement the change in the configuration data comprises a request to change the identified entities from an existing configuration state to a previous configuration state, said existing configuration state represented by existing configuration data, said previous configuration state represented by previous configuration data, and wherein the change in the configuration data represents a change from the existing configuration data to the previous configuration data.

14. A system for managing a plurality of entities, said system comprising:

a memory area for storing configuration data defining an operation for executing a service by one or more of the entities, said memory area further storing topology data describing at least the following information;

a name of each of the entities, entity data identifying the each of the entities, said entity data including at least a transaction identifier data representing an entity change transaction and a date/time data indicating a date and time when a transaction represented by the transaction identifier is deleted, relationship data defining a relationship between the entities, and a relationship type data describing a type of the relationship between an entity and the another entities; and

a processor configured to execute computer-executable instructions for;

receiving a request to implement a change in the configuration data;

identifying a plurality of the entities affected by the change in response to the received request as a function of the topology data, said identified plurality of the entities storing a version of the configuration data, wherein the received request comprises one of the following changes;

a rollback request for changing the identified entities from a current configuration state identified by a current transaction identifier to a complete configuration state identified by a previous transaction identifier and a roll-forward request to change the identified entities from the current configuration state to a next configuration state identified by a next transaction identifier, said complete configuration state being represented by a last known good configuration data;

if the received request is the rollback request,

identifying the transaction identifier of the identified entities associated with the complete configuration state;

setting the date/time data associated with the identified transaction to a current date and time if the transaction identifier data of the identified entities is greater than the previous transaction identifier;

appending the current transaction identifier to a transaction stack for the identified entities; and

setting the previous transaction identifier as the current transaction identifier;

or if the received request is the roll-forward request,

setting the date/time data associated with the identified entities to null if the transaction identifier data of the identified entities is greater than the current transaction identifier but less than a last entry in the transaction stack;

setting the current transaction identifier to that of the last entry in the transaction stack; and

removing the last entry from the transaction stack; and

implementing the change for the identified plurality of entities by modifying the configuration data associated with the identified plurality of entities;

wherein the processor further receives another request. said received other request specifying the identified entities, and the processor implements the change in the version of the configuration data associated with the identified entities, said received other request specifying a time interval to effect the change in the configuration data stored in the memory area, and wherein the processor implements the change in the configuration data stored in the memory area in accordance with the specified time interval.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to execute computer-executable instructions for:

receiving data defining a relationship between an operation of the identified entities and the configuration data,

including the defined relationship in the topology data in response to the received data, and

relating the configuration data to an operation of the identified entities in response to including the defined relationship in the topology data.