Design time validation of systems

• US 7,886,041 B2
• Filed: 03/01/2004
• Issued: 02/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Tabbara, Bassam, Mensching, Rob, Outhred, Geoffrey, Grealish, Kevin
• Primary Examiner(s): BATES, KEVIN T
• Application Number:
  US10/791,222
• Publication Number:
  US 20040193388A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,535 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/220, 709/242, 703/21, 703/22, 717/104, 717/135, 717/108
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3684 for test design, e.g. generating new test cases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3692 for test results analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers

Abstract

In accordance with certain aspects of the design time validation of systems, a description of a system being designed and a description of an environment are received. Both of the received descriptions are used to validate the system against the environment while the system is being designed and prior to attempting to deploy the system.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating validation of a system being designed prior to attempting to deploy the system comprising:

receiving, by a system validation computing device configured to facilitate validation of a system being designed prior to attempting to deploy the system, a description of the system being designed to be used in an environment of a data center but not yet deployed to the data center;

receiving, by the system validation computing device, a description of an environment that simulates a target-deployment environment, wherein the target-deployment environment is the data center in which the system is to be deployed;

using, by the system validation computing device, both of the received descriptions to validate the system against the environment while the system is being designed and prior to attempting to deploy the system to the data center, wherein validating the system against the environment further comprises;

selecting a top-level definition from an application description;

generating an appropriate instance, as described by the top-level definition, for an instance space;

selecting an additional definition nested within the top-level definition;

generating an appropriate instance, as described by the additional definition, for the instance space based on whether the selected definition defines an object or a relationship; and

continuing the selection of an additional definition and the generation of an appropriate instance, as described by the additional definition, until instances for all of the definitions nested within the top-level definition have been generated for the instance space.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, the description of the system comprising an SDM document.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, the description of the environment comprising a LIM document.

4. One or more computer readable media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

accessing an application description that describes an application in the process of being designed to be used in an environment of a data center, by a program running on the one or more processors;

validating the application, using the application description, against a simulated environment, the environment comprising a description of the data center and prior to deployment to the data center;

selecting a top-level definition from the application description;

generating an appropriate instance, as described by the top-level definition, for an instance space;

selecting an additional definition nested within the top-level definition;

generating an appropriate instance, as described by the additional definition, for the instance space based on whether the selected definition defines an object or a relationship; and

continuing the selection of an additional definition and the generation of an appropriate instance, as described by the additional definition, until instances for all of the definitions nested within the top-level definition have been generated for the instance space.

5. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 4, the plurality of instructions further causing the processor to:

receive, from a requestor, a request to validate the application; and

return, to the requestor, a result of the validation.

6. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 4, wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processors to validate the application against the simulated environment further cause the one or more processors to:

identify one or more flows in an instance space, the instance space describing the application;

for each of at least one of the one or more flows;

identify one or more input values for the flow, the input values being obtained from other instances of the instance space; and

generate, based at least in part on the input values, an output value for the flow.

7. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 4, wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processors to validate the application against the simulated environment further cause the one or more processors to:

identify one or more constraints in an instance space, the instance space describing the application;

check whether the one or more constraints are satisfied; and

return, for each of the one or more constraints, a value indicating whether the constraint is satisfied.

8. An apparatus for facilitating validation of a software application being designed to be used in an environment of a data center and prior to attempting to deploy the software application to one area of the data center, the apparatus comprising:

a verifier configured to check one or more documents describing a software application for errors in order for the loader to load;

a loader configured to load the one or more documents describing the software application, the software application being designed when the one or more documents are loaded; and

a simulator configured to simulate an environment of a data center, the environment comprising a description of the data center, and validate the software application against the environment prior to deployment to the data center, and return a result of the validation;

an expansion engine to identify a top-level definition from one of the one or more documents and expand the top-level definition to populate an instance space by instantiating members nested in the top-level definition, wherein the expansion engine;

selects an additional definition nested within the top-level definition;

generates an appropriate instance, as described by the additional definition, for the instance space based on whether the selected definition defines an object or a relationship; and

continues the selection of an additional definition and the generation of an appropriate instance, as described by the additional definition, until instances for all of the definitions nested within the top-level definition have been generated for the instance space.

9. An apparatus as recited in claim 8, further comprising:

a flow engine to identify flows in the instance space, identify the values of inputs to the flows, and setting an output of the flow based on the inputs to the flows.

10. An apparatus as recited in claim 9, further comprising:

a constraint engine to identify and evaluate constraints in the instance space.

11. An apparatus for facilitating validation of a software application being designed to be used in an environment of a data center and prior to attempting to deploy the software application to one area of the data center, the apparatus comprising:

a verifier configured to check one or more documents describing a software application for errors in order for a loader to load;

a loader configured to load the one or more documents describing the software application;

a simulator configured to simulate an environment of a data center, the environment comprising a description of the data center, to validate the software application against the environment prior to deployment to the data center, and to return a result of the validation;

an expansion engine configured to identify a top-level definition from one of the one or more documents and expand the top-level definition to populate an instance space by instantiating members nested in the top-level definition, wherein the expansion engine;

selects an additional definition nested within the top-level definition;

generates an appropriate instance, as described by the additional definition, for the instance space based on whether the selected definition defines an object or a relationship; and

continues the selection of an additional definition and the generation of an appropriate instance, as described by the additional definition, until instances for all of the definitions nested within the top-level definition have been generated for the instance space;

a flow engine configured to identify flows in the instance space, to identify the values of inputs to the flows, and to set an output of the flow based on the inputs to the flows;

a constraint engine configured to identify and evaluate constraints in the instance space;

the apparatus being separate from the data center and the apparatus being comprised, at least in part, of a computer hardware component.