Automated application-release-management subsystem

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10157044-B2
Application number	US-201615064622-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 9, 2016
Priority date	Dec 4, 2015
Publication date	Dec 18, 2018
Grant date	Dec 18, 2018

Abstract

The current document is directed to automated application-release-management facilities that, in a described implementation, coordinate continuous development and release of cloud-computing applications. The application-release-management process is specified, in the described implementation, by application-release-management pipelines, each pipeline comprising one or more stages, with each stage comprising one or more tasks.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An automated-application-release-management subsystem within a cloud-computing facility having multiple servers, data-storage devices, and one or more internal networks, the automated-application-release-management subsystem comprising:
a dashboard user interface;
an automated-application-release-management controller;
an interface to a workflow-execution engine within the cloud-computing facility through which the automated-application-release-management controller invokes execution, by the workflow-execution engine, of workflow-implemented tasks that together comprise an application-release-management pipeline;
an artifact-storage-and-management subsystem; and
representations of application-release-management pipelines, stored in one or more memories within the cloud-computing facility, that each specifies a sequence of workflow-implemented tasks that together comprise an application-release-management pipeline.

2. The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 1 that is further incorporated in a workflow-based cloud-management system that additionally includes an infrastructure-management-and-administration subsystem and the workflow-execution engine.

3. The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 1 wherein the automated-application-release-management controller controls execution of application-release-management pipelines, each application-release-management pipeline representing a sequence of tasks carried out by the automated-application-release-management subsystem to generate a releasable version of an application.

4. The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 3
wherein each application-release-management pipeline comprises one or more stages; and
wherein each application-release-management-pipeline stage comprises a set of one or more tasks.

5. The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 4 wherein the tasks include tasks of task types selected from among:
initialization tasks;
deployment tasks;
run-tests tasks;
gating-rule tasks; and
finalize tasks.

6. The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 4 wherein the dashboard user interface includes features that allow a user to create an application-release-management pipeline, edit an application-release-management pipeline launch execution of an application-release-management pipeline, and monitor progress of application-release-management-pipeline execution.

7. The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 4 wherein the automated-application-release-management controller receives input from the dashboard user interface and, in response to the input, directs the workflow-execution engine to execute workflows to carry out automated-application-release-management-subsystem operations.

8. The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 4 wherein the automated-application-release-management controller receives, during execution of a workflow, an event notification from the workflow-execution engine that communicates workflow-execution-related information to the automated-application-release-management controller, which, in turn, transmits the workflow-execution-related information to dashboard user interface for display.

9. The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 8 wherein, when there is a next task to be executed in a pipeline stage, execution of which is currently being managed by the automated-application-release-management controller, the automated-application-release-management controller reports completion of execution of a task corresponding to the completed workflow to the dashboard user interface and submits a workflow corresponding to the next task to the workflow-execution engine for execution.

10. The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 8 wherein, when the completed workflow corresponds to a final task to be executed in a pipeline stage, and when there is a next stage to be executed in a pipeline, execution of which is currently being managed by the automated-application-release-management controller, the automated-application-release-management controller reports completion of execution of the pipeline stage corresponding to the completed workflow to the dashboard user interface and submits a workflow corresponding to s a first task in the next stage to the workflow-execution engine for execution.

11. The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 8 wherein, when the completed workflow corresponds to a final task to be executed in a pipeline stage, and when the pipeline stage is a final stage of a pipeline, execution of which is currently being managed by the automated-application-release-management controller, the automated-application-release-management controller reports completion of execution of the pipeline to the dashboard user interface.

12. The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 4 wherein the artifact-storage-and-management subsystem stores binary files, data files, and other information used by the automated-application-release-management subsystem to build and deploy an application according to logic encapsulated within an application-release-management pipeline.

13. The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 4 wherein a gating-rule task includes one or more gating-rules that, when evaluated, determine whether or not execution of the application-release-management pipeline that includes the gating-rule task proceeds to execution of a subsequent stage, successfully terminates, returns to a previously executed task within the application-release-management pipeline, or unsuccessfully terminates.

14. A method that manages release of a version of an application, the method comprising:
providing an automated-application-release-management subsystem within a cloud-computing facility having multiple servers, data-storage devices, and one or more internal networks, the automated-application-release-management subsystem including a dashboard user interface, an automated-application-release-management controller, an interface to a workflow-execution engine within the cloud-computing facility through which the automated-application-release-management controller invokes execution, by the workflow-execution engine, of workflow-implemented tasks that together comprise an application-release-management pipeline, and an artifact-storage-and-management subsystem;
generating, by the dashboard user interface, an application-release-management pipeline comprising a set of one or more workflows to represent the version-release process that releases the version of the application; and
launching, in response to input to one or more of interface features provided by the dashboard user interface, execution of the application-release-management pipeline by the automated-application-release-management subsystem.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the automated-application-release-management subsystem is further incorporated in a workflow-based cloud-management system that additionally includes an infrastructure-management-and-administration subsystem and the workflow-execution engine.

16. The method of claim 14
wherein each application-release-management pipeline comprises one or more stages; and
wherein each application-release-management-pipeline stage comprises a set of one or more tasks implemented as workflows that are executed by the workflow-execution engine.

17. The method of claim 16
wherein the features provided by the dashboa

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Khazanchi Rajesh
• Singh Servesh
• Singh Kiran
• Saraf Rishi
• Jain Vishal
• Mankala Shyam Sundar Rao

Classifications

• G06F8/10

  Requirements analysis; Specification techniques · CPC title

• G06F8/20 Primary

  Software design · CPC title

• G06F8/71 Primary

  Version control (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57); Configuration management · CPC title

• G06F9/45533

  Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors · CPC title

• G06F8/34

  Graphical or visual programming · CPC title