System and method for resource reconciliation in an enterprise management system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10795643-B2
Application number	US-201715476704-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 31, 2017
Priority date	Dec 6, 2004
Publication date	Oct 6, 2020
Grant date	Oct 6, 2020

Abstract

A method to reconcile multiple instances of a single computer resource identified by resource discovery operations includes: (1) accessing information describing one or more resources; (2) identifying, via the accessed information, at least one resource that has been detected or discovered by at least two of the discovery operations; and (3) merging attributes associated with the identified resource from each of the at least two discovery operations into a single, reconciled resource object. Illustrative “resources” include, but are not limited to, computer systems, components of computer systems, data storage systems, switches, routers, memory, software applications (e.g., accounting and database applications), operating systems and business services (e.g., order entry or change management and tracking services).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method to reconcile multiple instances of a single resource object using a reconciliation engine of a configuration management database (CMDB), the method comprising:
receiving, via an application programming interface (API), a plurality of unreconciled resource objects from one or more data sources, each of the plurality of unreconciled resource objects representing a component of a computer system, the component of the computer system including a device, switch, router, memory, software application, or operating system;
selecting, by the reconciliation engine, an unreconciled resource object from the plurality of unreconciled resource objects;
querying, by the reconciliation engine, the CMDB to determine whether the unreconciled resource object matches with at least one resource object stored in the CMDB according to at least one of a plurality of identification rules, each of the plurality of identification rules specifying which attributes are considered when determining a match during a reconciliation process, the plurality of identification rules including a first identification rule and a second identification rule, wherein the matching includes applying the first identification rule and the second identification rule in a defined order such that, when the first identification rule does not result in a match during the reconciliation process, the second identification rule is applied during the reconciliation process;
creating, by the reconciliation engine, a new reconciled resource object in the CMDB;
merging, by the reconciliation engine, the unreconciled resource object and the at least one resource object into the new reconciled resource object according to at least one merging rule, the unreconciled resource object and the at least one resource object being different instances of a common resource object; and
storing, by the reconciliation engine, the new reconciled resource object in a reconciled dataset of the CMDB.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
assigning, by the reconciliation engine, a reconciliation identifier to the new reconciled resource object, the reconciliation identifier being a reconciliation identifier that was assigned to the at least one resource object.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the unreconciled resource object is from a first source, wherein the matching includes matching, by the reconciliation engine, the unreconciled resource object from the first source with a resource object from a second source and a resource object from a third source.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first identification rule specifies a combination of attributes when determining a match.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the matching includes:
determining, by the reconciliation engine, that the unreconciled resource object includes at least one sub-object; and
querying, by the reconciliation engine, the CMDB to determine whether the at least one sub-object matches with another resource object stored in the CMDB.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the merging includes:
assigning, by the reconciliation engine, a weight value to an attribute of the unreconciled resource object, and assigning, by the reconciliation engine, a weight value to an attribute of the at least one resource object, the attribute of the unreconciled resource object having a first value, the attribute of the at least one resource object having a second value;
selecting, by the reconciliation engine, one of the first value and the second value based on the assigned weight values; and
associating, by the reconciliation engine, the selected one of the first value and the second value to a corresponding attribute in the new reconciled resource object.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the selecting includes selecting the first value when the weight value of the attribute of the unreconciled resource object is higher than the weight value of the attribute of the at least one resource object.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the merging includes merging attributes from the unreconciled resource object with attributes of the at least one resource object according to an attribute weight assignment algorithm or an attribute value selection algorithm.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause a reconciliation engine to:
receive, via an application programming interface (API) of a configuration management database (CMDB), a plurality of unreconciled resource objects from one or more data sources, each of the plurality of unreconciled resource objects representing a component of a computer system, the component of the computer system including a device, switch, router, memory, software application, or operating system;
select an unreconciled resource object from the plurality of unreconciled resource objects;
query the CMDB to determine whether the unreconciled resource object matches with at least one resource object stored in the CMDB according to at least one of a plurality of identification rules, each of the plurality of identification rules specifying which attributes are considered when determining a match during a reconciliation process, the plurality of identification rules including a first identification rule and a second identification rule, wherein the match operation includes applying the first identification rule and the second identification rule in a defined order such that, when the first identification rule does not result in a match during the reconciliation process, the second identification rule is applied during the reconciliation process;
create a new reconciled resource object in the CMDB;
merge the unreconciled resource object and the at least one resource object into the new reconciled resource object according to at least one merging rule, the unreconciled resource object and the at least one resource object being different instances of a common resource object; and
store the new reconciled resource object in a reconciled dataset of the CMDB.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the executable instructions cause the reconciliation engine to:
assign a reconciliation identifier to the new reconciled resource object, the reconciliation identifier being a reconciliation identifier that was assigned to the at least one resource object.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the unreconciled resource object is from a first source, wherein the executable instructions cause the reconciliation engine to match the unreconciled resource object from the first source with a resource object from a second source and a resource object from a third source.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the first identification also specifies a type of resource object to which the first identification rule applies and a source to which the first identification rule applies.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the first identification rule specifies first attributes when determining a match, and the second identification rule specifies second attributes when determining a match, the second attributes being different from the first attributes.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the executable instructions cause the reconciliation engine to:
determine that the unreconciled resource object includes at least one sub-object;
query the CMDB to determine whether the at least one sub-object matches with another resource object stored in the CMDB.

Assignees

• Bmc Software Inc

Inventors

• Kumar Narayan
• Mueller Douglas
• Mayfield Richard

Classifications

• G06F7/32 Primary

  Merging, i.e. combining data contained in ordered sequence on at least two record carriers to produce a single carrier or set of carriers having all the original data in the ordered sequence {merging methods in general}(G06F7/36 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06Q10/06 Primary

  Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling · CPC title

• G06F7/16

  Combined merging and sorting · CPC title

• G06F16/24578

  using ranking · CPC title

• H04L41/0233

  Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA] · CPC title