Discovery of database and related services

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10824650-B2
Application number	US-201816228267-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2018
Priority date	Dec 20, 2018
Publication date	Nov 3, 2020
Grant date	Nov 3, 2020

Abstract

A computing system includes a database and a discovery application. The discovery application obtains credentials for accessing a server hosting a software bus application which connects a plurality of applications within a managed network. The discovery application selects, based on a pattern corresponding to the software bus application, one or more files to access, transmits, to the server, instructions to access the one or more files, and receives therefrom data identifying a plurality of attributes of the software bus application. Based on this data, the discovery application transmits, to the server, instructions to identify communicative connections established between the plurality of software applications by way of the software bus application and receives therefrom data identifying the communicative connections. Based on (i) the plurality of attributes and (ii) the communicative connections, the discovery application generates a mapping that represents the communicative connections and stores the mapping in the database.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computing system comprising:
a configuration management database (CMDB) disposed within a computational instance of a remote network management platform, wherein the computational instance is associated with a managed network, wherein the managed network comprises a database manager hosted on a server device, and wherein the database manager is configured to manage one or more secondary databases that are configured to store data for software applications executable by the managed network;
a discovery application configured to perform operations comprising:
identifying a type of the database manager by causing the server device to execute a command configured to cause the database manager to identify the type thereof;
selecting, based on a pattern corresponding to the type of the database manager, one or more additional commands;
determining respective database catalogs of the one or more secondary databases by (i) causing the server device to execute the one or more additional commands and (ii) receiving, from the server device, data identifying the respective database catalogs of the one or more secondary databases, wherein each database catalog identifies a structure of a corresponding secondary database of the one or more secondary databases;
generating, based on the received data, a mapping between the database manager and each of the respective database catalogs of the one or more secondary databases; and
storing, in the CMDB, the generated mapping in one or more configuration items.

2. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
identifying, based on a plurality of network connection parameters associated with the database manager, communicative connections between the software applications and the database manager; and
generating an additional mapping to indicate the communicative connections.

3. The computing system of claim 2 , wherein the operations further comprise:
causing the server device to identify a directory containing files associated with the database manager;
selecting, based on the pattern corresponding to the type of the database manager, one or more files to access within the directory to determine the plurality of network connection parameters associated with the database manager;
transmitting, to the server device, instructions to access the one or more files; and
receiving, from the server device, additional data identifying the plurality of network connection parameters.

4. The computing system of claim 2 , wherein the software applications are communicatively connected by way of a software bus application, and wherein the additional mapping indicates that the communicative connections between the software applications and the database manager are by way of the software bus application.

5. The computing system of claim 2 , wherein the additional mapping indicates, for each software application of the software applications, a corresponding communicative connection with a respective secondary database of the one or more secondary databases.

6. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the type of the database manager indicates a provider of the database manager.

7. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the type of the database manager indicates a name of the database manager.

8. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the type of the database manager indicates a release version of the database manager.

9. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the respective database catalog of a particular database of the one or more secondary databases comprises metadata identifying respective times of transactions between the particular database and one or more of the software applications.

10. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the respective database catalog of a particular database of the one or more secondary databases comprises metadata identifying (i) tables that make up the particular database, (ii) columns that make of the tables, and (iii) data types stored in each of the columns.

11. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the command comprises at least one of (i) instructions configured to cause the server device to identify parameters of one or more software processes associated with the database manager, (ii) instructions configured to cause the server device to access one or more files associated with the database manager, or (iii) instructions configured to cause the server device to invoke execution of one or more operations of an application programming interface provided by the database manager.

12. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein a first database catalog of a particular database of the one or more secondary databases indicates that the particular database is configured to store data according to a relational database model, wherein a second database catalog of another database of the one or more secondary databases indicates that the another database is configured to store data according to an object-relational database model, and wherein the mapping indicates a respective database model for each of the one or more secondary databases.

13. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
establishing a communicative connection with the server device based on access credentials;
in response to establishing the communicative connection with the server device, probing the server device for software products configured to execute thereon; and
based on the software products identified by the probes, determining the command.

14. A method comprising:
identifying, by a computing system, a type of a database manager hosted by a server device associated with a managed network, wherein the database manager is configured to manage one or more secondary databases that are configured to store data for software applications executable by the managed network, and wherein identifying the type of the database manager comprises causing the server device to execute a command configured to cause the database manager to identifying the type thereof;
selecting, by the computing system and based on a pattern corresponding to the type of the database manager, one or more additional commands;
determining, by the computing system, respective database catalogs of the one or more secondary databases by (i) causing the server device to execute the one or more additional commands and (ii) receiving, from the server device, data identifying the respective database catalogs of the one or more secondary databases, wherein each database catalog identifies a structure of a corresponding secondary database of the one or more secondary databases;
generating, by the computing system and based on the received data, a mapping between the database manager and each of the respective database catalogs of the one or more secondary databases; and
storing, in a configuration management database that is associated with the managed network and disposed within a computational instance of a remote network management platform, the generated mapping as one or more configuration items.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
identifying, based on a plurality of network connection parameters associated with the database manager, communicative connections between the software applications and the database manager; and
generating an additional mapping to indicate the communicative connections.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the software applications are communicatively connected by way of a software bus application, and wherein the additional mapping indicates that the communi

Assignees

• Servicenow Inc

Inventors

• Bar Oz Tom
• Biran Noam
• Tal Hail
• Aron Aviya
• Bitterfeld Robert
• Erblat Boris
• Solomon Bary

Classifications

• H04L41/122

  of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV] · CPC title

• H04L41/0895

  Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements · CPC title

• H04L41/40

  using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities · CPC title

• G06F16/285 Primary

  Clustering or classification · CPC title

• G06F16/25 Primary

  Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems · CPC title