Distributed incremental updating of trays using a source control system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10922073-B2
Application number	US-201916250875-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 17, 2019
Priority date	Apr 19, 2017
Publication date	Feb 16, 2021
Grant date	Feb 16, 2021

Abstract

A source control system is used for the distributed incremental updating of trays that include all of the dependencies needed for an application to execute within a computing environment. An application of a first version of a tray is executed on a server responsive to the first version of the tray being retrieved from a source control system. Tray management software of the first version of the tray receives a request to update the tray to a second version. The tray management software requests a changeset including file differences between the first and second versions of the tray from the source control system. Responsive to a determination by the tray management software that there are no pending requests preventing an update, the tray is updated from the first version to the second version by updating files in the tray according to the changeset.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for distributed incremental updating of software containers, the system comprising:
one or more processors; and
a memory having instructions stored thereon, that when executed, are configured to cause the one or more processors to:
execute an instance of an application of a first version of a software container on a server, wherein the software container includes software dependencies used to execute the instance of the application within a computing environment;
receive, by a software container manager, a request to update the software container to a second version, wherein the request comprises a changeset from the first version to the second version;
determine, by the software container manager, that there are no pending updates preventing an update from the first version to the second version, wherein the determination that there are no pending requests preventing the update is based on a determination by the software container manager that there are no other pending requests that indicate a potential change to a file of the software dependencies that differs from a corresponding potential change to the file in the second version;
determine that the software dependencies of the first version are compatible with the second version; and
responsive to a determination by the software container manager that there are no pending requests preventing an update and that the software dependencies of the first version are compatible with the second version, update the software container from the first version to the second version by updating files in the software container according to the request.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed, are configured to cause the one or more processors:
receive, by software container manager prior to executing the instance, a command from a client terminal, wherein the command instructs the software container manager to install the first version of the software container; and
retrieve the first version of the software container from a version repository responsive to the command.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed, are configured to cause the one or more processors:
receive a request to revert the software container to the first version from the second version; and
update the software container from the second version to the first version by reverting files in the software container based on the changeset.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the memory further includes instructions executable by the one or more processors to:
receive a request to revert the software container to the first version from the second version;
request a reversion changeset including one or more file differences between the second version and the first version; and
update the software container from the second version to the first version by updating files in the software container according to the reversion changeset.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the request to update the software container to the second version is responsive to a change in a version of a configuration item associated with the server.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the request to update the software container to the second version is a request to update the software container to a current version of the software container stored as a head version of the software container.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein receiving the changeset comprises requesting the changeset having one or more file differences between the first version and the head version.

8. A method for distributed incremental updating of software containers, the method comprising:
executing an instance of an application of a first version of a software container on an application server, wherein the software container includes software dependencies used to execute the instance of the application within a computing environment;
receiving a request to update the software container to a second version;
determining that no pending updates are preventing an update from the first version to the second version, wherein determining that no pending updates are preventing the update based at least in part on no changesets of file differences for the pending updates and the second version indicating different changes to occur to a file for the second version and the pending updates; and
responsive to a determination that the software dependencies of the pending updates are preventing the update to the second version, blocking the update to the second version or to the one or more pending updates.

9. The method of claim 8 , comprising:
receiving, by management software of the application server before executing the instance, a command to install the first version of the software container on the application server; and
retrieving the first version of the software container responsive to the command.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein receiving the command comprises receiving the command from a client terminal.

11. The method of claim 8 , comprising:
receiving a request to revert the software container to the first version; and
updating the software container from the second version to the first version by reverting files in the software container based at least in part on a reversion changeset previously used to update the first version to the second version.

12. The method of claim 8 , comprising:
receiving a request to revert the software container to the first version;
requesting a reversion changeset including one or more file differences between the second version or the third version and the first version; and
updating the software container from the second version or the third version to the first version by updating files in the software container according to the reversion changeset.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the request to update the software container to the second version is responsive to a change in a version of a configuration item associated with the application server.

14. The method of claim 8 , wherein the request to update the software container to the second version is a request to update a parent version of the software container from the first version to the second version.

15. The method of claim 8 , wherein the request to update the software container to the second version is a request to update a child version of the software container from the first version to the second version.

16. A tangible, non-transitory, and computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions, that when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:
receive a request for a function of an application programming interface (API) of software container manager, the software container manager included in a first version of a software container installed on an application server of a cloud platform, wherein the software container includes an executable file and software dependencies used to execute the executable file;
execute the function to cause the software container to initiate a request to update the software container from a first version to a second version using a changeset, wherein the changeset includes file differences between the first version and the second version;
determining whether the software dependencies of the second version are compatible with any pending update requests based at least in part on the changeset, wherein determining whether the software dependencies of the second version are compatible with pending update requests is based on a determination of whether the no

Assignees

• Servicenow Inc

Inventors

• Norris Jeremy

Classifications

• G06F8/658 Primary

  Incremental updates; Differential updates · CPC title

• G06F9/455

  Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines · CPC title

• G06F9/505

  considering the load · CPC title