Auditing metadata representation of a cloud-computing platform based datacenter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11018938-B1
Application number	US-202017092020-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Nov 6, 2020
Priority date	Nov 6, 2020
Publication date	May 25, 2021
Grant date	May 25, 2021

Abstract

A system receives one or more changes to a platform-independent declarative specification to generate a modified platform-independent declarative specification that captures various aspects for deploying a data center on a target cloud platform. The system facilitates auditing by generating a snapshot of each modified declarative specification. After compilation of the modified declarative specification to generate a platform-specific metadata representation of the data center, the system generates a unique identifier, and associates the generated snapshot of the modified declarative specification, the metadata representation of the data center, the provisioned cloud resources on the target cloud platform, and the deployed data center on the target cloud platform with the unique identifier. The associated identifier is subsequently used for performing audit tracking of changes made to data center entities associated with the any of: a metadata representation, a set of provisioned cloud resources, and a deployed data center.

First claim

We claim:

1. A computer implemented method for auditing changes to a data center configured for deployment on a target cloud platform, the method comprising: receiving a platform-independent declarative specification of the data center and an identification of the target cloud platform; receiving a modified platform-independent declarative specification of the data center based on a set of one or more changes to the platform-independent declarative specification; storing a generated snapshot of the modified platform-independent declarative specification; receiving a platform-specific metadata representation of the data center based on a compilation of the modified platform-independent declarative specification; associating the platform-specific metadata representation of the data center with a unique identifier; associating the stored snapshot of the modified platform-independent declarative specification with the unique identifier: in response to one or more of: a provisioning of cloud resources and a deployment of the data center based on the platform-specific metadata representation, performing a corresponding one or more of: associating the provisioning of cloud resources with the unique identifier, and associating the deployment of the data center with the unique identified receiving an audit request based a data center entity associated with one of: a platform specific metadata representation of the data center, a provisioning of cloud resources, or a deployment of the data center; and in response to the audit request, providing information describing one or more changes in the set of changes associated with the data center entity based on an associated identifier.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising in response to receiving a next modified platform-independent declarative specification of the data center based on a next set of one or more changes to the modified platform-independent declarative specification, storing a generated snapshot of the next modified platform-independent declarative specification; receiving a next platform-specific metadata representation of the data center based on a compilation of the next modified platform-independent declarative specification; associating the next platform-specific metadata representation of the data center with a next unique identifier; associating the stored snapshot of the next modified platform-independent declarative specification with the next unique identifier; and in response to one or more of: a next provisioning of cloud resources and a next deployment of the data center based on the next platform-specific metadata representation, performing a corresponding one or more of: associating the next provisioning of the cloud resources with the next unique identifier, and associating the next deployment of the data center with the next unique identifier.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the unique identifier is based on a timestamp associated with the generated snapshot of the modified platform-independent declarative specification of the data center.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the timestamp comprises a combination of one or more of: a year value; a month value; a day value; an hour value; a minute value; and a second value.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein in response to the data center entity being associated with the platform-specific metadata representation, providing information describing the one or more changes in the set of changes associated with the data center entity based on the associated identifier comprises: determining the identifier associated with the platform-specific metadata representation; accessing the generated snapshot of the modified platform-independent declarative specification corresponding to the identifier; and determining the one or more changes in the set of changes associated with the data center entity from the accessed snapshot; and providing information describing the one or more changes in response to the audit request.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein in response to the data center entity being associated with the provisioning of cloud resources, providing information describing the one or more changes in the set of changes associated with the data center entity based on the associated identifier comprises: determining the identifier associated with the provisioning of cloud resources; accessing the generated snapshot of the modified platform-independent declarative specification corresponding to the identifier; and determining the one or more changes in the set of changes associated with the data center entity from the accessed snapshot; and providing information describing the one or more changes in response to the audit request.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein in response to the data center entity being associated with the deployment of the data center, providing information describing the one or more changes in the set of changes associated with the data center entity based on the associated identifier comprises: determining the identifier associated with the deployment of the data center; accessing the generated snapshot of the modified platform-independent declarative specification corresponding to the identifier; and determining the one or more changes in the set of changes associated with the data center entity from the accessed snapshot; and providing information describing the one or more changes in response to the audit request.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the generated snapshot of the modified platform-independent declarative specification of the data center comprises copies of definitions associated with the modified platform-independent declarative specification in a hierarchical representation, the definitions comprising: schema definitions; environment definitions; team definitions; service definitions; service group definitions; and data center instance definitions.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more changes in the set of changes associated with the data center entity comprises one or more of: assigning one or more field values to one or more parameters of the data center entity; changing one or more of assigned field values to one or more parameters of the data center entity; redefining one or more parameters of the data center entity; deleting one or more parameters of the data center entity; and adding one or more parameters to the data center entity.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium for storing instructions that when executed by a computer processor cause the computer processor to perform steps for auditing changes to a data center configured for deployment on a target cloud platform, the steps comprising: receiving a platform-independent declarative specification of the data center and an identification of the target cloud platform; receiving a set of one or more changes to the platform-independent declarative specification to generate the modified platform-independent declarative specification of the data center; storing a generated snapshot of the modified platform-independent declarative specification; receiving a platform-specific metadata representation of the data center based on a compilation of the modified platform-independent declarative specification; associating the platform-specific metadata representation of the data center with a unique identifier; associating the stored snapshot of the modified platform-independent declarative specification with the unique identifier; in response to one or more of: a provisioning of cloud resources and a deployment of the data center based on the platf

Assignees

• Salesforce Com Inc

Inventors

• Gupta Varun
• Meier Joshua Paul
• Dhruvakumar Srinivas
• Chakkarapani Mayakrishnan

Classifications

• H04L41/0866 Primary

  Checking the configuration · CPC title

• H04L41/0813

  characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings · CPC title