Collision detection using state management of configuration items

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11269838-B2
Application number	US-201815957890-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 19, 2018
Priority date	Oct 8, 2014
Publication date	Mar 8, 2022
Grant date	Mar 8, 2022

Abstract

Implementations of a system, method and apparatus described herein receive, for a configuration item in a configuration management database, status indicating an operational state and an automation state associated with the configuration item, and determine whether a conflict will occur with at least one of the operational state or the automation state of the configuration item as a result of a process affecting the configuration item. When the conflict will not occur, a change is made to at least one of the operational state or the automation state of the configuration item in accordance with the process. Upon a conclusion of the process, the change is removed. If the conflict will occur, the process not allowed to continue.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
receiving, at a processor, an indication to run a process on a configuration item representing a component within a cloud computing infrastructure system, wherein the process corresponds to a transitional state of the configuration item, wherein a relationship between the configuration item and an additional configuration item that is connected to the configuration item defines that the process, when run on the configuration item, affects the configuration item and the additional configuration item, and that the process, when run on the additional configuration item, affects the additional configuration item and not the configuration item;
receiving, at the processor, an initial state of the configuration item comprising one or more operational states of the configuration item;
determining, at the processor, the transitional state is compatible with the initial state, wherein determining whether the transitional state is compatible with the initial state comprises determining whether an automation state of the initial state is compatible with an automation state of the transitional state comprising an indication that the configuration item is to undergo an alteration process that alters the configuration item, wherein the alteration process comprises: a cloning process; a renaming process; a moving process; a patching process; a provisioning process; a maintenance process; or a retirement process; and
responsive to the determination that the transitional state is compatible with the initial state, running the process on the configuration item, wherein running the process on the configuration item comprises:
changing, at the processor, the one or more operational states of the configuration item to the transitional state; and
based at least on changing the one or more operational states to the transitional state and an end of the process, changing, at the processor, the one or more operational states of the configuration item from the transitional state.

2. A system comprising:
memory storing instructions; and
one or more processors configured to execute the instructions to cause the one or more processors to:
receive, at the one or more processors, an indication to run a process on a configuration item representing a component within a cloud computing infrastructure system, wherein the process corresponds to a transitional state of the configuration item, wherein a relationship between the configuration item and an additional configuration item that is connected to the configuration item defines that the process, when run on the configuration item, affects the configuration item and the additional configuration item, and that the process, when run on the additional configuration item, affects the additional configuration item and not the configuration item;
receive, at the one or more processors, an initial state of the configuration item comprising one or more automation states of the configuration item, wherein the automation state comprises an indication that: the configuration item is to undergo a cloning process; the configuration item is to undergo a renaming process; the configuration item is to undergo a moving process; the configuration item is to undergo a patching process; the configuration item is to undergo a provisioning process; the configuration item is to undergo a maintenance process; or the configuration item is to undergo a retirement process, and wherein the initial state comprises an operational state that comprises an indication that the configuration item is in an operating condition or in an error condition;
determine, at the one or more processors, whether the transitional state is incompatible with the initial state;
responsive to a determination that the transitional state is incompatible with the initial state, block the process using the one or more processors; and
responsive to a determination that the transitional state is not incompatible with the initial state, run the process on the configuration item, wherein running the process on the configuration item comprises:
changing, at the one or more processors, the one or more automation states of the configuration item to the transitional state; and
based at least on changing the one or more automation states to the transitional state and an end of the process, changing, at the one or more processors, the one or more automation states of the configuration item from the transitional state.

3. Non-transitory, tangible, and computer-readable medium having stored thereon, instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, are configured to cause the one or more processors to:
receive, at the one or more processors, an indication to run a process on a configuration item representing a component within a cloud computing infrastructure system, wherein the process corresponds to a transitional state of the configuration item, wherein a relationship between the configuration item and an additional configuration item that is connected to the configuration item defines that the process, when run on the configuration item, affects the configuration item and the additional configuration item, and that the process, when run on the additional configuration item, affects the additional configuration item and not the configuration item;
determine, at the one or more processors, that the transitional state is incompatible with an initial state of the configuration item comprising one or more of a plurality of automation states of the configuration item, wherein the transitional state comprises one of the plurality of automation states, wherein the plurality of automation states each corresponds to an indication that the configuration item is to undergo an alteration process that alters the configuration item, wherein the alteration process comprises: a cloning process; a renaming process; a moving process; a patching process; a provisioning process; a maintenance process; or a retirement process; and
responsive to a determination that the transitional state is incompatible with the initial state, block, at the one or more processors, the process.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the initial state is set based on an operation performed on or performed by the configuration item or the additional configuration item that is connected to the configuration item.

5. The method of claim 1 , comprising generating monitoring alerts for the configuration item during the process based at least in part on the initial state of the configuration item.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein changing the initial state from the transitional state comprises changing the one or more operational states from the transitional state back to the initial state.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transitional state corresponds to the process occurring at a scheduled time.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determination that the transitional state is compatible with the initial state comprises determining that the process is compatible with an one or more operational states.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determination that the transitional state is compatible with the initial state comprises determining that the initial state does not prevent the process from occurring properly.

10. The system of claim 2 , wherein the operational state comprises an indication that:
the configuration item is within normal operating parameters;
the configuration item is in an error condition;
the configuration item is under repair; or
the configuration item is retired.

11. The system of claim 2 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to change the initial state based on the process t

Assignees

• Servicenow Inc

Inventors

• Chandrashekar Sridhar
• Gupta Manish
• Narayanan Magesh

Classifications

• H04L41/0813 Primary

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

• G06F16/381

  using identifiers, e.g. barcodes, RFIDs (for URLs G06F16/9554) · CPC title

• G06F9/5027

  the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals · CPC title

• H04L41/0856

  by backing up or archiving configuration information · CPC title

• G06F16/245

  Query processing · CPC title