Centralized platform management for computing environments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11438231-B2
Application number	US-201916582874-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 25, 2019
Priority date	Sep 25, 2019
Publication date	Sep 6, 2022
Grant date	Sep 6, 2022

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer-readable storage media, for centralized platform management for multiple environments. In some implementations, a management system obtains configuration information for each of multiple computing environments. The management system stores the configuration information for the multiple computing environments in a repository and monitors actions that change configurations of the multiple computing environments. The management system provides an interface configured to provide information about the configurations of the multiple computing environments and to adjust the configurations of the multiple computing environments in response to input received through the interface.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method performed by a management system comprising one or more computers, the method comprising:
obtaining, by the management system, configuration information for each of multiple computing environments, the configuration information including configuration parameters for each of the multiple computing environments;
storing, by the management system, the configuration information for the multiple computing environments in a repository;
monitoring, by the management system, actions that change configurations of the multiple computing environments and recording indications of the changes in the repository such that the repository stores, for each of the multiple computing environments, multiple sets of configuration information that indicate configurations that were active at different times and respective performance measures indicating performance resulting from use of the configurations;
determining that a condition of a first computing environment satisfies criteria for changing at least one configuration parameter of the first computing environment;
in response to determining that the condition of the first computing environment satisfies criteria for changing at least one configuration parameter of the first computing environment, selecting a set of configuration information from among multiple sets of configuration information stored for a second computing environment of the multiple computing environments;
retrieving, from the repository, the selected set of stored configuration information for the second computing environment;
adjusting the at least one configuration parameter of the first computing environment by selectively transferring a subset of configuration parameters from the retrieved set of stored configuration information for the second computing environment to the first computing environment;
determining that a condition of the multiple computing environments satisfies criteria for creating a new computing environment; and
in response to determining that the condition of the multiple computing environments satisfies criteria for creating a new computing environment, creating the new computing environment, wherein the new computing environment is configured to:
automatically self-register with the management system; and
upon self-registering with the management system, send an event message to the management system in response to detecting a change to the configuration information for the new computing environment, wherein the event message indicates the changed configuration information for the new computing environment.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the obtained configuration information indicates settings, users, or applications of the multiple computing environments.

3. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
storing, by the management system, policy data indicating one or more policies for the first computing environment of the multiple computing environments;
wherein determining that the condition of the first computing environment satisfies criteria for changing the at least one configuration parameter of the first computing environment comprises performing, by the management system, an audit of the first computing environment with respect to the one or more policies indicated by the policy data, wherein performing the audit comprises determining that a configuration parameter of the first computing environment, a change to a configuration parameter of the first computing environment, or an action at the first computing environment does not satisfy the one or more policies indicated by the policy data.

4. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
providing management services using a micro-service architecture that has a plurality of container-based modules configured to perform different management tasks, wherein the container-based modules are software images for software modules configured to run in isolation from each other on a host operating system;
identifying, from among a plurality of management tasks, a management task to perform for a particular computing environment;
selecting one of the software modules to perform the identified management task; and
performing the management task by causing the selected software module to be loaded and run by the management system or by the particular computing environment.

5. The method of claim 1 , comprising providing an interface enabling a user to define management tasks and remotely initiate management tasks for individual computing environments, wherein the interface provides functionality to combine a series of management tasks into a workflow and to combine, transfer, or share settings among different computing environments.

6. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
receiving data indicating a request to replicate at least a portion of a configuration of the second computing environment at the first computing environment;
in response to receiving the data indicating the request to replicate at least a portion of the configuration of the second computing environment at the first computing environment, accessing, from the repository, configuration parameters of the second computing environment; and
transferring the configuration parameters accessed from the repository to the first computing environment over a network.

7. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
providing, by the management system, an interface to define performance tests to be executed for the multiple computing environments; and
performing a performance test for the first computing environment;
wherein determining that the condition of the first computing environment satisfies criteria for changing at least one configuration parameter of the first computing environment comprises determining, based on the performance test, that the first computing environment does not provide at least a threshold level of performance.

8. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
storing, by the management system, environment data for deploying computing environments, wherein the environment data comprises software images or installers for creating new computing environments in at least one of local computing hardware, remote computing hardware, virtual machines, containers, or cloud computing platforms; and
creating, by the management system, the new computing environment based on the environment data.

9. The method of claim 1 , comprising managing, by the management system, the execution of customized workflows for individual computing environments, each of the customized workflows comprising one or more operations to be performed by a corresponding computing environment.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the condition of the first computing environment satisfies criteria for changing at least one configuration parameter of the first computing environment comprises:
based on the respective performance measures indicating performance resulting from use of the configurations, determining that a particular configuration resulted in performance improvement of the second computing environment compared to performance of the first computing environment.

11. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
presenting, through an interface, indications of previous configurations for each of the multiple computing environments from the stored multiple sets of configuration information;
based on input provided through the interface, selecting a set of configuration information for the first computing environment that indicates a previous configuration of the first computing environment;
retrieving the selected set of stored configuration information that indicates the previous configuration of the first computing environment; and
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Assignees

• Microstrategy Inc

Inventors

• Gardner Richard
• Myers Clayton
• Smith Andrew

Classifications

• H04L41/0856

  by backing up or archiving configuration information · CPC title

• H04L41/0866

  Checking the configuration · CPC title

• H04L41/0816

  the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events · CPC title

• H04L41/0876

  Aspects of the degree of configuration automation · CPC title

• H04L41/0894

  Policy-based network configuration management · CPC title