Intelligent export and import of service representations

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11502897-B2
Application number	US-202017007293-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 31, 2020
Priority date	May 2, 2019
Publication date	Nov 15, 2022
Grant date	Nov 15, 2022

Abstract

A computational instance may includes a set of computing devices and a configuration management database (CMDB), wherein the CMDB contains a representation of a service deployed on a managed network, wherein the representation of the service includes metadata, service group membership, and an entry point, and wherein the computational instance is configured to: receive an instruction to export the representation of the service to a file; copy, to a metadata object in the file, the metadata; determine a hierarchical subset of the service groups that are related to the service; write, to one or more service group objects in the file, the hierarchical subset of the service groups; determine, from a list of entry points of the managed network, that the entry point is of the service; and write, to an entry point object in the file, the entry point.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory, accessible by the processor, the memory storing instructions, that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving a file from an instance of a remote network management platform, wherein the file comprises a plurality of metadata objects associated with respective representations of a plurality of services associated with a managed network, a plurality of service group data objects representative of respective sets of services hierarchically related to the plurality of services, and a plurality of entry point data objects representative of a plurality of entry points for the plurality of services;
processing the plurality of metadata objects to identify each metadata object of the plurality of metadata objects that corresponds to a particular service of the plurality of services;
processing the plurality of service group data objects to identify each service group data object of the plurality of service group data objects that corresponds to the particular service;
processing the plurality of entry point data objects to identify an entry point data object that corresponds to the particular service;
storing each identified metadata object, each identified service group data object, and the identified entry point data object that corresponds to the particular service in a database; and
automatically initiating a discovery process of the particular service based on the identified entry point data object.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations comprise:
receiving a discovery payload associated with the particular service after initiating the discovery process; and
generating a service map based on the discovery payload, at least one identified metadata object, at least one identified service group data object, and the identified entry point data object.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations comprise receiving a user input indicative of a selection of the file from a graphical user interface associated with a second instance of the remote network management platform.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the operations comprise displaying, via the graphical user interface, a subset of the plurality of service group data objects of the file and a prompt for user confirmation before processing the plurality of metadata objects, the plurality of service group data objects, and the plurality of entry point data objects.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein each metadata object of the plurality of metadata objects comprises a name of a service associated with the metadata object, an identifier of the service, or a reference to a service table in a database associated with the instance of the remote network management platform, or a combination thereof.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein each service group data object of the plurality of service group data objects comprises an operational status of the particular service, an identifier of a parent group data object, a criticality associated with the particular service, or a class associated with the particular service, or a combination thereof.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein each entry point data object of the plurality of entry point data objects comprises an identifier of a particular entry point, an identifier of a service associated with the particular entry point, an operational status of the particular entry point, a protocol associated with the particular entry point, a host address associated with the particular entry point, or a port number associated with the particular entry point, or a combination thereof.

8. A method, comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors associated with a production instance of a remote network management platform, a file from a testing instance of the remote network management platform, wherein the file comprises a plurality of metadata objects associated with respective representations of a plurality of services associated with a managed network, a plurality of service group data objects representative of respective sets of services hierarchically related to the plurality of services, and a plurality of entry point data objects representative of a plurality of entry points for the plurality of services;
processing, by the one or more processors, the plurality of metadata objects to identify each metadata object of the plurality of metadata objects that corresponds to a particular service of the plurality of services;
processing, by the one or more processors, the plurality of service group data objects to identify each service group data object of the plurality of service group data objects that corresponds to the particular service;
processing, by the one or more processors, the plurality of entry point data objects to identify an entry point data object that corresponds to the particular service;
storing, by the one or more processors, each identified metadata object, each identified service group data object, and the identified entry point data object that corresponds to the particular service in a database; and
generating, by the one or more processors, a service map based on at least one identified metadata object, at least one identified service group data object, and the identified entry point data object.

9. The method of claim 8 , comprising automatically initiating, by the one or more processors, a discovery process of the particular service based on the identified entry point data object.

10. The method of claim 9 , comprising:
receiving, by the one or more processors, a discovery payload associated with the particular service after initiating the discovery process; and
generating, by the one or more processors, an updated service map based on the discovery payload.

11. The method of claim 8 , comprising displaying, via a graphical user interface, a subset of the plurality of service group data objects of the file and a prompt for user confirmation before processing the plurality of metadata objects, the plurality of service group data objects, and the plurality of entry point data objects.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein each metadata object of the plurality of metadata objects comprises a name of a service associated with the metadata object, an identifier of the service, or a reference to a service table in a database associated with the testing instance of the remote network management platform, or a combination thereof.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein each service group data object of the plurality of service group data objects comprises an operational status of the particular service, an identifier of a parent group data object, a criticality associated with the particular service, or a class associated with the particular service, or a combination thereof.

14. The method of claim 8 , wherein each entry point data object of the plurality of entry point data objects comprises an identifier of a particular entry point, an identifier of a service associated with the particular entry point, an operational status of the particular entry point, a protocol associated with the particular entry point, a host address associated with the particular entry point, or a port number associated with the particular entry point, or a combination thereof.

15. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium, comprising instructions that when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
loading a file received from an instance of a remote network management platform into the non-transitory, computer-readable medium, wherein the fi

Assignees

• Servicenow Inc

Inventors

• Ben Ari Tal
• Mansour Alon
• Suslov Leonid
• Steuer Rotem

Classifications

• H04L41/12 Primary

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title

• G06F16/27

  Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor · CPC title

• H04L41/5054

  Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components · CPC title

• H04L41/0895

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

• H04L41/042

  comprising distributed management centres cooperatively managing the network · CPC title