Resource and operation conflict identification on a cloud platform

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12474965-B2
Application number	US-202117450131-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 6, 2021
Priority date	Feb 4, 2019
Publication date	Nov 18, 2025
Grant date	Nov 18, 2025

Abstract

Various approaches are described to manage the execution of operations. Such operations may be performed without human intervention and may help maintain functionality of a cloud platform or client instances. In one aspect of the present approach, the number and/or type of automations starting in a given time frame may be limited to maintain an even or consistent distribution of resource usage. In a further aspect, the number and/or type of concurrent automations may be limited to a defined threshold to maintain an even or consistent distribution of resource usage.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A method, comprising:
determining a plurality of automated operations to be performed on one or more resources of a plurality of resources, wherein each operation of the plurality of automated operations is associated with an automated operation type of a plurality of automated operation types; determining a throttle limit associated with an automated operation of the plurality of automated operations, the throttle limit comprising a threshold number of concurrent automated operations performed for the automated operation type associated with the automated operation; determining a throttle window for the automated operation of the plurality of automated operations based on one or more requests to execute the plurality of automated operations on the one or more resources, the throttle window corresponding to a time over which the automated operation is to be performed; identifying one or more conflicts associated with the one or more resources within the throttle window, each of the one or more conflicts comprising time ranges within the throttle window wherein the throttle limit is exceeded by automated operations of the plurality of automated operations having the same automated operation type; and automatically preventing, based on the one or more identified conflicts, one or more automated operations of the plurality of automated operations having the same automated operation type from being performed.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the throttle window is based on one or more resource characteristics of the one or more resources.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the one or more resource characteristics comprise a resource type, a resource model, a resource location, a resource datacenter time zone, a resource generation, or any combination thereof.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more resources comprise one or more of application servers, database servers, network infrastructures, disks, processor resources, or any combination thereof.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of automated operations comprise one or more of updates, moves, clones, transfers, patches, restores, backups, copies, stopping, starting, provisioning, restarting, write audits, read audits, renames, repoints, switch domain name system (DNS), or any combination thereof.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of automated operation types are associated with varying run times, downtimes, orchestrators, conflicts with particular automated operation types, or any combination thereof.

7 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
determining a throttle limit associated with sub-automated operations for each of the plurality of automated operations.

8 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
generating a list of the one or more conflicts within the throttle window, wherein the list of the one or more conflicts comprises an aggregated list of conflicts within the throttle window based on the one or more resources impacted by the concurrent automated operations of the automated operation type, additional concurrent automated operations of a second automaton type, or a combination thereof.

9 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
generating a list of the one or more conflicts within the throttle window, wherein the list identifies non-overlapping schedules of the concurrent automated operations of the automated operation type, additional concurrent automated operations of a second automaton type, or a combination thereof.

10 . A system, comprising:
a memory configured to store instructions; and a processor configured to execute the instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed cause the processor to:
determine a plurality of automated operations to be performed on one or more resources of a plurality of resources, wherein each operation of the plurality of automated operations is associated with an automated operation type of a plurality of automated operation types;
determine a throttle limit associated with an automated operation of the plurality of automated operations, the throttle limit comprising a threshold number of concurrent automated operations performed for the automated operation type associated with the automated operation;
determine a throttle window for the automated operation of the plurality of automated operations based on one or more requests to execute the plurality of automated operations on the one or more resources, the throttle window corresponding to a time over which the automated operation is to be performed;
identify one or more conflicts associated with the one or more resources within the throttle window, each of the one or more conflicts comprising time ranges within the throttle window wherein the throttle limit is exceeded by automated operations of the plurality of automated operations having the same automated operation type; and
automatically prevent, based on the one or more identified conflicts, one or more automated operations of the plurality of automated operations having the same automated operation type from being performed.

11 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the throttle limit is dynamic.

12 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the processor is configured to execute further instructions causing the processor to:
determine the throttle limit associated with a group of two or more of the plurality of automated operations.

13 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the processor is configured to execute further instructions causing the processor to:
provide an indication of the one or more conflicts; and schedule two or more of the plurality of automated operations within the throttle window based on the indication of the one or more conflicts.

14 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the system corresponds to a client instance.

15 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the system corresponds to a data center supporting a client instance.

16 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the processor is configured to execute further instructions causing the processor to:
provide an indication of the one or more conflicts, wherein the indication of the one or more conflicts comprises an identification of one or more time windows within the throttle window, the one or more time windows including a duration in which the one or more of the plurality of automated operations of different automated operation types exceed respective throttle limits.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the processor is configured to execute further instructions causing the processor to:
generate a resource map indicating the one or more resources impacted by the one or more of the plurality of automated operations of the different automated operation types exceeding the respective throttle limits.

18 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
determine a plurality of automated operations to be performed on one or more resources of a plurality of resources, wherein each operation of the plurality of automated operations is associated with an automated operation type of a plurality of automated operation types; determine a throttle limit associated with an automated operation of the plurality of automated operations, the throttle limit comprising a threshold number of concurrent automated operations performed for the automated operation type associated with the automated operation; determine a throttle window for the automated operation of

Assignees

• Servicenow Inc

Inventors

• Vaddempudi Sharath
• Jain Kavish
• Khurmyetbyek Yerjan
• Saini Atul
• Pattapu Swathi

Classifications

• G06F2209/503

  Resource availability · CPC title

• G06F2209/5022

  Workload threshold · CPC title

• G06F9/5083

  Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system · CPC title

• G06F9/5072 Primary

  Grid computing · CPC title

• G06F9/4887

  involving deadlines, e.g. rate based, periodic · CPC title