Synchronization of configuration changes between applications and their platforms

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016253168-A1
Application number	US-201615149489-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 9, 2016
Priority date	Sep 28, 2012
Publication date	Sep 1, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program product for handling synchronization of configuration changes between applications and their platforms. A computer implemented method synchronizes middleware configurations with application configurations using a reciprocating protocol. The protocol includes receiving a middleware state variable from a middleware component, then processing the middleware state variable to determine any application configuration state variables that depend on a value of the middleware state variable. The application (or agent) further processes the application configuration state variable to determine any affected middleware state variables and then sends the affected middleware state variable to the middleware component. The determinations can be performed using a forward mapper or reverse mapper, and the determinations can reciprocate repeatedly between applications and their middleware platforms until quiescence. The techniques can be used during an online patch cycle to maintain synchronization of configuration changes between applications and their platforms even while components are being patched.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium, the computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed by a processor causes the processor to execute a set of acts to implement synchronizing between intermediate software component configurations and application configurations, the set of acts comprising:
processing, at a synchronization module stored at least partially in memory of one or more computing systems, an intermediate software component state variable of an intermediate software component to determine at least one application state variable that depends on a value of the intermediate software component state variable and corresponds to an online edition of at least one software application that relies upon the intermediate software component; determining whether one or more changes in the at least one application state variable result in one or more other changes in the intermediate software component at least by performing a forward mapping for an offline edition of the at least one software application; determining one or more implied changes for the intermediate software component based in part or in whole upon the one or more changes in the at least one application state variable; determining at least one additional application change for the at least one software application at least by performing a reverse mapping based in part or in whole upon the one or more implied changes for the intermediate software component; determining at least one implied application change for the at least one software application based in part or in whole upon the at least one additional application change for the at least one software application; and performing a reverse mapping for transforming at least one additional application change and the at least one implied application change into application configuration changes for the at least one software application.

2 . The computer program product of claim 1 , the set of acts further comprising:
receiving a change in configurations of the intermediate software component; and storing the change or information about the change in the configurations into the intermediate software component state variable of the intermediate software component at a first location of the memory of the one or more computing systems.

3 . The computer program product of claim 2 , the set of acts further comprising:
identifying a triggering event; and triggering one or more operations within an intermediate software component listener module in the synchronization module with the triggering event.

4 . The computer program product of claim 3 , the set of acts further comprising:
obtaining, at a middleware listener module, the one or more changes corresponding to the change or information about the change in the configurations of the intermediate software component and including at least a topology change in the intermediate software component at least by pulling the one or more changes; and storing the one or more changes at a second location of the memory of the computer system.

5 . The computer program product of claim 4 , the set of acts further comprising:
determining, at a forward mapping module, whether or not the at least one software application is to receive the one or more changes; and determining, at the forward mapping module, whether or not the one or more changes are affected by the change or information thereof of the intermediate software component.

6 . The computer program product of claim 5 , the set of acts further comprising:
transmitting, at the forward mapping module, the one or more changes to the offline edition of the at least one software application at least by performing the forward mapping with the forward mapping module when the at least one software application is determined to receive the one or more changes; and applying the one or more changes to the offline edition of the at least one software application.

7 . The computer program product of claim 6 , the set of acts further comprising:
determining, at a reverse mapping module, one or more first implied changes corresponding to the one or more changes to the offline edition of the at least one software application; and storing the one or more implied changes as the one or more other changes at a third location of the memory of the one or more computing systems.

8 . The computer program product of claim 7 , the set of acts further comprising:
performing, at an application listener module in the synchronization module, a reverse mapping for the one or more other changes for the intermediate software component; and pulling, at the application listener module, the one or more other changes for the intermediate software component and storing the one or more other changes into one or more intermediate software configuration changes; and storing the one or more intermediate software configuration changes at a fourth location of the memory of the one or more computing systems.

9 . The computer program product of claim 8 , the set of acts further comprising:
transmitting the one or more intermediate software configuration changes from the application listener module to the intermediate software component; and preparing the offline edition of the at least one software application at least by applying the one or more intermediate software configuration changes to the intermediate software component.

10 . The computer program product of claim 9 , the set of acts further comprising:
creating runtime data, which change while the one or more changes to the offline edition and the one or more intermediate software configuration changes are being applied, for the online edition of the at least one software application; and storing the runtime data at a fifth location of the memory.

11 . The computer program product of claim 10 , the set of acts further comprising:
applying one or more patch transformations to the runtime data stored at the fifth location of the memory; and causing users on the online edition to go offline at least by shutting down the online edition of the at least one software application.

12 . The computer program product of claim 11 , the set of acts further comprising:
designating the offline edition of the at least one software application as a new online edition of the at least one software application, while the users remain offline; restarting the new online edition of the at least one software application; and returning the users online after the new online edition of the at least one software application is restarted.

13 . The computer program product of claim 11 , the set of acts further comprising:
configuring an application code module that stores one or more copies of the at least one software application; configuring an application metadata module that stores configuration state data for the at least one software application; and facilitating communications between the at least one software application and the intermediate software component with at least the configuration state data for the at least one software application.

14 . The computer program product of claim 13 , the set of acts further comprising:
configuring a database that is interrelated with a plurality of software components comprising the application code module, the application metadata module, an application schema for the at least one software application, and one or more instances of a file system; amalgamating the plurality of software components into a first edition;

Assignees

• Oracle Int Corp

Inventors

• Dujmovic Ivo
• Bandla Satya Prakash
• Pinjarkar Ulhas Murlidhar
• Damodaran Ramya

Classifications

• G06F11/2056

  by mirroring · CPC title

• G06F16/2365

  Ensuring data consistency and integrity · CPC title

• G06F11/2058

  using more than 2 mirrored copies · CPC title

• G06F8/65 Primary

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• G06F16/2358

  Change logging, detection, and notification (replication G06F16/27) · CPC title