Automated application-release-management subsystem

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017161023-A1
Application number	US-201615064622-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 9, 2016
Priority date	Dec 4, 2015
Publication date	Jun 8, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

The current document is directed to automated application-release-management facilities that, in a described implementation, coordinate continuous development and release of cloud-computing applications. The application-release-management process is specified, in the described implementation, by application-release-management pipelines, each pipeline comprising one or more stages, with each stage comprising one or more tasks.

First claim

1 . An automated-application-release-management subsystem within a cloud-computing facility having multiple servers, data-storage devices, and one or more internal networks, the automated-application-release-management subsystem comprising:
a dashboard user interface; an automated-application-release-management controller; an interface to a workflow-execution engine within the cloud-computing facility; an artifact-storage-and-management subsystem; and representations of application-release-management pipelines, stored in one or more memories within the cloud-computing facility.

2 . The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 1 that is further incorporated in a workflow-based cloud-management system that additionally includes an infrastructure-management-and-administration subsystem and the workflow-execution engine.

3 . The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 1 wherein the automated-application-release-management controller controls execution of application-release-management pipelines, each application-release-management pipeline representing a sequence of tasks carried out by the automated-application-release-management subsystem to generate a releasable version of an application.

4 . The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 3 wherein each application-release-management pipeline comprises one or more stages; and wherein each application-release-management-pipeline stage comprises a set of one or more tasks.

5 . The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 4 wherein the tasks includes tasks of task types selected from among:
initialization tasks;
deployment tasks;
run-tests tasks;
gating-rule tasks; and
finalize tasks.

6 . The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 4 wherein the tasks are implemented as workflows that are executed by the workflow-execution engine.

7 . The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 4 wherein the dashboard user interface includes features that allow a user to create an application-release-management pipeline, edit an application-release-management pipeline launch execution of an application-release-management pipeline, and monitor progress of application-release-management-pipeline execution.

8 . The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 4 wherein the automated-application-release-management controller receives input from the dashboard user interface and, in response to the input, directs the workflow-execution engine to execute workflows to carry out automated-application-release-management-subsystem operations.

9 . The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 4 wherein the automated-application-release-management controller receives, during execution of a workflow, an event notification from the workflow-execution engine that communicates workflow-execution-related information to the automated-application-release-management controller, which, in turn, transmits the workflow-execution-related information to dashboard user interface for display.

10 . The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 19 wherein, when there is a next task to be executed in a pipeline stage, execution of which is currently being managed by the automated-application-release-management controller, the automated-application-release-management controller reports completion of execution of a task corresponding to the completed workflow to the dashboard user interface and submits a workflow corresponding to the next task to the workflow-execution engine for execution.

11 . The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 9 wherein, when the completed workflow corresponds to a final task to be executed in a pipeline stage, and when there is a next stage to be executed in a pipeline, execution of which is currently being managed by the automated-application-release-management controller, the automated-application-release-management controller reports completion of execution of the pipeline stage corresponding to the completed workflow to the dashboard user interface and submits a workflow corresponding to s first task in the next stage to the workflow-execution engine for execution.

12 . The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 9 wherein, when the completed workflow corresponds to a final task to be executed in a pipeline stage, and when the pipeline stage is a final stage of a pipeline, execution of which is currently being managed by the automated-application-release-management controller, the automated-application-release-management controller reports completion of execution of the pipeline to the dashboard user interface.

13 . The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 4 wherein the artifact-storage-and-management subsystem stores binary files, data files, and other information used by the automated-application-release-management subsystem to build and deploy an application according to the logic encapsulated within an application-release-management pipeline.

14 . The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 4 wherein a gating-rule task includes one or more gating-rules that, when evaluated, determine whether or not execution of the application-release-management pipeline that includes the gating-rule task proceeds to execution of a subsequent stage, successfully terminates, returns to a previously executed task within the application-release-management pipeline, or unsuccessfully terminates.

15 . A method that manages release of a version of an application, the method comprising:
providing an automated-application-release-management subsystem within a cloud-computing facility having multiple servers, data-storage devices, and one or more internal networks, the automated-application-release-management subsystem including a dashboard user interface, an automated-application-release-management controller, an interface to a workflow-execution engine within the cloud-computing facility, and an artifact-storage-and-management subsystem; generating, by the dashboard user interface, an application-release-management pipeline comprising a set of one or more workflows to represent the version-release process that releases the version of the application; and launching, in response to input to one or more of interface features provided by the dashboard user interface, execution of the application-release-management pipeline by the automated-application-release-management subsystem.

16 . The method of claim 15 wherein the automated-application-release-management subsystem is further incorporated in a workflow-based cloud-management system that additionally includes an infrastructure-management-and-administration subsystem and the workflow-execution engine.

17 . The method of claim 15 wherein each application-release-management pipeline comprises one or more stages; and wherein each application-release-management-pipeline stage comprises a set of one or more tasks implemented as workflows that are executed by the workflow-execution engine.

18 . The automated-application-release-management subsystem of claim 17 wherein the features provided by the dashboard user interface includes features that allow a user to create an application-release-management pipeline, edit an application-release-management pipeline launch execution of an application-release-management pipeline, and monitor progress of application-release-management-pipeline execution; and wherein the au

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Khazanchi Rajesh
• Singh Servesh
• Singh Kiran
• Saraf Rishi
• Jain Vishal
• Mankala Shyam Sundar Rao

Classifications

• G06F8/71 Primary

  Version control (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57); Configuration management · CPC title

• G06F8/10

  Requirements analysis; Specification techniques · CPC title

• G06F8/20 Primary

  Software design · CPC title

• G06F8/34

  Graphical or visual programming · CPC title

• G06Q10/06

  Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling · CPC title