System and method for verifying configuration item changes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9237180-B2
Application number	US-201313836506-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 15, 2013
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	Jan 12, 2016
Grant date	Jan 12, 2016

Abstract

A system and method is provided for managing verification of configuration item changes. Discovered configuration data associated with a configuration item may be received. A determination may be made regarding whether a change order for the configuration item exists. A determination may be made regarding whether the change order is in a “verification in progress” state. When the change order is in the “verification in progress” state, alignment of the discovered configuration data with the change order may be determined and a verification policy may be determined based on the determined alignment.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for managing verification of changes to a computer server, the method comprising:
receiving discovered configuration data comprising a plurality of discovered attributes associated with the computer server, wherein the discovered configuration data is received from a discovery agent that gathers the discovered configuration data;
determining whether a change order exists for the computer server, wherein the change order is a request for a change to a configuration of the computer server comprising a specified desired value for an attribute associated with the computer server;
when a change order exists for the computer server, determining whether the change order is in a verification in progress state;
when the change order is in the verification in progress state, determining whether a variance exists between a discovered attribute of the plurality of attributes of the discovered configuration data and the specified desired value of the change order;
when a variance exists between the discovered attribute of the discovered configuration data and the change order, determining a type of the variance that exists between the discovered attribute of the discovered configuration data and the change order, wherein the type of the variance is one of a plurality of types of variances; and
determining a verification policy of a plurality of verification policies based on the determined type of the variance, wherein the plurality of verification policies comprise operations to manage a determination of whether the change order can be moved from a verification in progress state to a verified state.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the type of the variance comprises an incorrectly implemented change, a rogue change, or unverifiable change order,
wherein an unverifiable change order is a change order whose specification cannot be programmatically determined.

3. The method of claim 2 ,
wherein the configuration data associated with the server comprises one of a MAC address, an IP address, a disk space, a memory, a vendor, and/or a processor type.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
executing the verification policy, wherein said executing comprises performing an update action associated with the verification policy.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the update action comprises creating an incident in a problem management database, writing the discovered configuration data to a staging area, or rejecting the discovered configuration data.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether a record associated with the the computer server exists in a configuration management database; and
when a record associated with the computer server does not exist in the configuration management database, executing a verification policy to add new configuration data to the configuration management database.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether the discovered attribute of the plurality of attributes of the discovered configuration data is a managed attribute or an unmanaged attribute;
when the discovered attribute is an unmanaged attribute, ignoring changes associated with the discovered attribute; and
when the discovered attribute is a managed attribute, determining whether the change order exists for the computer server.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a verification policy of a plurality of verification policies based on the determined type of the variance is also based on a source criteria corresponding to the discovery agent.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a verification policy of a plurality of verification policies based on the determined type of the variance is also based on a policy priority information of the verification policy.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a verification policy of a plurality of verification policies based on the determined type of the variance is also based on a schedule information of the verification policy indicating when the verification policy is in effect.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
executing the operations of the determined verification policy to further determine whether an attribute in a configuration management database should be updated to the discovered attribute of the discovered configuration data;
moving the change order from the verification in progress state to the verified state when all desired values of the change order have been determined to match a corresponding discovered attribute of the plurality of attributes of the discovered configuration data of the computer server.

12. A system for managing verification of changes to a computer server, the system comprising:
a processor configured to:
receive discovered configuration data comprising a plurality of discovered attributes associated with the computer server, wherein the discovered configuration data is received from a discovery agent that gathers the discovered configuration data;
determine whether a change order exists for the computer server, wherein the change order is a request for a change to a configuration of the computer server comprising a specified desired value for an attribute associated with the computer server;
when a change order exists for the computer server, determine whether the change order is in a verification in progress state;
when the change order is in the verification in progress state, determine whether a variance exists between a discovered attribute of the plurality of attributes of the discovered configuration data and the specified desired value of the change order;
when a variance exists between the discovered attribute of the discovered configuration data and the change order, determine a type of the variance that exists between the discovered attribute of the discovered configuration data and the change order, wherein the type of the variance is one of a plurality of types of variances; and
determine a verification policy of a plurality of verification policies based on the determined type of the variance, wherein the plurality of verification policies comprise operations to manage a determination of whether the change order can be moved from verification in progress state to a verified state.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the type of the variance comprises an incorrectly implemented change, a rogue change, or unverifiable change order, wherein an unverifiable change order is a change order whose specification cannot be programmatically determined.

14. The system of claim 13 ,
wherein the configuration data associated with the server comprises one of a MAC address, an IP address, a disk space, a memory, a vendor, and/or a processor type.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
execute the verification policy, wherein said executing comprises performing an update action associated with the verification policy.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the update action comprises creating an incident in a problem management database, writing the discovered configuration data to a staging area, or rejecting the discovered configuration data.

17. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
determine whether a record associated with the computer server exists in a configuration management database; and
when a record associated with the computer server does not exist in the configuration management database, execute a verification policy to add new configuration data to the configuration management database.

Assignees

• Ca Inc

Inventors

• Mckay Peter

Classifications

• H04L67/00 Primary

  Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications (user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00) · CPC title

• H04L67/34 Primary

  involving the movement of software or configuration parameters  (network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416) · CPC title

• G06F17/30286

  Physics · mapped topic

• H04L41/0873

  Checking configuration conflicts between network elements · CPC title

• G06F16/20

  of structured data, e.g. relational data · CPC title