Ambiguity measurement and management for configuration items

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9912539-B2
Application number	US-88478310-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 17, 2010
Priority date	Sep 17, 2010
Publication date	Mar 6, 2018
Grant date	Mar 6, 2018

Abstract

Systems and methods for measuring and managing ambiguity among a plurality of configuration items residing in a configuration management database include determining for at least a first configuration item, at least a second configuration item such that a first set of attributes associated with the first configuration item and a second set of attributes associated with the second configuration item have at least one attribute with an identical value. As an indicator for the ambiguity, an ambiguity index for the first configuration item may be measured. One of the first configuration item and the second configuration item may be identified as an ambiguous configuration item. Upon identification, an operational state of the ambiguous configuration item or a set of one or more attributes associated with the ambiguous configuration item may be modified. The ambiguity for configuration item transactions may likewise be measured and managed to locate and resolve transaction ambiguity.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
identifying, by one or more processors executing an ambiguity management application, for a first configuration item of a plurality of configuration items, one or more second configuration items of the plurality of configuration items, the first configuration item associated with a first set of one or more attributes and each of the one or more second configuration items associated with a corresponding second set of one or more attributes, wherein the first set of one or more attributes and each of the one or more second sets of one or more attributes have at least one attribute with an identical value, wherein each of the plurality of configuration items electronically represents properties of computer hardware and/or properties of computer software, and the properties of the computer hardware and/or the computer software are electronically discovered in a network by a computer discovery agent, and wherein attributes of one or more of the plurality of configuration items comprise a name, a serial number, a MAC address, an IP address, a system name, or a DNS name;
determining an index, for the first configuration item, wherein a value of the index is calculated based on a sum of a number of attributes associated with the one or more second configuration items, that each have an identical value as that of a corresponding attribute in the first set of one or more attributes; and
responsive to the index having a value corresponding to a non-zero number of the attributes that each have an identical value, causing, by one or more processors, (i) modification of an operational state of the first configuration item, the one or more second configuration items, or the first and one or more second configuration items, (ii) modification of a set of one or more attributes associated with the first configuration item, the one or more second configuration items, or the first and one or more second configuration items, (iii) or both (i) and (ii), wherein the value of the index is calculated based on a weighted sum of the number of attributes associated with the one or more second configuration items, that each have an identical value as that of a corresponding attribute in the first set of one or more attributes.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein another value of the index is calculated based on a total number of the one or more second configuration items.

3. The method of claim 1 , comprising causing, by the processor, modification of the operational state of the first configuration item, the one or more second configuration items, or the first and one or more second configuration items, and wherein modification of the operational state of the first configuration item, the one or more second configuration items, or the first and one or more second configuration items comprises:
excluding the first configuration item, the one or more second configuration items, or the first and one or more second configuration items from ambiguity management;
deactivating the first configuration item, the one or more second configuration items, or the first and one or more second configuration items such that no update is performed on the first configuration item, the one or more second configuration items, or the first and one or more second configuration items; or
superseding the first configuration item, the one or more second configuration items, or the first and one or more second configuration items such that any update for the first configuration item, the one or more second configuration items, or the first and one or more second configuration items is redirected to a superseding configuration item, wherein the superseding configuration item is any one of the plurality of configuration items except the ambiguous configuration item.

4. The method of claim 1 , comprising causing, by the processor, modification of the set of one or more attributes associated with the first configuration item, the one or more second configuration items, or the first and one or more second configuration items, and wherein modification of the set of one or more attributes associated with the first configuration item, the one or more second configuration items, or the first and one or more second configuration items comprises (a) modifying a value of an attribute in the first set of one or more attributes, the one or more second sets of one or more attributes, or the first and one or more second sets of one or more attributes, (b) adding a new attribute to the first set of one or more attributes, the one or more second sets of one or more attributes, or both the first and one or more second sets of one or more attributes, or (c) both (a) and (b).

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: responsive to the index having a non-zero value, (d) identifying the first configuration item as an ambiguous configuration item, (e) identifying each of the one or more second configuration items as an ambiguous configuration item, or (f) identifying the first and one or more second configuration items as ambiguous configuration items, wherein each of (d), (e) and (f) comprises (g) comparing attributes of the first and second sets of one or more attributes, (h) comparing a time value of an update performed on the first configuration item with a time value of an update performed on the one or more second configuration item, or (i) both (g) and (h).

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein comparing attributes of the first and second sets of one or more attributes comprises associating a higher priority to an attribute relative to another attribute in the one or more attributes.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the one or more second configuration items is performed periodically, or in response to an update of the first set of one or more attributes.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
repeating, for each of a plurality of the first configuration items, the identifying the one or more second configuration items and determining the index; and
sorting the plurality of the first configuration items based on their respective indexes to generate a sorted list of the first configuration items, wherein the first configuration items are thereby managed in accordance with the sorted list.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the sorting comprises arranging the plurality of the first configuration items in a decreasing order of their respective indexes.

10. A system comprising:
one or more processors configured to:
identify, for a first configuration item of a plurality of configuration items, one or more second configuration items of the plurality of configuration items, the first configuration item associated with a first set of one or more attributes and each of the one or more second configuration items associated with a corresponding second set of one or more attributes, wherein the first set of one or more attributes and each of the second sets of one or more attributes have at least one attribute with an identical value, wherein each of the plurality of configuration items electronically represents properties of computer hardware and/or properties of computer software, and the properties of the computer hardware and/or the computer software are electronically discovered in a network by a computer discovery agent, and wherein attributes of one or more of the plurality of configuration items comprise a name, a serial number, a MAC address, an IP address, a system name, or a DNS name;
determine an index, for the first configuration item, wherein a value of the index is calculated based on a total number of attributes associated with the one or more second configuration items, that each have an identical value as that of a correspond

Assignees

• Ali Abed
• Mckay Peter
• Tomaszewski John Michael
• Ca Inc

Inventors

• Ali Abed
• Mckay Peter
• Tomaszewski John Michael

Classifications

• H04L41/0866 Primary

  Checking the configuration · CPC title