Auto discovery of configuration items

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9998333-B2
Application number	US-201615369524-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 5, 2016
Priority date	Dec 22, 2014
Publication date	Jun 12, 2018
Grant date	Jun 12, 2018

Abstract

Implementations of a system, method and apparatus described herein execute a discovery process to identify a plurality of computing devices within a computer network and a respective configuration associated with each of the plurality of computing devices. Upon discovery of a first computing device configured by an agent, configuration management of the computer network is searched for a definition used by the agent to configure the first computing device, and the discovery process for the first computing device is modified based on the definition to identify a first plurality of configuration items associated with a current configuration of the first computing device. Finally, a service model database is updated with the first plurality of configuration items.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for discovering nodes in a computer network, the method comprising:
executing a discovery process on the computer network to identify a plurality of nodes in the computer network, the discovery process comprising:
determining whether an agent configured an identified node of the plurality of nodes;
if an agent did not configure the identified node:
identifying one or more configuration items associated with the node; and
updating a service model database with the one or more identified configuration items;

if an agent did configure the identified node:
obtaining a definition of the agent that configured the identified node;
identifying one or more agent-configured configuration items associated with the identified node based at least in part on the definition of the agent that configured the identified node; and
updating a service model database with the one or more identified agent-configured configuration items.

2. The method, as set forth in claim 1 , wherein determining whether an agent configured an identified node of the plurality of nodes comprises:
querying whether the identified node has an indication of a configuration definition associated with the identified node.

3. The method, as set forth in claim 1 , wherein obtaining a definition of the agent that configured the identified node comprises:
searching configuration management data of the computer network for configuration management role information for the agent that configured the identified node.

4. The method, as set forth in claim 1 , wherein identifying one or more agent-configured configuration items associated with the identified node based at least in part on the definition of the agent that configured the identified node comprises:
searching for configuration items established by the agent that configured the identified node.

5. An apparatus for discovering nodes in a computer network, the apparatus comprising:
a physical network interface configured to couple the apparatus to the computer network;
a processor operably coupled to the physical network interface and configured to execute instructions stored in a memory which, when executed, cause the processor to:
perform a discovery process on the computer network to identify a plurality of nodes in the computer network, the discovery process comprising:
determining whether an agent configured an identified node of the plurality of nodes;
if an agent did not configure the identified node:
identifying one or more configuration items associated with the node; and
updating a service model database with the one or more identified configuration items;

if an agent did configure the identified node:
obtaining a definition of the agent that configured the identified node;
identifying one or more agent-configured configuration items associated with the identified node based at least in part on the definition of the agent that configured the identified node; and
updating a service model database with the one or more identified agent-configured configuration items.

6. The apparatus, as set forth in claim 5 , wherein determining whether an agent configured an identified node of the plurality of nodes comprises:
querying whether the identified node has an indication of a configuration definition associated with the identified node.

7. The apparatus, as set forth in claim 5 , wherein obtaining a definition of the agent that configured the identified node comprises:
searching configuration management data of the computer network for configuration management role information for the agent that configured the identified node.

8. The apparatus, as set forth in claim 5 , wherein identifying one or more agent-configured configuration items associated with the identified node based at least in part on the definition of the agent that configured the identified node comprises:
searching for configuration items established by the agent that configured the identified node.

Assignees

• Servicenow Inc

Inventors

• Polinati Chinna
• Varghese Jake
• Chandrashekar Sridhar

Classifications

• H04L41/085

  Retrieval of network configuration; Tracking network configuration history · CPC title

• H04L41/5058

  Service discovery by the service manager · CPC title

• G06F16/2379

  Updates performed during online database operations; commit processing · CPC title

• G06F16/951

  Indexing; Web crawling techniques · CPC title

• H04L41/0853 Primary

  by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information · CPC title