U.S. patent application number 11/170700 was filed with the patent office on 2006-02-02 for model-based system management.
This patent application is currently assigned to Microsoft Corporation. Invention is credited to Bruce W. Copeland, Robert M. Fries, Kevin Grealish, Jonathan Hardwick, Michael J. Healy, Galen C. Hunt, Aamer Hydrie, David C. James, Anand Lakshminarayanan, Rob Mensching, Rajagopalan Badri Narayanan, Geoffrey Outhred, Ken Pan, Efstathios Papaefstathion, John M. Parchem, Vij Rajarajan, Ashvinkumar J. Sanghvi, Bassam Tabbara, Rene Antonio Vega, Anders B. Vinberg, Vitaly Voloshin, Robert V. Welland, Eric J. Winner, Jeffrey A. Woolsey.
Application Number | 20060025985 11/170700 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 32830044 |
Filed Date | 2006-02-02 |
United States Patent
Application |
20060025985 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Vinberg; Anders B. ; et
al. |
February 2, 2006 |
Model-Based system management
Abstract
A model of a system is generated and used as a basis for
managing the system. As the system is managed, the system model can
be updated to reflect changes to the system. Managing of the system
can include one or more of provisioning applications in the system,
provisioning applications in virtual systems, provisioning test
environments, monitoring the configuration of the system,
monitoring the system including the health of the system,
performing capacity planning for the system, and propagating
attributes to different components in the system.
Inventors: |
Vinberg; Anders B.;
(Kirkland, WA) ; Copeland; Bruce W.; (Redmond,
WA) ; Fries; Robert M.; (Redmond, WA) ;
Grealish; Kevin; (Seattle, WA) ; Hardwick;
Jonathan; (Kirkland, WA) ; Healy; Michael J.;
(Redmond, WA) ; Hunt; Galen C.; (Bellevue, WA)
; Hydrie; Aamer; (Seattle, WA) ; James; David
C.; (Bothell, WA) ; Lakshminarayanan; Anand;
(Redmond, WA) ; Mensching; Rob; (Redmond, WA)
; Narayanan; Rajagopalan Badri; (Redmond, WA) ;
Outhred; Geoffrey; (Seattle, WA) ; Pan; Ken;
(Redmond, WA) ; Papaefstathion; Efstathios;
(Redmond, WA) ; Parchem; John M.; (Seattle,
WA) ; Rajarajan; Vij; (Issaquah, WA) ;
Sanghvi; Ashvinkumar J.; (Sammamish, WA) ; Tabbara;
Bassam; (Seattle, WA) ; Vega; Rene Antonio;
(Kirkland, WA) ; Voloshin; Vitaly; (Issaquah,
WA) ; Welland; Robert V.; (Seattle, WA) ;
Winner; Eric J.; (Woodinville, WA) ; Woolsey; Jeffrey
A.; (Redmond, WA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
LEE & HAYES PLLC
421 W RIVERSIDE AVENUE SUITE 500
SPOKANE
WA
99201
US
|
Assignee: |
Microsoft Corporation
Redmond
WA
|
Family ID: |
32830044 |
Appl. No.: |
11/170700 |
Filed: |
June 29, 2005 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
10693838 |
Oct 24, 2003 |
|
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|
11170700 |
Jun 29, 2005 |
|
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60452736 |
Mar 6, 2003 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
703/22 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04L 41/12 20130101;
H04L 67/1002 20130101; G06F 8/65 20130101; H04L 41/145
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
703/022 |
International
Class: |
G06F 9/45 20060101
G06F009/45 |
Claims
1. A method comprising: accessing a set of one or more models, the
one or more models including: a model of an application, the model
of the application including one or more information pages for each
of one or more components or relationships in the model of the
application; or a model of a system, the model of the system
representing one or more managed systems and including
characteristics and relationships of the one or more managed
systems; performing, with the set of one or more models, at least
two of: provisioning systems based on the set of one or more
models; provisioning virtual systems based on the set of one or
more models; provisioning test environments based on the set of one
or more models; updating the set of one or more models based on
deployments made in the system; predicting system capacity based on
the set of one or more models; monitoring health of the system
based on the set of one or more models; managing configurations of
the system based on the set of one or more models; or updating the
set of one or more models by propagating attributes.
2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the set of one or more
models includes both the model of the application and the model of
the system.
3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the performing
comprises: performing at least one of: the provisioning systems
based on the set of one or more models; the provisioning virtual
systems based on the set of one or more models; or the provisioning
test environments based on the set of one or more models; and
performing at least one of: the updating the set of one or more
models based on deployments made in the system; the predicting
system capacity based on the set of one or more models; the
monitoring health of the system based on the set of one or more
models; the managing configurations of the system based on the set
of one or more models; or the updating the set of one or more
models by propagating attributes.
4. A method as recited in claim 3, wherein the performing at least
one of the updating, the predicting, the monitoring, the managing,
or the updating comprises performing each of: the updating the set
of one or more models based on deployments made in the system; the
predicting system capacity based on the set of one or more models;
the monitoring health of the system based on the set of one or more
models; the managing configurations of the system based on the set
of one or more models; and the updating the set of one or more
models by propagating attributes.
5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the model of the system
includes a plurality of components, and wherein the predicting
system capacity comprises: identifying relationships among the
plurality of components based on the model of the system;
identifying transactions to be performed by the system; identifying
a cost associated with each of the identified transactions; and
simulating operation of the system using the model of the system
and the identified costs.
6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the updating the set of
one or more models by propagating attributes comprises: identifying
a plurality of attributes associated with the system; determining a
manner in which the plurality of attributes are to be propagated
throughout the system; and propagating the plurality of attributes
to a plurality of components of the system based on information
contained in the model of the system.
7. One or more computer readable media having stored thereon a
plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more
processors, causes the one or more processors to: create one or
more of: an application model, the application model including one
or more information pages for each of one or more components or
relationships in the application model; or a system model, the
system model representing one or more managed systems and including
characteristics and relationships of the one or more managed
systems; do two or more of: provision systems based on the created
one or more models; provision virtual systems based on the created
one or more models; provision test environments based on the
created one or more models; update the created one or more models
based on deployments made in the system; predict system capacity
based on the created one or more models; monitor health of the
system based on the created one or more models; manage
configurations of the system based on the created one or more
models; or update the created one or more models by propagating
attributes.
8. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 7,
wherein to create one or more of the application model and the
system model is to create both the application model and the system
model.
9. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 7,
wherein the plurality of instructions further causes the one or
more processors to: do one or more of: provision systems based on
the created one or more models; provision virtual systems based on
the created one or more models; or provision test environments
based on the created one or more models; and do one or more of:
update the created one or more models based on deployments made in
the system; predict system capacity based on the created one or
more models; monitor health of the system based on the created one
or more models; manage configurations of the system based on the
created one or more models; or update the created one or more
models by propagating attributes.
10. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 9,
wherein to do one or more of update the created one or more models
based on deployments made in the system, predict system capacity
based on the created one or more models, monitor health of the
system based on the created one or more models, manage
configurations of the system based on the created one or more
models, or update the created one or more models by propagating
attributes is to do each of update the created one or more models
based on deployments made in the system, predict system capacity
based on the created one or more models, monitor health of the
system based on the created one or more models, manage
configurations of the system based on the created one or more
models, or update the created one or more models by propagating
attributes.
11. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 7,
wherein the one or more managed systems comprises a plurality of
computing devices and a plurality of software applications
installed on the plurality of computing devices.
12. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 7,
wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more
processors to: receive notification of a problem from a first
component of the system; determine a cause of the problem, the
determination being made at least in part based on the created one
or more models; and identify at least one component associated with
the cause of the problem.
13. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 7,
wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more
processors to: identify relationships among a plurality of
components of the system based on the created one or more models;
identify a proposed change to at least one of the plurality of
components; and determine an expected impact on the system caused
by the proposed change, the determination being made at least in
part based on the created one or more models.
14. A system comprising: means for accessing one or more of an
application model and a system model, the application model
including one or more information pages for each of one or more
components or relationships in the application model, and the
system model representing one or more managed systems and including
characteristics and relationships of the one or more managed
systems; two or more of: means for provisioning systems based on
one or more of the application model and the system model; means
for provisioning virtual systems based on one or more of the
application model and the system model; means for provisioning test
environments based on one or more of the application model and the
system model; means for updating one or more of the application
model and the system model based on deployments made in the system;
means for predicting system capacity based on one or more of the
application model and the system model; means for monitoring health
of the system based on one or more of the application model and the
system model; means for managing configurations of the system based
on one or more of the application model and the system model; or
means for updating one or more of the application model and the
system model by propagating attributes.
15. A system as recited in claim 14, wherein the means for
accessing comprises means for accessing both the application model
and the system model.
16. A system as recited in claim 14, further comprising: at least
one of: the means for provisioning systems based on one or more of
the application model and the system model; the means for
provisioning virtual systems based on one or more of the
application model and the system model; the means for provisioning
test environments based on one or more of the application model and
the system model; and at least one of: the means for updating one
or more of the application model and the system model based on
deployments made in the system; the means for predicting system
capacity based on one or more of the application model and the
system model; the means for monitoring health of the system based
on one or more of the application model and the system model; the
means for managing configurations of the system based on one or
more of the application model and the system model; or the means
for updating one or more of the application model and the system
model by propagating attributes.
17. A system as recited in claim 16, further comprising all of: the
means for updating one or more of the application model and the
system model based on deployments made in the system; the means for
predicting system capacity based on one or more of the application
model and the system model; the means for monitoring health of the
system based on one or more of the application model and the system
model; the means for managing configurations of the system based on
one or more of the application model and the system model; or the
means for updating one or more of the application model and the
system model by propagating attributes.
Description
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 10/693,838, filed Oct. 24, 2003, entitled
"Integrating Design, Deployment, and Management Phases for
Systems", which is hereby incorporated by reference herein. U.S.
patent application Ser. No. 10/693,838 claims the benefit of U.S.
Provisional Application No. 60/452,736, filed Mar. 6, 2003,
entitled "Architecture for Distributed Computing System and
Automated Design, Deployment, and Management of Distributed
Applications", which is hereby incorporated herein by
reference.
[0002] This application is related to the following applications,
each of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein: [0003]
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/077,265, filed Mar. 10, 2005,
entitled "Model-Based System Provisioning"; [0004] U.S. patent
application Ser. No. ______, Attorney Docket No. MS1-2356US, filed
concurrently herewith, entitled "Model-Based Virtual System
Provisioning"; [0005] U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______,
Attorney Docket No. MS1-2357US, filed concurrently herewith,
entitled "Model-Based Provisioning of Test Environments"; [0006]
U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, Attorney Docket No.
MS1-2358US, filed concurrently herewith, entitled "Model-Based
Configuration Management"; [0007] U.S. patent application Ser. No.
11/107,419, filed Apr. 15, 2005, entitled "Model-Based System
Monitoring"; [0008] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/107,418,
filed Apr. 15, 2005, entitled "Model-Based Capacity Planning"; and
[0009] U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, Attorney Docket No.
MS1-2361US, filed concurrently herewith, entitled "Model-Based
Propagation of Attributes".
BACKGROUND
[0010] Computers have become increasingly commonplace in our world
and offer a variety of different functionality. Some computers are
designed primarily for individual use, while others are designed
primarily to be accessed by multiple users and/or multiple other
computers concurrently. These different functionalities are
realized by the use of different hardware components as well as
different software applications that are installed on the
computers.
[0011] Although the variety of available computer functionality and
software applications is a tremendous benefit to the end users of
the computers, such a wide variety can be problematic for the
developers of the software applications as well as system
administrators that are tasked with keeping computers running. Such
problems can arise, for example, because of differences in
configurations or settings that are required by different software
applications that a user may try to install on the same computer.
Situations can arise where the settings required by one software
application cause another software application to malfunction. By
way of another example, situations can arise where two software
applications have conflicting requirements on how the operating
system on the computer should be configured. Such situations can
cause one or both of the software applications, and possibly
additional applications, to operate incorrectly if both are
installed concurrently.
[0012] Additionally, many computing systems contain a large number
of different components that must work together and function
properly for the entire computing system to operate properly. If a
component fails to function properly, one or more other components
that rely on the failed component may likewise function improperly.
A component may fail to function properly due to a software failure
and/or a hardware failure. These component failures result in the
improper operation of the associated computing system.
[0013] Accordingly, there is a need for an improved way to manage
software applications on computers.
SUMMARY
[0014] This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of
concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in
the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify
key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter,
nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of
the claimed subject matter.
[0015] Model-based system management with several management
disciplines guided by a common model is discussed herein. In
accordance with certain aspects, a model of a system is generated
and used as a basis for managing the system. As the system is
managed, the system model can be updated to reflect changes to the
system. Management of the system can include one or more of
provisioning applications in the system, provisioning applications
in virtual systems, provisioning test environments, monitoring the
configuration of the system, monitoring the system including the
health of the system, performing capacity planning for the system,
and propagating attributes to different components in the
system.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0016] The same numbers are used throughout the drawings to
reference like features.
[0017] FIG. 1 illustrates an example system definition model (SDM)
that can be used with the model-based system provisioning described
herein.
[0018] FIG. 2 illustrates an example use of types, configurations,
and instances.
[0019] FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example process for
model-based system management.
[0020] FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example process for
provisioning a system.
[0021] FIG. 5 illustrates an example application installation
specification in additional detail.
[0022] FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the
generation of an application installation specification for
physical deployment in additional detail.
[0023] FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example process for
provisioning a virtual system.
[0024] FIG. 8 illustrates an example workload installation
specification in additional detail.
[0025] FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the
generation of a workload installation specification for physical
deployment in additional detail.
[0026] FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example process for
provisioning a test environment.
[0027] FIG. 11 illustrates an example application installation
specification in additional detail.
[0028] FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the
generation of an application installation specification for
physical deployment in additional detail.
[0029] FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an example process for
managing and monitoring the configuration of a system.
[0030] FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an example process for
creating a configuration policy associated with the system.
[0031] FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating an example process for
monitoring a system.
[0032] FIG. 16 illustrates an example health model.
[0033] FIG. 17 illustrates multiple components that process data in
a sequential manner.
[0034] FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating an example process for
capacity planning.
[0035] FIG. 19 illustrates example transactions that are performed
by a planned system.
[0036] FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating an example process for
propagating attributes throughout a system model.
[0037] FIG. 21 illustrates an example attribute propagation module
that receives a system model and various attributes, and propagates
attributes throughout the model.
[0038] FIG. 22 illustrates an example general computer environment,
which can be used to implement the techniques described herein.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0039] As used herein, an application refers to a collection of
instructions that can be executed by a processor, such as a central
processing unit (CPU) of a computing device. An application can be
any of a variety of different types of software or firmware, or
portions thereof. Examples of applications include programs that
run on an operating system, the operating system, operating system
components, services, infrastructure, middleware, portions of any
of these, and so forth.
[0040] A system definition model (SDM) describes a system that can
be managed. Management of a system can include, for example,
installing software on the system, monitoring the performance of
the system, maintaining configuration information about the system,
verifying that constraints within the system are satisfied,
combinations thereof, and so forth. A system can be, for example,
an application, a single computing device, multiple computing
devices networked together (e.g., via a private or personal network
such as a local area network (LAN) or via a larger network such as
the Internet), and so forth.
[0041] The systems discussed herein can be virtual systems that
include one or more virtual machines. A virtual machine can be
thought of as a computing device implemented in software. A virtual
machine emulates a computing device, including all of the hardware
components of a computing device (except for possibly the
processor(s)). A virtual machine runs on a computing device in its
own isolated and self-contained environment, having its own
operating system and optionally other software installed on it.
Multiple virtual machines can be run on the same computing device,
each of the multiple virtual machines having its own isolated
environment and its own operating system installed thereon. A
virtual system includes one or more computing devices that run a
virtual machine. A virtual system can include one or more computing
devices that already run a virtual machine and/or one or more
computing devices that are to have a virtual machine provisioned
thereon. A virtual machine can be provisioned on a computing device
as part of the virtual system provisioning described herein.
[0042] In addition to conventional virtual machines, other forms of
containers for workloads are being contemplated or implemented in
the industry, such as "sandboxes" that allow a workload to run
within an operating system that is shared with other workloads but
which nonetheless provide the workloads more isolation than if the
workloads were running directly in the operating system. These
different containers can be viewed as "lightweight" virtual
machines, in the sense that they provide many of the same benefits
as traditional virtual machines with less cost or operational
overhead. The techniques described herein can be used for such
containers as well as traditional virtual systems, and references
to virtual machines herein include such other forms of
containers.
[0043] FIG. 1 illustrates an example SDM 100 that can be used with
the model-based virtual system provisioning described herein. SDM
100 includes a component corresponding to each of one or more
software and/or hardware components being managed in a virtual
system. These software and/or hardware components being managed
refer to those software and/or hardware components that the author
of SDM 100 and/or designers of the system desires to include in SDM
100. Examples of hardware and/or software components that could be
in a system include an application (such as a database application,
email application, file server application, game, productivity
application, operating system, and so forth), particular hardware
on a computer (such as a network card, a hard disk drive, one of
multiple processors, and so forth), a virtual machine, a computer,
a group of multiple computers, and so on. A system refers to a
collection of one or more hardware and/or software components.
[0044] SDM 100 represents a system including component 102,
component 104, component 106, component 108, component 110,
component 112, and component 114. Although the example SDM 100
includes seven components, in practice a system, and thus the SDM,
can include any number of components.
[0045] For example, component 106 could represent a particular
computer, while component 104 represents an operating system
running on that particular computer. By way of another example,
component 106 could represent an operating system, while component
104 represents a database application running on the operating
system. By way of yet another example, component 114 could
represent a particular computer, while component 112 represents an
operating system installed on that particular computer, component
110 represents a virtual machine running on the operating system,
and component 108 represents an operating system running on the
virtual machine. Note that the operating systems associated with
component 112 and component 108 could be the same or alternatively
two different operating systems.
[0046] The SDM is intended to be a comprehensive knowledge store,
containing all information used in managing the system. This
information includes information regarding the particular
components in the system, as well as relationships among the
various components in the system. Despite this intent, it is to be
appreciated that the SDM may contain only some of the information
used in managing the system rather than all of the information.
[0047] Relationships can exist between different components in a
system, and these relationships are typically illustrated in SDM
diagrams with lines connecting the related components. Examples of
relationships that can exist between components include containment
relationships, hosting relationships, and communication
relationships. Containment relationships identify one component as
being contained by another component--data and definitions of the
component being contained are incorporated into the containing
component. When a component is installed on a system, any
components contained in that component are also typically installed
on the system. In FIG. 1, containment relationships are illustrated
by the diagonal lines connecting component 102 and component 104,
and connecting component 102 and component 108.
[0048] Hosting relationships identify dependencies among
components. In a hosting relationship, the hosting component
typically must be present in order for the guest component to be
included in the system. In FIG. 1, hosting relationships are
illustrated by the vertical lines connecting component 104 and
component 106, connecting component 108 and component 110,
connecting component 110 and 112, and connecting component 112 and
114.
[0049] Communication relationships identify components that can
communicate with one another. Communication relationships may or
may not imply that a dependency exists between the components. In
FIG. 1, communication relationships are illustrated by the
horizontal line connecting component 104 and component 108.
[0050] Associated with each component in SDM 100 is one or more
information (info) pages. Information pages 122 are associated with
component 102, information pages 124 are associated with component
104, information pages 126 are associated with component 106,
information pages 128 are associated with component 108,
information pages 130 are associated with component 110,
information pages 132 are associated with component 112, and
information pages 134 are associated with component 114. Each
information page contains information about the associated
component. Different types of information can be maintained for
different components. One or more information pages can be
associated with each component in SDM 100, and the particular
information that is included in a particular information page can
vary in different implementations. All the information can be
included on a single information page, or alternatively different
pieces of information can be grouped together in any desired manner
and included on different pages. In certain embodiments, different
pages contain different types of information, such as one page
containing installation information and another page containing
constraint information. Alternatively, different types of
information may be included on the same page, such as installation
information and constraint information being included on the same
page.
[0051] Examples of types of information pages include installation
pages, constraint pages, monitoring pages, service level agreement
pages, description pages, and so forth. Installation pages include
information describing how to install the associated component onto
another component (e.g., install an application onto a computer),
such as what files to copy onto a hard drive, what system settings
need to be added or changed (such as data to include in an
operating system registry), what configuration programs to run
after files are copied onto the hard drive, sequencing
specifications that identify that a particular installation or
configuration step of one component should be completed before an
installation or configuration step of another component, and so
forth.
[0052] Constraint pages include information describing constraints
for the associated component, including constraints to be imposed
on the associated component, as well as constraints to be imposed
on the system in which the associated component is being used (or
is to be used). Constraints imposed on the associated component are
settings that the component should have (or alternatively should
not have) when the component is installed into a system.
Constraints imposed on the system are settings (or other
configuration items, such as the existence of another application
or a piece of hardware) that the system should have (or
alternatively should not have) in order for the associated
component to be used in that particular system.
[0053] It should also be noted that constraints can flow across
relationships. For example, constraints can identify settings that
any component that is contained by the component, or that any
component that contains the component, should have (or
alternatively should not have). By way of another example,
constraints can identify settings that any component that is hosted
by the component, or that any component that hosts the component,
should have (or alternatively should not have). By way of yet
another example, constraints can identify settings that any
component that communicates with the component should have (or
alternatively should not have).
[0054] In addition, constraint pages may also include a description
of how particular settings (or components) are to be discovered.
For example, if a constraint indicates that an application should
not co-exist with Microsoft.RTM. SQL Server, then the constraint
page could also include a description of how to discover whether
Microsoft.RTM. SQL Server is installed in the system. By way of
another example, if a constraint indicates that available physical
memory should exceed a certain threshold, then the constraint page
could also include a description of how to discover the amount of
available physical memory in the system. By way of still another
example, if a constraint indicates that a security setting for
Microsoft.RTM. SQL Server should have a particular value, then the
constraint page could also include a description of how to discover
the value of that security setting for Microsoft.RTM. SQL
Server.
[0055] Constraint pages may also include a description of how
particular settings are to be modified if they are discovered to
not be in compliance with the constraints. Alternatively, the
constraint pages could include specifications of some other
action(s) to take if particular settings are discovered to not be
in compliance with the constraints, such as sending an event into
the system's event log, alerting an operator, starting a software
application to take some corrective action, and so forth.
Alternatively, the constraint pages could include a policy that
describes what action to take under various circumstances, such as
depending on the time of day, depending on the location of the
system.
[0056] Constraint pages may also optionally include default values
for at least some of these settings, identifying a default value to
use within a range of values that satisfy the constraint. These
default values can be used to assist in installation of an
application, as discussed in more detail below.
[0057] Monitoring pages include information related to monitoring
the performance and/or health of the associated component. This
information can include rules describing how the associated
component is to be monitored (e.g., what events or other criteria
to look for when monitoring the component), as well as what actions
to take when a particular rule is satisfied (e.g., record certain
settings or what events occurred, sound an alarm, etc.).
[0058] Service level agreement pages include information describing
agreements between two or more parties regarding the associated
component (e.g., between the purchaser of the associated component
and the seller from which the associated component was purchased).
These can be accessed during operation of the system to determine,
for example, whether the agreement reached between the two or more
parties is being met by the parties.
[0059] Description pages include information describing the
associated component, such as various settings for the component,
or other characteristics of the component. These settings or
characteristics can include a name or other identifier of the
component, the manufacturer of the component, when the component
was installed or manufactured, performance characteristics of the
component, and so forth. For example, a description page associated
with a component that represents a computing device may include
information about the amount of memory installed in the computing
device, a description page associated with a component that
represents a processor may include information about the speed of
the processor, a description page associated with a component that
represents a hard drive may include information about the storage
capacity of the hard drive and the speed of the hard drive, and so
forth.
[0060] As can be seen in FIG. 1, an SDM maintains various
information (e.g., installation, constraints, monitoring, etc.)
regarding each component in the system. Despite the varied nature
of these information pages, they are maintained together in the SDM
and thus can all be readily accessed by various utilities or other
applications involved in the management of the system.
[0061] An SDM can be generated and stored in any of a variety of
different ways and using any of a variety of different data
structures. For example, the SDM may be stored in a database. By
way of another example, the SDM may be stored in a file or set of
multiple files, the files being encoded in XML (Extensible Markup
Language) or alternatively some other form. By way of yet another
example, the SDM may not be explicitly stored, but constructed each
time it is needed. The SDM could be constructed as needed from
information existing in other forms, such as installation
specifications.
[0062] In certain embodiments, the SDM is based on a data structure
format including types, instances, and optionally configurations.
Each component in the SDM corresponds to or is associated with a
type, an instance, and possibly one or more configurations.
Additionally, each type, instance, and configuration corresponding
to a particular component can have its own information page(s). A
type refers to a general template having corresponding information
pages that describe the component generally. Typically, each
different version of a component will correspond to its own type
(e.g., version 1.0 of a software component would correspond to one
type, while version 1.1 of that software component would correspond
to another type). A configuration refers to a more specific
template that can include more specific information for a
particular class of the type. An instance refers to a specific
occurrence of a type or configuration, and corresponds to an actual
physical component (software, hardware, firmware, etc.).
[0063] For types, configurations, and instances associated with a
component, information contained in information pages associated
with an instance can be more specific or restrictive than, but
generally cannot contradict or be broader than, the information
contained in information pages associated with the type or the
configuration. Similarly, information contained in information
pages associated with a configuration can be more specific or
restrictive than, but cannot contradict or be broader than, the
information contained in information pages associated with the
type. For example, if a constraint page associated with a type
defines a range of values for a buffer size, the constraint page
associated with the configuration or the instance could define a
smaller range of values within that range of values, but could not
define a range that exceeds that range of values.
[0064] It should be noted, however, that in certain circumstances a
model of an existing system as deployed (that is, a particular
instance of a system) may violate the information contained in
information pages associated with the type for that existing
system. This situation can arise, for example, where the system was
deployed prior to an SDM for the system being created, or where a
user (such as a system administrator) may have intentionally
deployed the system in noncompliance with the information contained
in information pages associated with the type for that existing
system.
[0065] The use of types, configurations, and instances is
illustrated in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, a type 202 corresponds to a
particular component. Three different instances 204, 206, and 208
of that particular component exist and are based on type 202.
Additionally, a configuration (config) 210 exists which includes
additional information for a particular class of the particular
component, and two instances 212 and 214 of that particular class
of the particular component.
[0066] For example, assume that a particular component is a
database application. A type 202 corresponding to the database
application is created, having an associated constraint information
page. The constraint information page includes various general
constraints for the database application. For example, one of the
constraints may be a range of values that a particular buffer size
should be within for the database application. Type 202 corresponds
to the database application in general.
[0067] Each of the instances 204, 206, and 208 corresponds to a
different example of the database application. Each of the
instances 204, 206, and 208 is an actual database application, and
can have its own associated information pages. For example, each
instance could have its own associated description information page
that could include a unique identifier of the particular associated
database application. By way of another example, the constraint
information page associated with each instance could include a
smaller range of values for the buffer size than is indicated in
the constraint information page associated with type 202.
[0068] The information pages corresponding to the instances in FIG.
2 can be in addition to, or alternatively in place of, the
information pages corresponding to the type. For example, two
constraint information pages may be associated with each instance
204, 206, and 208, the first constraint information page being a
copy of the constraint information page associated with type 202
and the second constraint information page being the constraint
information page associated with the particular instance and
including constraints for just that instance. Alternatively, a
single constraint information page may be associated with each
instance 204, 206, and 208, the single constraint information page
including the information from the constraint information page
associated with type 202 as well as information specific to the
particular instance. For example, the range of values that the
particular buffer size should be within for the database
application would be copied from the constraint information page
associated with type 202 to the constraint information page
associated with each instance. However, if the constraint
information page for the instance indicated a different range of
values for that particular buffer size, then that different range
of values would remain in the constraint information page
associated with the instance rather than copying the range of
values from the constraint information page associated with type
202.
[0069] Following this example of a database application,
configuration 210 corresponds to a particular class of the database
application. For example, different classes of the database
application may be defined based on the type of hardware the
application is to be installed on, such as different settings based
on whether the computer on which the database application is to be
installed is publicly accessible (e.g., accessible via the
Internet), or based on whether an operating system is already
installed on the server. These different settings are included in
the constraint information page associated with configuration
210.
[0070] Each of the instances 212 and 214 corresponds to a different
example of the database application. Similar to instances 204, 206,
and 208, each of instances 212 and 214 is an actual database
application, and can have its own information page(s). However,
unlike instances 204, 206, and 208, the constraint information
pages associated with instances 212 and 214 each include the
constraints that are in the constraint information page associated
with configuration 210 as well as the constraints in the constraint
information page associated with type 202.
[0071] It should be noted that, although the information pages are
discussed as being separate from the components in the SDM, the
data structure(s) implementing the SDM could alternatively include
the information discussed as being included in the various
information pages. Thus, the component data structures themselves
could include the information discussed as being included in the
various information pages rather than having separate information
pages.
[0072] The installation page associated with a component can be
used as a basis for provisioning a system. Provisioning a system
refers to installing an application(s) on the system, as well as
making any necessary changes to the system in order for the
application(s) to be installed. Such necessary changes can include,
for example, installing an operating system, installing one or more
other applications, setting configuration values for the
application or operating system, and so forth.
[0073] The installation page associated with a component can also
be used as a basis for provisioning a virtual system. Provisioning
a virtual system refers to installing a workload on the virtual
system, as well as making any necessary changes to the virtual
system in order for the workload to be installed. Such necessary
changes typically include creating a new virtual machine, and can
also include other actions, such as installing an operating system
on the computing device on which the new virtual machine runs or
installing an operating system on the newly created virtual
machine, setting configuration values for the operating system,
installing one or more other applications, and so forth. In certain
implementations, the workload is installed by creating a new
virtual machine on a computing device and copying an image file to
the storage device of the computing device. This image file
includes an application(s) to be run to perform the computing of
the workload, and also typically includes the operating system on
which the application(s) is to be run.
[0074] In the discussions herein, reference is made to different
classes of computing devices. Each of these different classes of
computing devices refers to computing devices having particular
common characteristics, so they are grouped together and viewed as
a class of devices. Examples of different classes of devices
include IIS (Internet Information Services) servers that are
accessible to the Internet, IIS servers that are accessible only on
an internal intranet, database servers, email servers, order
processing servers, desktop computers, and so forth. Typically,
each different class of computing device corresponds to one of the
configurations in the system model.
[0075] These different classes of computing devices can be
different classes of physical devices, as well as different classes
of virtual machines. The classes may distinguish between virtual
machine classes and physical device classes. For example, one class
may be database virtual machines, another class may be database
physical servers (not running the database on a virtual machine),
another class may be an order processing virtual machine, another
class may be an order processing physical server (not running the
order processing application(s) on a virtual machine), and so
forth. Alternatively, the classes may not distinguish between
virtual machine classes and physical device classes. For example, a
single database server class may be used for database servers
regardless of whether the database application(s) are run on a
virtual machine or a computing device without a virtual
machine(s).
[0076] FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example process 300
for model-based system management. Portions of process 300 can be
implemented in software, firmware, and/or hardware.
[0077] Initially, an application model(s) and/or a system model is
accessed (act 302). One or both of these models may be created by
the same user as is initiating access to the model(s), or
alternatively one or more of these models may be created by another
user. Each accessed model is an SDM model analogous to model 100 of
FIG. 1, and includes one or more components. Each accessed model
includes types and instances, and optionally configurations and
relationships. As the system is managed, these models can be
updated to reflect any changes to the system. Typically, a
different application model can be accessed for each application in
a system (or to be added to a system). However, once the
application is installed in the system, the application model
becomes part of the system model.
[0078] One or more actions can then be taken to manage the system
based on one or both of the application model(s) and the system
model. These same models are the basis for all of the actions, and
these models can be continuously updated and changed by these
actions. These various management actions refer to actions for
different management disciplines, such as provisioning systems,
health monitoring, predicting system capacity, and so forth. Each
of these management actions can be performed with the aid of a
model(s), but the value is greater when a plurality of management
actions are based on the same set of models. For example, the cost
of creating the models is depreciated over several tasks rather
than each task having to bear the complete cost of the model
generation. By way of another example, management cost is reduced
and management effectiveness is increased by the consistency that
comes from using the same model (e.g., because a health and
performance monitoring system will base its decisions on the same
model that the provisioning system deployed).
[0079] One action that can be taken is to provision systems based
on one or both of the application model(s) and the system model
(act 304). Examples of such provisioning of systems are discussed
in more detail below in the System Provisioning section.
[0080] Another action that can be taken is to provision virtual
systems based on one or both of the application model and the
system model (act 306). Examples of such provisioning of virtual
systems are discussed in more detail below in the Virtual System
Provisioning section.
[0081] Another action that can be taken is to provision test
environments based on one or both of the application model and the
system model (act 308). Examples of such provisioning of test
environments are discussed in more detail below in the Test
Environment Provisioning section.
[0082] Another action that can be taken is to update one or both of
the application model and the system model based on deployments
that are made (act 310). When an application is installed it the
system, the system model is updated to incorporate the application
model. Examples of such updating are discussed in more detail below
in the System Provisioning, Virtual System Provisioning, and Test
Environment Provisioning sections.
[0083] Another action that can be taken is to predict system
capacity based on one or both of the application model and the
system model (act 312). Examples of such predicting are discussed
in more detail below in the Capacity Planning section.
[0084] Another action that can be taken is to monitor the health of
the system based on one or both of the application model and the
system model (act 314). Examples of such monitoring are discussed
in more detail below in the System Monitoring section.
[0085] Another action that can be taken is to manage configurations
of the system based on one or both of the application model and the
system model (act 316). Examples of such configuration management
are discussed in more detail below in the Configuration Monitoring
section.
[0086] Another action that can be taken is to update one or both of
the application model and the system model by propagating
attributes (act 318). Examples of such attribute propagation are
discussed in more detail below in the Attribute Propagation
section.
[0087] System Provisioning
[0088] FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example process 400
for provisioning a system. Portions of process 400 can be
implemented in software, firmware, and/or hardware.
[0089] Initially, a model of the application to be installed on a
system is built (act 402). This building process in act 402 is
typically performed by the developer of the application, although
could alternatively be performed by others. This model is an SDM
model of the application, analogous to model 100 of FIG. 1, and
includes one or more components. The model of the application
includes types and optionally configurations. As part of the
building process in act 402, zero or more information pages are
associated with each component in the model. Typically, at least a
constraint information page is associated with each component in
the model.
[0090] As part of the building process in act 402, types and
optionally configurations are defined, along with associated
information page(s). The types and configurations can be standard
types or configurations that are copied or modified in act 402, or
alternatively can be newly created in act 402. As discussed above,
different constraints can be included in the configuration
information page associated with the type and the configuration
information page associated with the configuration.
[0091] The constraints included on a constraint information page
can take a variety of forms, such as: hardware requirements
regarding the computing device(s) or other hardware on which the
application is to be installed (e.g., a minimum processor speed, a
minimum amount of memory, a minimum amount of free hard drive
space, a minimum amount of network bandwidth available, particular
security mechanisms available, and so forth), software requirements
regarding the computing device(s) or other hardware or software on
which the application is to be installed (e.g., a particular
operating system that should already be installed on the computing
device(s), one or more other applications that should already be
installed on the computing device(s), specifications regarding how
particular hardware and/or the operating system is to be configured
such as particular settings for the operating system that should
already be made, a particular type of security or encryption that
should be in use, and so forth), other requirements regarding the
computing device(s) on which the application is to be installed
(e.g., particular security keys available, data center policies
that should be enforced, authentication that is used, system
topology, etc.), and so on.
[0092] Constraints can be positive requirements specifying that
something should be present (e.g., the processor should have at
least a minimum processor speed, or the Windows.RTM. XP operating
system should already be installed on the computing device).
Constraints can also be negative requirements specifying that
something should not be present (e.g., one or more particular
applications should not already be installed on the computing
device, or particular operating system settings should not be
present).
[0093] Additionally, a model of the system where the application is
to be installed is built (act 404). This building process in act
404 is typically performed by an administrator of the system where
the application is to be installed, although could alternatively be
performed by others. This model is an SDM model of the system
analogous to model 100 of FIG. 1, and includes one or more
components. The model of the system includes types and instances,
and optionally configurations. The system in act 404 could be a
single computing device, or alternatively multiple computing
devices. For example, if the application will be installed on one
computing device in a data center having a thousand computing
devices, then the model of the system where the application is to
be installed may include all or some of those thousand computing
devices. By way of another example, if the application will be
installed on a home computer that is not coupled to any other
computers, then the model of the system where the application is to
be installed will include just that home computer.
[0094] Oftentimes, the model of the system built in act 404 will be
generated by the system administrator prior to the application
being designed and the model of the application being built in act
402. In such situations, the previously generated model can be
accessed and need not be re-built in act 404.
[0095] Components in the model of the system built in act 404 will
include constraint information pages. These constraint information
pages include constraints for each component in the system. Such
constraint information pages can identify constraints for the
corresponding component, and optionally constraints that should be
satisfied by any application to be installed on the corresponding
component.
[0096] Based on the models built in acts 402 and 404, a logical
deployment evaluation is performed (act 406). The logical
deployment evaluation involves comparing the model of the
application (from act 402) to the model of the system (from act
404) to determine whether the application could be installed in the
system. Typically, the application designer or system administrator
will identify a particular class (or classes) of computing device
on which he or she desires to install the application.
Alternatively, the application may be compared to all classes of
computing devices in the system.
[0097] The constraints and/or description information for the
application are compared to the constraints for that class of
computing device to determine whether the application satisfies the
constraints of the class of computing device, and the constraints
and/or description information for the class of computing device
are compared to the constraints for the application to determine
whether the class of computing device satisfies the constraints of
the application. The constraints and description information for
all components of the class of computing device, including
applications that are hosted by the class of computing device
(e.g., an operating system as well as possibly other applications)
are also accessed as part of the logical deployment evaluation.
These constraints used in the logical deployment evaluation can
include constraints that are flowed across relationships, as
discussed above. Accessing the constraints for the operating system
and other applications allows verification that, if installed on a
device of the class of computing device, settings made on the
computing device for the application would not conflict with
current settings for other applications installed on the computing
device.
[0098] By way of example, a particular constraint on the
application may indicate that the computing device should have a
minimum processor speed. A description page associated with the
class of computing device (or the processor of the class of
computing device) would be accessed to verify that the speed of the
processor is at least the minimum processor speed. By way of
another example, a particular constraint on the class of computing
device may indicate that a software firewall should always be
running on the class of computing device. A description page
associated with the application would be accessed to verify that
the application does not require a software firewall to be
deactivated. By way of yet another example, another application
already installed on the class of computing device may indicate
that memory in the computing device should be configured or
accessed in a particular manner. A description page associated with
the application would be accessed to verify that the application
does not require configuration or access to the memory that is
inconsistent with that particular manner.
[0099] The results of the evaluation in act 406 can be returned to
the application designer and/or system administrator. An indication
of success (if all of the constraints are satisfied) or failure (if
all of the constraints are not satisfied) can be returned. In
addition, if one or more of the constraints are not satisfied, then
an indication of which constraint was not satisfied can be
returned, as well as optionally an indication of which component
caused the constraint to not be satisfied. Returning such
information can assist the application developer in modifying the
application so that it can be installed in the system.
[0100] Process 400 then proceeds based on the results of the
evaluation in act 406. If the evaluation indicates that the
application can be installed in the system, then process 400 can
proceed to act 408. However, if the evaluation indicates that the
application cannot be installed in the system, then the evaluation
of act 406 can be repeated for a different class of computing
device in the system, or alternatively the application may be
modified in order to overcome the problem(s) identified in the
evaluation of act 406, and process 400 can return to act 402 to
build a model of the modified application.
[0101] In act 408, physical deployment of the application is
determined. Determining physical deployment of the application
refers to identifying which particular computing device(s) the
application will be installed on. As part of act 408, a
determination is made as to whether installation of the application
on a particular computing device is permissible in light of
constraints on the number of instances of the application that are
to be installed. In act 406 it was verified that it was permissible
to install the application on a particular type or configuration
(e.g., a particular class of computing device), but there may still
be constraints on how many instances of the application can be
installed on particular computing devices (e.g., particular
instances of that class of computing device). A particular
computing device may have constraints allowing any number of
instances of an application to be installed, constraints indicating
at least a minimum number of instances of an application should be
installed, and/or constraints indicating that no more than a
maximum number of instances of an application should be installed.
As part of act 408, verification that the number of instances of
the application to be installed on the computing device do not
violate the constraints regarding the number of instances of the
application that can be installed on the computing device is
performed.
[0102] A particular one or more of the computing devices on which
the application could be installed is identified in act 408. The
particular computing device(s) on which the application is to be
installed can be identified in different manners. One way in which
the particular computing device(s) on which the application is to
be installed can be identified is manually, such as by a system
administrator or other party manually selecting a particular
computing device(s). This manually selected computing device(s)
could be a computing device(s) already in the system, or
alternatively a new computing device(s) that needs to be purchased
or a computing device(s) that needs to be removed from storage and
added to the system (e.g., coupled to the network that the other
computing devices in the system are coupled to).
[0103] Alternatively, the particular computing device(s) on which
the application is to be installed can be identified automatically.
An application running in the system can identify various
characteristics of the computing devices on which the application
could possibly be installed (e.g., the computing devices of the
particular class of computing device on which the application is to
be installed), such as load characteristics of each computing
device. The load characteristics could identify, for example, the
average or maximum amount of processor usage, the average amount of
memory usage, the amount of available network bandwidth being used,
the amount of hard disk drive space being used, and so forth. Based
on these load characteristics, the computing device(s) most likely
to be able to support the application would be identified as the
computing device(s) on which the application is to be installed
(e.g., the application having the lightest load, such as the lowest
average processor usage, the smallest amount of available network
bandwidth being used, the most hard disk drive space available, and
so forth).
[0104] Alternatively, the particular computing device(s) on which
the application is to be installed can be identified in a
semi-automatic manner. An application running in the system can
identify various characteristics of the computing devices on which
the computer could possibly be installed analogous to the automatic
manner, and then present those results to a user (such as the
system administrator) for manual selection of one or more of the
computing devices. One or more of the computing devices may
optionally be recommended to the user as the best candidate(s) for
selection, but the ultimate selection would remain at the user's
discretion.
[0105] An application installation specification for physical
deployment of the application is then generated (act 410). The
application installation specification can be saved as an
installation page associated with the component representing the
application in the application model. The application installation
specification includes an identification, for each class of device
in the system on which the application may be installed, of how to
install the application. As each of these identifications indicates
how to install the application on a particular class of devices,
these identifications can also be referred to as device class
installation specifications. The device class installation
specifications can also identify which particular computing
device(s) of that class the application is to be installed on (the
computing device(s) determined in act 408). This identification of
how to install the application includes, for example, all of the
settings of the computing device that should be made or changed, an
identification of all of the files that need to be copied to the
computing device and where those files should be copied, an order
in which files should be copied and/or settings made or changed,
any initialization programs that need to be run after the files
have been copied and/or settings made or changed, and so forth.
This identification may also include installing an operating system
and/or one or more additional applications. For example, one class
of computing device may be a bare computing device with no
operating system installed on it. In such situations, the
installation specification for that class of computing device would
include initially installing the appropriate operating system on
the computing device.
[0106] At least a portion of each device class installation
specification can be generated automatically based on the
information contained in the information pages associated with the
software application to be installed. As discussed above, the
constraint information page can include various default values.
These default values can be used during act 410 to identify the
settings or configuration values that should be set when installing
the application, and thus which should be included in the device
class installation specification. For example, a particular default
value may be included in the configuration information page for a
buffer size. This default value would be included in the device
class installation specification so that when the application is
installed on a particular computing device, the computing device
settings (such as in an operating system registry) can be modified
to include this default value for the buffer size (possibly
replacing another value for the buffer size previously stored in
the computing device settings).
[0107] In addition to default values, other constraint information
included in the constraint information page can be used in act 410
to identify the settings or configuration values that should be set
when installing the application. If a range of values for a
particular setting were included in the constraint information
page, then a setting to be used when installing the application can
be derived from that range. For example, the lowest value in the
range could be selected, the highest value in the range could be
selected, the average of the highest and lowest values in the range
could be computed and selected, a value in the range could be
selected randomly, and so forth.
[0108] Furthermore, in addition to information contained in the
information pages associated with the application, information
contained in the information pages associated with the system (such
as the computing device on which the application is to be
installed) can be used as a basis for automatically generating at
least a portion of each device class installation specification.
Default values and/or ranges of values can be used to automatically
generate values for the device class installation specification in
the same manner as discussed above.
[0109] It should also be noted that different components can have
different constraints and different default values for the same
settings or configuration values. In such situations, even though
there is overlap of the constraints so that the different
components can all be installed on a system, one or more of the
default values may violate the constraints of another component.
Thus, a suitable value that is compliant with the constraints of
all of the components is determined. This suitable value can be
determined in different manners, including manually, automatically,
and semi-automatically. A suitable value can be determined manually
by a user (such as the system administrator) inputting a suitable
value for the setting or configuration value.
[0110] A suitable value can be determined automatically by
evaluating the various constraints and selecting a value that
satisfies all the constraints. This selected value is then used as
the suitable value. For example, if each constraint lists a range
of acceptable values, then a value that falls within each range of
acceptable values can be automatically identified and used as the
suitable value.
[0111] A suitable value can be determined semi-automatically by
evaluating the various constraints and selecting a value that
satisfies all the constraints analogous to the automatic manner.
However, rather than automatically using the selected value as the
suitable value, the selected value can be presented to a user (such
as the system administrator) for approval. The user can accept this
selected value, or alternatively input a different value.
Alternatively, rather than presenting a single selected value to
the user, the range of possible values (or portion of the range of
possible values) that satisfies the constraints of the different
components may be presented to the user.
[0112] It should further be noted that at least a portion of a
device class installation specification may be generated manually
rather than automatically. This manual generation refers to user
inputs (such as by the application developer or system
administrator) rather than automatic generation by some component
or module (e.g., development module 500 discussed below). For
example, the particular files to be identified in the device class
installation specification may be identified manually rather than
automatically.
[0113] Additionally, an assignment record is generated in act 410
that maintains a record of which device class installation
specifications are to be used for which device classes. This record
can be, for example, a mapping of device class to device class
installation specification. Thus, given the application
installation specification including multiple device class
installation specifications, a determination as to which particular
device class installation specification to use can be made based on
the class of the device on which the application is to be
installed. The assignment record generated can also be stored as
part of the application installation specification.
[0114] Alternatively, rather than having a separate assignment
record, an identification of which device class installation
specification is associated with which particular class of device
may be maintained in other manners. For example, the indication may
be inherent in the naming convention used for the device class
installation specification (e.g., each device class installation
specification may be a separate file having a file name that
identifies the particular class of device), or each device class
installation specification may include an indication of the
associated class of device.
[0115] The application installation specification is generated
after the logical deployment evaluation in act 406. Thus, the
application installation specification is generated only after it
is verified that the application can be installed in the system.
Additionally, the constraint information (such as default values)
associated with the application can be used to determine settings
to be included in the application installation specification. Thus,
it can be seen that the application installation specification
generated in act 410 is derived at least in part from the model of
the application as well as the model of the system.
[0116] After the application installation specification is created,
physical deployment of the application is performed (act 412). This
physical deployment includes making the application installation
specification available to a deployment system and having the
deployment system install the application on the particular device
identified in act 408. Once it is given the application
installation specification, the deployment system operates in a
conventional manner to install the application. Any of a variety of
deployment systems could be used in act 412, such as the
Windows.RTM. Installer service or Microsoft.RTM. Systems Management
Server, both available from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond,
Wash.
[0117] Once the application is installed in the system, the
application becomes part of the system and thus the application
model is incorporated into the system model. Thus, after
installation of the application, the SDM for the system includes
the SDM of the application.
[0118] Alternatively, the evaluation in act 406 may be for a
particular computing device rather than for a class of computing
device. In this alternative, the evaluation in act 406 is the same
as discussed above, except that constraint and description
information for a particular instance of a computing device are
used rather than constraint and description information for a class
of computing device. In such situations, the identification of the
particular computing device is made in, or prior to, act 406 rather
than in act 408, and can be made in the same manner as discussed in
act 408.
[0119] It should also be noted that a particular device class
installation specification may indicate to install the application
on multiple different computing devices within the system. For
example, the application developer or system administrator may
desire to install the application on all of the computing devices
of a particular class. In such a situation, an indication is
included in the device class installation specification for that
particular device class that the application is to be installed on
all of the computing devices of that particular class, or
alternatively may identify the particular computing devices (e.g.,
by name or other unique identifier) on which the application is to
be installed. The deployment system used to install the application
receives this indication and installs the application on the
appropriate computing devices.
[0120] FIG. 5 illustrates an example application installation
specification in additional detail. An installation specification
development module 500 generates an application installation
specification 502. Installation specification module 500 can be
implemented in software, firmware, hardware, or combinations
thereof, and can perform act 410 of FIG. 4, and optionally
additional acts of FIG. 4 (such as act 406 and/or act 408).
Application installation specification 502 includes multiple (x)
device class installation specifications 504(1), 504(2), . . .
504(x). Each of the device class installation specifications 504
identifies how the application is to be installed on a particular
class of computing device. Application installation specification
502 also includes specification assignment record 506 to identify
which specification 504 corresponds to which class of computing
device.
[0121] Application installation specification 502 is input to a
deployment system 508 along with any necessary installation file(s)
510. Installation file(s) 510 include the file(s) that are to be
installed on the computing device in order to install the
application, such as one or more files of executable code, one or
more files of data, and so forth. Alternatively, although
illustrated separately, application installation specification 502
and installation file(s) 510 may be stored together in a single
package (e.g., a compressed file).
[0122] FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the generation of an
application installation specification for physical deployment of
act 410 of FIG. 4 in additional detail. FIG. 6 can be implemented
in software, firmware, and/or hardware.
[0123] Initially, a device class on which the application could be
installed is selected (act 602). In certain embodiments the system
administrator and/or application developer (or alternatively some
other party) may desire that the application be installed only on
certain classes of devices, in which case the devices on which the
application could be installed is less than all of the devices in
the system. Alternatively, the application may be able to be
installed on any device in the system.
[0124] A device class installation specification for the selected
device class is then generated, identifying how to install the
application on the selected device class (act 604). As discussed
above, this generation can include using default values included in
an information page associated with the application in the
application model for setting values to include in the installation
specification being generated.
[0125] In some situations, the device class installation
specification is generated in a format that is expected and
understood by a deployment system that will be installing the
application. The device class installation specification may be
generated in this format in act 604, or alternatively may be
subsequently translated into this format (e.g., by a translation
component of the distribution system).
[0126] It should be noted that different device installation
specifications may be generated for computing devices that will
have the same functionality but are currently configured
differently, such as computing devices that do not yet have an
operating system installed and computing devices that already have
an operating system installed. Alternatively, such computing
devices may be considered to be part of the same device class, but
the device class installation specification would include a
conditional portion to be used based on the configuration of the
particular instance of the computing device on which the
application is being installed (e.g., the conditional portion may
be bypassed if the computing device already has an installed
operating system, or used to install an operating system on the
computing device if an operating system is not already installed on
the computing device).
[0127] A check is then made as to whether there are any additional
device class(es) in the system for which no device class
installation specification has been generated (act 606). If there
are any such additional device class(es), then one such additional
device class is selected (act 608) and the process returns to act
604 to generate a device class installation specification for the
selected device class.
[0128] Returning to act 606, if device class installation
specifications have been generated for all of the device class(es),
then a specification assignment record is generated associating
particular installation specifications with particular device
classes (act 610). Alternatively, the specification assignment
record may be generated in act 604 as the device class installation
specifications are being generated, and an indication of which
device class is associated with which device class installation
specification added to the specification assignment record as the
device class installation specification is generated.
[0129] The device class installation specifications generated in
act 604 and the assignment record generated in act 610 are then
combined into an application installation specification for the
application (act 612).
[0130] Virtual System Provisioning
[0131] Provisioning of virtual systems is based in part on
workloads. Generally, a workload is some computing that is to be
performed. A workload typically includes an application to be
executed to perform the computing, and can also include the
operating system on which the application is to be installed.
Various configuration information describing how the application
and/or operating system is to be configured, as well as data to be
used by the application and/or operating system when executing, can
also be included in the workload. A model of the workload includes
the application, operating system, configuration information,
and/or data, as well as constraints of the workload such as
resources and/or other capabilities that the virtual machine(s) on
which the workload is to be installed must have. Examples of these
constraints are discussed below.
[0132] FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example process 700
for provisioning a virtual system. Portions of process 700 can be
implemented in software, firmware, and/or hardware.
[0133] Initially, a model of a workload is built (act 702). As
discussed above, the workload typically includes the application to
be installed on a virtual system, and can also include the
operating system, configuration information, and/or data.
Alternatively, the workload may not include an application, but may
include an operating system (or components of an operating system),
configuration information, and/or data. The model of the workload
can also include one or more constraints.
[0134] This building process in act 702 is typically performed by
the developer of the workload, although could alternatively be
performed by others. This model is an SDM model of the workload,
analogous to model 100 of FIG. 1, and includes one or more
components. The model of the workload includes types and optionally
configurations. As part of the building process in act 702, zero or
more information pages are associated with each component in the
model. Typically, at least a constraint information page is
associated with each component in the model.
[0135] As part of the building process in act 702, types and
optionally configurations are defined, along with associated
information page(s). The types and configurations can be standard
types or configurations that are copied or modified in act 702, or
alternatively can be newly created in act 702. As discussed above,
different constraints can be included in the configuration
information page associated with the type and the configuration
information page associated with the configuration. The specific
constraints included in the configuration information page for a
particular workload can vary based on the particular computing to
be performed and/or the desires of the designer of the
workload.
[0136] The constraints included on a constraint information page
can take a variety of forms, such as: hardware requirements
regarding the computing device(s) or other hardware on which the
application is to be installed (e.g., a minimum processor speed, a
minimum amount of memory, a minimum amount of free hard drive
space, a minimum amount of network bandwidth available, particular
security mechanisms available, and so forth), software requirements
regarding the computing device(s) or other hardware or software on
which the workload is to be installed (e.g., a particular operating
system that should already be installed on the computing device(s),
one or more other applications that should already be installed on
the computing device(s), specifications regarding how particular
hardware and/or the operating system is to be configured such as
particular settings for the operating system that should already be
made, a particular type of security or encryption that should be in
use, and so forth), requirements regarding a virtual machine that
should be created on a computing device as well as requirements
regarding an operating system that should be installed on the
virtual machine before the application can be installed thereon,
other requirements regarding the computing device(s) on which the
workload is to be installed (e.g., particular security keys
available, data center policies that should be enforced,
authentication that is used, system topology, etc.), and so on.
[0137] Constraints can be positive requirements specifying that
something should be present (e.g., the processor should have at
least a minimum processor speed, or the Windows.RTM. XP operating
system should already be installed on the computing device).
Constraints can also be negative requirements specifying that
something should not be present (e.g., one or more particular
applications should not already be installed on the computing
device, or particular operating system settings should not be
present).
[0138] One example constraint of the workload is a number and/or
size of CPUs that the system on which the workload is to be
installed must have. This constraint can identify a specific number
of CPUs that the system must have (e.g., 1 CPU, 2 CPUs, 4 CPUs,
etc.), or a range of CPUs that the system must have (e.g., 2 to 4
CPUs). The constraint can also specify the size of the CPUs that
are needed, referring to the fraction of a CPU that is needed
(e.g., a workload may require 100% of 1 CPU, or 50% of each of 2
CPUs). Both requirements and recommendations can be specified
(e.g., a minimum of 2 CPUs is required, but 4 or more CPUs should
be used if possible).
[0139] Another example constraint of the workload is an amount of
memory (e.g., RAM). This constraint typically identifies a minimum
amount of memory that the system on which the workload is to be
installed must have. Both requirements and recommendations can be
specified (e.g., a minimum of 2 GB of memory is required, but 4 GB
or more of memory should be used if possible).
[0140] Another example constraint of the workload is an amount of
storage space (e.g., hard disk space, optical disk space, etc.).
This constraint typically identifies a minimum amount of storage
space that the system on which the workload is to be installed must
have. Both requirements and recommendations can be specified (e.g.,
a minimum of 10 GB of storage space is required, but 15 GB or more
of storage space should be used if possible).
[0141] Another example constraint of the workload is the hardware
type or architecture. For example, particular types of CPUs,
particular bus or memory speeds, particular co-processors, and so
forth may be required and/or recommended.
[0142] Another example constraint of the workload is the type of
storage available to the system. This constraint can specify
performance and reliability characteristics of the storage (e.g.,
RAID 1 or RAID 5 is required). This constraint can also specify
that access to particular systems or databases is required. Both
requirements and recommendations can be specified (e.g., RAID 1 or
RAID 5 is required, but RAID 5 should be used if possible).
[0143] Another example constraint of the workload is the schedule
for the workload, referring to when the computing that is to be
performed should be started and/or ended. Both requirements and
recommendations can be specified (e.g., the computing must end by
6:00 am, but should end by 5:00 am if possible).
[0144] Another example constraint is the events that should trigger
the deployment of the workload, referring to when the computing
that is to be performed should be started and/or ended. For
example, when the same workload is operating on several computing
devices with tasks assigned to the individual devices and/or
virtual machines by a load balancing device, a monitoring system
may determine that the number of incoming requests is exceeding the
aggregate capacity of the devices and/or virtual machines, and may
send an event indicating that another instance of that workload
should be deployed to help carry the load. By way of another
example, when a running workload fails because of a software or
hardware problem, a monitoring system may send an event that
indicates that a replacement copy of that workload should be
deployed.
[0145] The constraints may also include a combination of events and
schedules. For example, a workload may be started by a schedule,
and the constraints specify that the workload should be ended and
removed from the computing device when processing is finished, as
indicated by an event; however, if the processing is not completed
when the "batch window closes" at 6:00 am, the workload should be
paused and removed from the computing device, and restarted to
continue processing when the next "batch window" opens at the
following midnight.
[0146] These constraints of the workload can refer to constraints
on the physical hardware of the virtual system and/or constraints
on the virtual hardware of a virtual machine of the virtual system.
The model of the workload identifies whether the constraints refer
to physical hardware or virtual hardware. Typically, the
constraints of the workload identify constraints of the virtual
hardware, and these constraints can be compared to the constraints
of the system to verify that a virtual machine having virtual
hardware satisfying these constraints of the workload can be
created. Alternatively, the constraints of the workload can be
compared to the constraints of currently running virtual machines
to verify that a virtual machine having virtual hardware satisfying
these constraints of the workload exists. In another alternative,
the constraints of the workload identify constraints of the
physical hardware, and these constraints can be compared to the
constraints of the system to verify that a computing device
satisfying these constraints exists.
[0147] Additionally, the workload may have different constraints
that apply for different types of deployment. For example, if the
workload is deployed and started from a state where it is not
previously running, a certain set of constraints apply, but if the
workload is started after having been previously executing, paused
and saved in a virtual machine image file, another set of
constraints apply, and if the workload is to be moved from one
computing device to another through a migration process, yet
another set of constraints apply.
[0148] Additionally, a model of the system where the application is
to be installed is built (act 704). This building process in act
704 is typically performed by an administrator of the system where
the application is to be installed, although could alternatively be
performed by others. This model is an SDM model of the system
analogous to model 100 of FIG. 1, and includes one or more
components. The model of the virtual system includes types and
instances, and optionally configurations.
[0149] The system in act 704 can be referred to as a virtual
system, although the virtual machine(s) onto which the application
and the operating system of the workload are to be installed may
not yet be created. As such, the system in act 704 describes the
physical computing devices on which virtual machines may be
created, and describes virtual machines that have already been
created, but does not describe virtual machines that have not yet
been created.
[0150] The system in act 704 could be a single computing device, or
alternatively multiple computing devices. For example, if the
application will be installed on a virtual machine of a computing
device in a data center having a thousand computing devices, then
the model of the system where the application is to be installed
will include those thousand computing devices. By way of another
example, if the application will be installed on a virtual machine
of a home computer that is not coupled to any other computers, then
the model of the system where the application is to be installed
will include just that home computer.
[0151] It should also be noted that the exact nature of a computing
device can vary, and that any of a wide variety of computing
devices can be a system in act 704. For example, "hierarchical"
computers can exist, such as a rack that can contain multiple
chassis, each chassis can contain multiple blades, each blade can
contain multiple motherboards, each motherboard can contain
multiple processors, and each processor can contain multiple cores.
Any of these components of such a hierarchical computer can be
viewed as a computing device (e.g., the rack can be a computing
device, each chassis can be a computing device, each blade can be a
computing device, each motherboard can be a computing device, each
processor can be a computing device, and/or each core can be a
computing device).
[0152] The characteristics of each computing device in the
hierarchy, and the characteristics of the containment, hosting and
communications relationships among them, are typically significant
for the placement of virtual machines on those computing devices.
For example, the speed of the connection may determine how a
workload can be deployed, and therefore a constraint in the
workload model indicates that the workload cannot be deployed
across several computing devices at a level in the hierarchy where
the connection speed is too slow. By way of another example, while
it may be possible to deploy a workload down to the level of a
single core, it may not be desirable to do so because of
unpredictable performance interactions between workloads on the
cores within one processor, and in this case the workload model has
constraints that the workload should not be deployed on a computing
device below the level of a processor in the hierarchy, or below a
level where certain performance guarantees can be met, which would
be described in the model of the computing device. By way of yet
another example, a particular constraint on the workload may
specify the software licensing requirements for various types of
deployment, where operating systems and applications would have
different rules about the licenses required when deploying the
workload on a processor, or on a blade with many processors, or
across several blades. Under these types of constraints, a
particular computing device may not have enough licenses to allow
the workload to be deployed, even though it may have enough
processing power, memory and storage.
[0153] Oftentimes, the model of the system built in act 704 will be
generated by the system administrator prior to the workload being
designed and the model of the workload being built in act 702. In
such situations, the previously generated model can be accessed and
need not be re-built in act 704.
[0154] Components in the model of the system built in act 704 will
include constraint information pages. These constraint information
pages include constraints for each component in the virtual system.
Such constraint information pages can identify constraints for the
corresponding component, and optionally constraints that should be
satisfied by any application to be installed on the corresponding
component. Both the constraints on the workload and the
characteristics of the system may be time-series data, in addition
to the possibly time-based nature of the deployment schedule. For
example, if once started the workload requires only 1 CPU for half
an hour, and then needs 4 CPUs for half an hour, this sequence of
values can be represented in the constraints. Similarly, if a
computing device has 8 CPUs, but 2 of them are assigned to a
workload for 1 hour, and 4 of them are assigned to a workload for 3
hours, and after that no more work is assigned to the computing
device, the number of available CPUs can be calculated as 2 CPUs
for 1 hour, 4 CPUs for 2 hours after that, and 8 CPUs after that.
This time series of available CPUs can be recorded in the
characteristics page of the system model
[0155] Based on the models built in acts 702 and 704, a logical
deployment evaluation is performed (act 706). The logical
deployment evaluation involves comparing the model of the workload
(from act 702) to the model of the system (from act 704) to
determine whether the application could be installed in the system.
Typically, the application designer or system administrator will
identify a particular class (or classes) of computing device on
which he or she desires to install the application. Alternatively,
the application may be compared to all classes of computing devices
in the system.
[0156] The constraints and/or description information for the
workload are compared to the constraints for that class of
computing device to determine whether the workload satisfies the
constraints of the class of computing device, and the constraints
and/or description information for the class of computing device
are compared to the constraints for the workload to determine
whether the class of computing device satisfies the constraints of
the workload. The constraints and description information for all
components of the class of computing device, including any
applications that are hosted by the class of computing device
(e.g., an operating system as well as possibly other applications)
are also accessed as part of the logical deployment evaluation.
These constraints used in the logical deployment evaluation can
include constraints that are flowed across relationships, as
discussed above. These constraints used in the logical deployment
evaluation can also include time-series based constraints, as
discussed above. Accessing the constraints for the operating system
and other applications allows verification that, if installed on a
device of the class of computing device, settings made on the
computing device for the workload would not conflict with current
settings for other applications installed on the computing device.
The verification can use the scheduled start time of the workload,
and the time-series of constraints and system characteristics, and
can verify that the time profile of resources available on the
system satisfies the time profile of requirements of the workload.
In embodiments in which a virtual machine is being installed onto
which the application will be installed, the evaluation in act 706
includes evaluating that any constraints of the virtual machine are
satisfied by the class of computing device in order to verify that
the virtual machine can be installed on the class of computing
device.
[0157] By way of example, a particular constraint on the class of
computing device may indicate that a software firewall should
always be running on the class of computing device. A description
page associated with the workload would be accessed to verify that
the workload does not require a software firewall to be
deactivated.
[0158] By way of another example, a particular constraint on the
workload may indicate that the computing device should have a
minimum processor speed. A description page associated with the
class of computing device (or the processor of the class of
computing device) would be accessed to verify that the speed of the
processor is at least the minimum processor speed. As discussed
above, this processor speed could refer to the speed of the virtual
processor of the virtual machine on which the workload would be
installed, or the speed of the physical processor of the class of
computing device on which the virtual machine is installed.
Furthermore, the fractional parts of the physical processor may be
allocated to each virtual machine, and each such fractional part
serves as the virtual processor for the virtual machine to which
the part is allocated. As a fractional part of the physical
processor could not be allocated as a virtual processor with a
faster speed than the physical processor, a check would be made to
ensure that the speed of the physical processor satisfies the
constraint. Furthermore, a check would also be made that the
fractional part of the physical processor can be allocated to the
virtual machine to create a virtual processor that satisfies the
constraint. This check can be performed by checking a description
page associated with the system, or by communicating a request or
query to a virtual system management component as to whether it
would be able to create such a virtual machine having a virtual
processor satisfying the constraint. It is to be appreciated that
such speeds of virtual processors can vary depending on the number
of other virtual machines that are already running on the computing
device, as the presence of such other virtual machines will affect
the fractional part of the physical processor that can be allocated
to the virtual machine.
[0159] By way of yet another example, a particular constraint on
the workload may indicate that the computing of the workload should
be performed between midnight and 4:00 am. A description page
associated with the class of computing device would be accessed to
verify that the computing device has sufficient processing capacity
(in light of other workloads already scheduled to be performed
between midnight and 4:00 am) to have a new virtual machine (or
alternatively an existing virtual machine) perform the computing of
the workload.
[0160] It should be noted that, depending on the manner in which
virtual machines are created and managed, it may be possible for a
class of computing device to "overcommit" its resources. For
example, three different virtual machines may each require 4 GB of
memory, but a particular class of computing device may only have 8
GB of memory. In such situations, all three virtual machines could
be run on that class of computing device by running only two of the
three virtual machines concurrently, or all three virtual machines
could be run simultaneously (on the assumption that the workloads
will on the average share some memory pages that are used for
read-only access). By way of another example, two different virtual
machines may each require 100 GB of storage space, but a particular
class of computing device may only have 160 GB of storage space. In
such situations, both virtual machines could be run on that class
of computing device by running the two virtual machines at separate
times, or both virtual machines could be run simultaneously (on the
assumption that they will not both make full demands on the storage
space at the same time). The models of the workloads indicate
whether such overcommitment is possible and whether it is
desirable.
[0161] It should also be noted that whatever components are
referenced by constraints in the SDM are evaluated in act 706,
regardless of what those components are. Typically, constraints of
the class of computing device are evaluated in act 706 down to the
layer that is hosting the workload being installed, but may extend
to other layers if referenced in the SDM. By way of example, assume
that a virtual machine is being provisioned on a computing device,
and a workload is being provisioned on the virtual machine.
Typically, constraints of the virtual machine would be evaluated
against the computing device and the operating system running on
the computing device, while constraints of the workload would be
evaluated against the virtual machine. However, if the workload had
a constraint referencing the computing device itself (e.g.,
regarding physical protection of the computing device on which the
workload is deployed), then that constraint of the workload would
be evaluated against the computing device.
[0162] The results of the evaluation in act 706 can be returned to
the workload designer and/or system administrator. An indication of
success (if all of the constraints are satisfied) or failure (if
all of the constraints are not satisfied) can be returned. In
addition, if one or more of the constraints are not satisfied, then
an indication of which constraint was not satisfied can be
returned, as well as optionally an indication of which component
caused the constraint to not be satisfied. Optionally, the
evaluation can indicate whether the constraints that were not
satisfied were mandatory or recommended constraints. Returning such
information can assist the workload developer in modifying the
workload so that it can be installed in the system, and in choosing
which of the available systems would be most suited for the
workload.
[0163] Process 700 then proceeds based on the results of the
evaluation in act 706. If the evaluation indicates that the
workload can be installed in the system, then process 700 can
proceed to act 708. Act 706 may also optionally be repeated for a
different class of computing device in the system. However, if the
evaluation indicates that the workload cannot be installed in the
system, then the evaluation of act 706 can be repeated for a
different class of computing device in the virtual system, or
alternatively the workload may be modified in order to overcome the
problem(s) identified in the evaluation of act 706, and process 700
can return to act 702 to build a model of the modified workload. If
time-series based constraints are not met by the system, and if the
scheduled start time is specified as a recommended rather than
required start time, the verification can evaluate whether the
constraints can be met by a later or earlier start time and can
return a list of possible classes of computing devices with the
possible start time for each one.
[0164] In act 708, physical deployment of the workload is
determined. Determining physical deployment of the workload refers
to identifying which particular computing device(s) will perform
the computing of the workload (and optionally have a new virtual
machine created thereon to perform the computing of the workload).
The particular computing device(s) which will perform the computing
of the workload can be identified in different manners. One way in
which the particular computing device(s) will perform the computing
of the workload can be identified is manually, such as by a system
administrator or other party manually selecting a particular
computing device(s). This manually selected computing device(s)
could be a computing device already(s) in the system, or
alternatively a new computing device(s) that needs to be purchased
or a computing device(s) that needs to be removed from storage and
added to the system (e.g., coupled to the network that the other
computing devices in the system are coupled to).
[0165] Alternatively, the particular computing device(s) which will
perform the computing of the workload can be identified
automatically. An application running in the system can identify
various characteristics of the computing devices on which a virtual
machine could be created and the workload installed thereon (e.g.,
the computing devices of the particular class of computing device
on which the application is to be installed), such as load
characteristics of each computing device. The load characteristics
could identify, for example, the average or maximum amount of
processor usage, the average amount of memory usage, the amount of
available network bandwidth being used, the amount of hard disk
drive space being used, and so forth. Based on these load
characteristics, the computing device(s) most likely to be able to
support the new virtual machine and the workload would be
identified as the computing device(s) on which the computing of the
workload is to be performed (e.g., the computing device having the
lightest load, such as the lowest average processor usage, the
smallest amount of available network bandwidth being used, the most
hard disk drive space available, and so forth). If no computing
device can meet the recommended schedule, but several can meet the
required schedule, the computing device that comes closest to
meeting the recommended schedule could be identified.
[0166] It should be noted that typically a new virtual machine is
created as part of installing the workload. Thus, the
characteristics of the computing devices are evaluated for purposes
of determining which computing device(s) will have the new virtual
machine created thereon and will perform the computing of the
workload. Alternatively, a new virtual machine may not be created,
and the workload may be installed on an already running virtual
machine. In such situations, the characteristics of the currently
running virtual machines are evaluated for purposes of determining
which virtual machine(s) will perform the computing of the
workload.
[0167] Alternatively, the particular computing device(s) which will
perform the computing of the workload can be identified in a
semi-automatic manner. An application running in the system can
identify various characteristics of the computing devices on which
the virtual machine could possibly be created and the computing of
the workload could possibly be performed (or characteristics of the
virtual machines on which the workload could possibly be performed)
analogous to the automatic manner, and then present those results
to a user (such as the system administrator) for manual selection
of one or more of the computing devices (or virtual machines). One
or more of the computing devices may optionally be recommended to
the user as the best candidate(s) for selection, but the ultimate
selection would remain at the user's discretion.
[0168] Additionally, priorities of different workloads may be used
as part of the physical deployment determining of act 708.
Workloads can optionally be assigned priorities, allowing the
importance of the workloads relative to one another to be
identified. These priorities are typically included in the model of
the workload or the workload itself, but alternatively may be
maintained elsewhere. Higher priority workloads can be given access
to resources of the virtual system before lower priority workloads.
This can result in situations where, for example, higher priority
workloads can be performed by a computing device(s), but there are
insufficient resources for lower priority workloads to be
performed. This can also result in situations where, for example,
higher priority workloads are given the resources recommended by
the constraints of the workload, whereas lower priority workloads
are given only the resources required by the constraints of the
workload.
[0169] In addition, selection of different sources of data and/or
other systems to which access is needed may be performed as part of
the physical deployment determining of act 708. For example,
multiple sources may exist from which data identified as being
required in the model of the workload can be obtained, or multiple
replicated file servers may exist that can be a file server
identified as being required in the model of the workload.
Particular sources of data and/or other systems to which access is
needed may be selected in act 708 based on various factors, such as
the load on the various sources and/or other systems, the bandwidth
of the connection to those sources and/or systems, and so forth.
Alternatively, rather than being performed as part of act 708,
selection of such sources of data and/or other systems to which
access is needed may be performed as part of the physical
deployment in act 712 discussed below.
[0170] It should be noted that one additional factor that can be
optionally taken into account when identifying the characteristics
of the various computing devices is that virtual machines can be
rearranged to run on different computing devices. For example, a
virtual machine running on one computing device could be moved to
another computing device, thereby freeing up capacity on the
original computing device. Such a process of moving or rearranging
virtual machines is also referred to as migration of the virtual
machines. Virtual machines can be migrated in any of a variety of
manners, such as with the assistance of the Virtual Server
Migration Toolkit (VSMT) available from Microsoft Corporation of
Redmond, Wash.
[0171] Accounting for the possibility of migrating virtual machines
allows the load characteristics of the computing devices to be
changed by migrating the virtual machines. For example, the
situation may arise where none of the computing devices have the
desired spare capacity to create a virtual machine on which the
application could be installed, but that capacity of one of the
computing devices could be released by moving a virtual machine
from that one computing device to another of the computing devices.
After the virtual machine is moved, however, the released capacity
results in that one computing device having sufficient capacity so
that the new virtual machine on which the application is to be
installed can be created and the application installed on that new
virtual machine.
[0172] This identification of which computing device should perform
the computing of the workload, and optionally which virtual
machines should be migrated to different computing devices, is
performed as part of the physical deployment determining of act
708.
[0173] A workload installation specification for physical
deployment of the workload is then generated (act 710). The
workload installation specification can be saved as an installation
page associated with the component representing the workload in the
workload model. The workload installation specification includes an
identification, for each class of device in the virtual system on
which the workload may be installed, of how to install the
workload. As each of these identifications indicates how to install
the workload on a particular class of devices, these
identifications can also be referred to as device class
installation specifications. The device class installation
specifications can also identify which particular computing
device(s) of that class the workload is to be installed on (the
computing device(s) determined in act 708).
[0174] This identification of how to install the workload includes,
for example, all of the settings for the virtual machine to be
created on the device, the operating system to install on the
virtual machine (including all of the settings of the operating
system and the identification of all of the files that need to be
copied to the virtual machine to install the operating system), all
of the settings of the computing device that should be made or
changed, an identification of all of the files that need to be
copied to the computing device and where those files should be
copied, an order in which files should be copied and/or settings
made or changed, any initialization programs that need to be run
after the files have been copied and/or settings made or changed,
and so forth. This identification may also include installing an
operating system and/or one or more additional applications on the
computing device prior to creating the virtual machine on the
device. For example, one class of computing device may be a bare
computing device with no operating system installed on it. In such
situations, the installation specification for that class of
computing device would include initially installing the appropriate
operating system on the computing device, followed by creating the
virtual machine on the computing device, then installing an
operating system on the virtual machine, and then installing the
application on that operating system of the virtual machine.
[0175] In certain implementations, this identification of how to
install the workload identifies a particular image file that is the
image to be run to perform the computing of the workload. The image
file can be created as part of the process of building the model of
the workload in act 702, or alternatively can be created at other
times (e.g., after the logical deployment evaluation has been
performed in act 706). The image file includes the application
files and data, and optionally the files and data for the operating
system on which the application will be executed, for the workload.
The image file can be copied to a disk drive or other storage
device and executed by a virtual machine to perform the computing
of the workload--no additional installation or configuration of the
operating system or the application of the workload is typically
required. The image file can be generated in any of a variety of
conventional manners, such as by installing the application and
operating system onto a virtual machine and generating a file that
includes all the folders and files installed onto that virtual
machine, by a user (e.g., the designer of the workload) manually
identifying the folders and files to be included in the image file,
and so forth. The image file can then be simply copied to the
computing device(s) as part of the physical deployment in act 712
discussed below.
[0176] Additionally, if any migration of virtual machines is to be
performed for a particular class of device, as identified in act
708, then the device class installation specification for that
class of device includes an indication of the migration that is to
be performed and the constraints that must be met for that type of
migration.
[0177] At least a portion of each device class installation
specification can be generated automatically based on the
information contained in the information pages associated with the
workload to be installed. As discussed above, the constraint
information page can include various default values. These default
values can be used during act 710 to identify the settings or
configuration values that should be set when installing the
workload, and thus which should be included in the device class
installation specification. For example, a particular default value
may be included in the configuration information page for a buffer
size. This default value would be included in the device class
installation specification so that when the workload is installed
on a particular computing device, the computing device settings
(such as in an operating system registry) can be modified to
include this default value for the buffer size (possibly replacing
another value for the buffer size previously stored in the
computing device settings).
[0178] In addition to default values, other constraint information
included in the constraint information page can be used in act 710
to identify the settings or configuration values that should be set
when installing the workload. If a range of values for a particular
setting were included in the constraint information page, then a
setting to be used when installing the application can be derived
from that range. For example, the lowest value in the range could
be selected, the highest value in the range could be selected, the
average of the highest and lowest values in the range could be
computed and selected, a value in the range could be selected
randomly, and so forth.
[0179] Furthermore, in addition to information contained in the
information pages associated with the workload, information
contained in the information pages associated with the virtual
system (such as the computing device on which the application is to
be installed) can be used as a basis for automatically generating
at least a portion of each device class installation specification.
Default values and/or ranges of values can be used to automatically
generate values for the device class installation specification in
the same manner as discussed above.
[0180] It should also be noted that different components can have
different constraints and different default values for the same
settings or configuration values. In such situations, even though
there is overlap of the constraints so that the different
components can all be installed on a computing device, one or more
of the default values may violate the constraints of another
component. Thus, a suitable value that is compliant with the
constraints of all of the components is determined. This suitable
value can be determined in different manners, including manually,
automatically, and semi-automatically. A suitable value can be
determined manually by a user (such as the system administrator)
inputting a suitable value for the setting or configuration
value.
[0181] A suitable value can be determined automatically by
evaluating the various constraints and selecting a value that
satisfies all the constraints. This selected value is then used as
the suitable value. For example, if each constraint lists a range
of acceptable values, then a value that falls within each range of
acceptable values can be automatically identified and used as the
suitable value.
[0182] A suitable value can be determined semi-automatically by
evaluating the various constraints and selecting a value that
satisfies all the constraints analogous to the automatic manner.
However, rather than automatically using the selected value as the
suitable value, the selected value can be presented to a user (such
as the system administrator) for approval. The user can accept this
selected value, or alternatively input a different value.
Alternatively, rather than presenting a single selected value to
the user, the range of possible values (or portion of the range of
possible values) that satisfies the constraints of the different
components may be presented to the user.
[0183] It should further be noted that at least a portion of a
device class installation specification may be generated manually
rather than automatically. This manual generation refers to user
inputs (such as by the application developer or system
administrator) rather than automatic generation by some component
or module (e.g., development module 800 discussed below). For
example, the particular files to be identified in the device class
installation specification may be identified manually rather than
automatically.
[0184] Additionally, an assignment record is generated in act 710
that maintains a record of which device class installation
specifications are to be used for which device classes. This record
can be, for example, a mapping of device class to device class
installation specification. Thus, given the workload installation
specification including multiple device class installation
specifications, a determination as to which particular device class
installation specification to use can be made based on the class of
the device on which the workload is to be installed. The assignment
record generated can also be stored as part of the workload
installation specification.
[0185] Alternatively, rather than having a separate assignment
record, an identification of which device class installation
specification is associated with which particular class of device
may be maintained in other manners. For example, the indication may
be inherent in the naming convention used for the device class
installation specification (e.g., each device class installation
specification may be a separate file having a file name that
identifies the particular class of device), or each device class
installation specification may include an indication of the
associated class of device.
[0186] The workload installation specification is generated after
the logical deployment evaluation in act 706. Thus, the application
installation specification is generated only after it is verified
that the workload can be installed in the system. Additionally, the
constraint information (such as default values) associated with the
workload can be used to determine settings to be included in the
workload installation specification. Thus, it can be seen that the
workload installation specification generated in act 710 is derived
at least in part from the model of the workload as well as the
model of the system.
[0187] After the workload installation specification is created,
physical deployment of the workload is performed (act 712). The
timing of the physical deployment can vary. Deployment may be
triggered manually, such as by a user (such as the system
administrator) specifying that deployment should begin "now" or at
a particular time in the future. Deployment may also be triggered
based on other events and/or schedules identified in the workload
as discussed above.
[0188] In certain implementations, this physical deployment
includes making the workload installation specification available
to a deployment system and having the deployment system create a
new virtual machine on the particular device identified in act 708,
and also copy the image file identified by the workload on the
particular device identified in act 708 for execution by the newly
created virtual machine. In other implementations, this physical
deployment includes making the workload installation specification
available to a deployment system and having the deployment system
create a new virtual machine on the particular device identified in
act 708 and install the application on that new virtual machine
following the installation instructions in the workload
installation specification.
[0189] Once the deployment system is given the workload
installation specification, the deployment system operates in a
conventional manner to install the workload. If the application
installation specification indicates that migration of any virtual
machines is to be performed, then this migration can also be
carried out by the deployment system (optionally with the
assistance of another component, such as the Virtual Server
Migration Toolkit discussed above). Any of a variety of deployment
systems could be used in act 712, such as the Windows.RTM.
Installer service or Microsoft.RTM. Systems Management Server, both
available from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.
[0190] Once the workload is installed on a computing device, the
new virtual machine and the application installed thereon becomes
part of the system and thus the workload model is incorporated into
the system model and a component for the new virtual machine (as
well as the operating system for the new virtual machine, and any
other components running on the virtual machine) is added to the
system model. Thus, after installation of the application, the SDM
for the system includes the SDM of the workload. This includes
modifying characteristics of the system such as available number of
CPUs, which might be time-series based to reflect the allocation of
CPUs to scheduled workloads and the time-series based requirements
of CPUs of those workloads.
[0191] Alternatively, the evaluation in act 706 may be for a
particular computing device or virtual machine rather than for a
class of computing device. In this alternative, the evaluation in
act 706 is the same as discussed above, except that constraint and
description information for a particular instance of a computing
device are used rather than constraint and description information
for a class of computing device. In such situations, the
identification of the particular computing device is made in, or
prior to, act 706 rather than in act 708, and can be made in the
same manner as discussed in act 708.
[0192] It should also be noted that a particular device class
installation specification may indicate to install the whole
workload or individual components of the workload on multiple
different computing devices within the system. For example, the
workload developer or system administrator may desire to install
the workload on all of the computing devices of a particular class.
By way of another example, the workload developer or system
administrator may desire to install each part of the workload on a
computing device of a specific class. In such a situation, an
indication is included in the device class installation
specification for that particular device class that the workload is
to be installed on all of the computing devices of that particular
class, or alternatively may identify the particular computing
devices (e.g., by name or other unique identifier) on which the
workload is to be installed. The installation instructions may also
identify the sequence in which the parts of the workload are to be
installed on each system, and how to coordinate the installation
steps by waiting for the completion of one step before proceeding
with the next, using conventional orchestration technologies. The
deployment system used to install the workload receives this
indication and installs the workload on the appropriate computing
devices.
[0193] FIG. 8 illustrates an example workload installation
specification in additional detail. An installation specification
development module 800 generates a workload installation
specification 802. Installation specification module 800 can be
implemented in software, firmware, hardware, or combinations
thereof, and can perform act 710 of FIG. 7, and optionally
additional acts of FIG. 7 (such as act 706 and/or act 708).
Workload installation specification 802 includes multiple (x)
device class installation specifications 804(1), 804(2), . . .
804(x). Each of the device class installation specifications 804
identifies how the workload is to be installed on a particular
class of computing device. Workload installation specification 802
also includes specification assignment record 806 to identify which
specification 804 corresponds to which class of computing
device.
[0194] Workload installation specification 802 is input to a
deployment system 808 along with any necessary installation file(s)
810. Installation file(s) 810 include the file(s) that are to be
installed on the computing device in order to install the
application, such as one or more files of executable code, one or
more files of data, an image file, and so forth. Alternatively,
although illustrated separately, workload installation
specification 802 and installation file(s) 810 may be stored
together in a single package (e.g., a compressed file).
[0195] FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the generation of a
workload installation specification for physical deployment of act
710 of FIG. 7 in additional detail. FIG. 9 can be implemented in
software, firmware, and/or hardware.
[0196] Initially, a device class on which the workload could be
installed is selected (act 902). In certain embodiments the system
administrator and/or workload developer (or alternatively some
other party) may desire that the workload be installed only on
certain classes of devices, in which case the devices on which the
workload could be installed is less than all of the devices in the
system. Alternatively, the workload may be able to be installed on
any device in the system.
[0197] A device class installation specification for the selected
device class is then generated, identifying how to install the
workload and virtual machine on the selected device class (act
904). As discussed above, this generation can include using default
values included in an information page associated with the workload
in the workload model for setting values to include in the
installation specification being generated.
[0198] In some situations, the device class installation
specification is generated in a format that is expected and
understood by a deployment system that will be installing the
workload and the virtual machine. The device class installation
specification may be generated in this format in act 904, or
alternatively may be subsequently translated into this format
(e.g., by a translation component of the distribution system).
[0199] It should be noted that different device installation
specifications may be generated for computing devices that will
have the same functionality but are currently configured
differently, such as computing devices that do not yet have an
operating system installed and computing devices that already have
an operating system installed. Alternatively, such computing
devices may be considered to be part of the same device class, but
the device class installation specification would include a
conditional portion to be used based on the configuration of the
particular instance of the computing device on which the
application is being installed (e.g., the conditional portion may
be bypassed if the computing device already has an installed
operating system, or used to install an operating system on the
computing device if an operating system is not already installed on
the computing device).
[0200] A check is then made as to whether there are any additional
device class(es) in the virtual system for which no device class
installation specification has been generated (act 906). If there
are any such additional device class(es), then one such additional
device class is selected (act 908) and the process returns to act
904 to generate a device class installation specification for the
selected device class.
[0201] Returning to act 906, if device class installation
specifications have been generated for all of the device class(es),
then a specification assignment record is generated associating
particular installation specifications with particular device
classes (act 910). Alternatively, the specification assignment
record may be generated in act 904 as the device class installation
specifications are being generated, and an indication of which
device class is associated with which device class installation
specification added to the specification assignment record as the
device class installation specification is generated.
[0202] The device class installation specifications generated in
act 904 and the assignment record generated in act 910 are then
combined into a workload installation specification for the
application (act 912).
[0203] Test Environment Provisioning
[0204] FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example process 1000
for provisioning a test environment. Portions of process 1000 can
be implemented in software, firmware, and/or hardware.
[0205] Initially, a model of the application to be installed on a
system is built (act 1002). This building process in act 1002 is
typically performed by the developer of the application, although
could alternatively be performed by others. This model is an SDM
model of the application, analogous to model 100 of FIG. 1, and
includes one or more components. The model of the application
includes types and optionally configurations. As part of the
building process in act 1002, zero or more information pages are
associated with each component in the model. Typically, at least a
constraint information page is associated with each component in
the model.
[0206] As part of the building process in act 1002, types and
optionally configurations are defined, along with associated
information page(s). The types and configurations can be standard
types or configurations that are copied or modified in act 1002, or
alternatively can be newly created in act 1002. As discussed above,
different constraints can be included in the configuration
information page associated with the type and the configuration
information page associated with the configuration.
[0207] The constraints included on a constraint information page
can take a variety of forms, such as: hardware requirements
regarding the computing device(s) or other hardware on which the
application is to be installed (e.g., a minimum processor speed, a
minimum amount of memory, a minimum amount of free hard drive
space, a minimum amount of network bandwidth available, particular
security mechanisms available, and so forth), software requirements
regarding the computing device(s) or other hardware or software on
which the application is to be installed (e.g., a particular
operating system that should already be installed on the computing
device(s), one or more other applications that should already be
installed on the computing device(s), specifications regarding how
particular hardware and/or the operating system is to be configured
such as particular settings for the operating system that should
already be made, a particular type of security or encryption that
should be in use, and so forth), requirements regarding a virtual
machine that should be created on a computing device as well as
requirements regarding an operating system that should be installed
on the virtual machine before the application can be installed
thereon, other requirements regarding the computing device(s) on
which the application is to be installed (e.g., particular security
keys available, data center policies that should be enforced,
authentication that is used, system topology, etc.), and so on.
[0208] Constraints can be positive requirements specifying that
something should be present (e.g., the processor should have at
least a minimum processor speed, or the Windows.RTM. XP operating
system should already be installed on the computing device).
Constraints can also be negative requirements specifying that
something should not be present (e.g., one or more particular
applications should not already be installed on the computing
device, or particular operating system settings should not be
present).
[0209] Additionally, a model of the system where the application is
to be installed is built (act 1004). This building process in act
1004 is typically performed by an administrator of the system where
the application is to be installed, although could alternatively be
performed by others. This model is an SDM model of the system
analogous to model 100 of FIG. 1, and includes one or more
components. The model of the system includes types and instances,
and optionally configurations. As discussed in more detail below,
for virtual systems a new virtual machine may be created onto which
the application will be installed. As such, no instance for the
virtual machine exists yet in the model of the system. However, the
computing device on which the virtual machine will run may already
exist, in which case an instance of that computing device is in the
model of the system.
[0210] The system in act 1004 could be a single computing device,
or alternatively multiple computing devices. For example, if the
application will be installed on a computing device in a data
center having a thousand computing devices, then the model of the
system where the application is to be installed may include all or
some of those thousand computing devices. By way of another
example, if the application will be installed on a home computer
that is not coupled to any other computers, then the model of the
virtual system where the application is to be installed will
include just that home computer.
[0211] It should also be noted that the exact nature of a computing
device can vary, and that any of a wide variety of computing
devices can be a system in act 1004. For example, "hierarchical"
computers can exist, such as a rack that can contain multiple
chassis, each chassis can contain multiple blades, each blade can
contain multiple motherboards, each motherboard can contain
multiple processors, and each processor can contain multiple cores.
Any of these components of such a hierarchical computer can be
viewed as a computing device (e.g., the rack can be a computing
device, each chassis can be a computing device, each blade can be a
computing device, each motherboard can be a computing device, each
processor can be a computing device, and/or each core can be a
computing device).
[0212] Oftentimes, the model of the system built in act 1004 will
be generated by the system administrator prior to the application
being designed and the model of the application being built in act
1002. In such situations, the previously generated model can be
accessed and need not be re-built in act 1004.
[0213] Components in the model of the system built in act 1004 will
include constraint information pages. These constraint information
pages include constraints for each component in the system. Such
constraint information pages can identify constraints for the
corresponding component, and optionally constraints that should be
satisfied by any application to be installed on the corresponding
component.
[0214] Based on the models built in acts 1002 and 1004, a logical
deployment evaluation is performed (act 1006). The logical
deployment evaluation involves comparing the model of the
application (from act 1002) to the model of the system (from act
1004) to determine whether the application could be installed in
the system. Typically, the application designer or system
administrator will identify a particular class (or classes) of
computing device on which he or she desires to install the
application. Alternatively, the application may be compared to all
classes of computing devices in the system.
[0215] The constraints and/or description information for the
application are compared to the constraints for that class of
computing device to determine whether the application satisfies the
constraints of the class of computing device, and the constraints
and/or description information for the class of computing device
are compared to the constraints for the application to determine
whether the class of computing device satisfies the constraints of
the application. The constraints and description information for
all components of the class of computing device, including
applications that are hosted by the class of computing device
(e.g., an operating system as well as possibly other applications)
are also accessed as part of the logical deployment evaluation.
These constraints used in the logical deployment evaluation can
include constraints that are flowed across relationships, as
discussed above. Accessing the constraints for the operating system
and other applications allows verification that, if installed on a
device of the class of computing device, settings made on the
computing device for the application would not conflict with
current settings for other applications installed on the computing
device, and that the computing device has the characteristics,
capabilities and resources required by the application.
[0216] By way of example, a particular constraint on the class of
computing device may indicate that a software firewall should
always be running on the class of computing device. A description
page associated with the application would be accessed to verify
that the application does not require a software firewall to be
deactivated. By way of another example, another application already
installed on the class of computing device may indicate that memory
in the computing device should be configured or accessed in a
particular manner. A description page associated with the
application would be accessed to verify that the application does
not require configuration or access to the memory that is
inconsistent with that particular manner.
[0217] By way of yet another example, a particular constraint on
the application may indicate that the computing device should have
a minimum processor speed. A description page associated with the
class of computing device (or the processor of the class of
computing device) would be accessed to verify that the speed of the
processor is at least the minimum processor speed. In the case of a
virtual machine, this processor speed could refer to the speed of
the virtual processor of the virtual machine on which the
application would be installed, or the speed of the physical
processor of the class of computing device on which the virtual
machine is installed. Furthermore, the fractional parts of the
physical processor may be allocated to each virtual machine, and
each such fractional part serves as the virtual processor for the
virtual machine to which the part is allocated. As a fractional
part of the physical processor could not be allocated as a virtual
processor with a faster speed than the physical processor, a check
would be made to ensure that the speed of the physical processor
satisfies the constraint. Furthermore, a check would also be made
that the fractional part of the physical processor can be allocated
to the virtual machine to create a virtual processor that satisfies
the constraint. This check can be performed by checking a
description page associated with the virtual system, or by
communicating a request or query to a virtual system management
component as to whether it would be able to create such a virtual
machine having a virtual processor satisfying the constraint. It is
to be appreciated that such speeds of virtual processors can vary
depending on the number of other virtual machines that are already
running on the computing device, as the presence of such other
virtual machines will affect the fractional part of the physical
processor that can be allocated to the virtual machine.
[0218] By way of yet another example, a particular constraint on a
workload may indicate that the computing of the workload should be
performed between midnight and 4:00 am. A description page
associated with the class of computing device would be accessed to
verify that the computing device has sufficient processing capacity
(in light of other workloads already scheduled to be performed
between midnight and 4:00 am) to have a new virtual machine (or
alternatively an existing virtual machine) perform the computing of
the workload.
[0219] It should be noted that whatever components are referenced
by constraints in the SDM are evaluated in act 1006, regardless of
what those components are. Typically, constraints of the class of
computing device are evaluated in act 1006 down to the layer that
is hosting the application being installed, but may extend to other
layers if referenced in the SDM. By way of example, assume that a
virtual machine is being provisioned on a computing device, and an
application is being provisioned on the virtual machine. Typically,
constraints of the virtual machine would be evaluated against the
computing device and the operating system running on the computing
device, while constraints of the application would be evaluated
against the virtual machine (and any operating system running on
the virtual machine). However, if the application had a constraint
referencing the computing device itself (e.g., regarding physical
protection of the computing device on which the application is
deployed), then that constraint of the application would be
evaluated against the computing device.
[0220] The results of the evaluation in act 1006 can be returned to
the application designer and/or system administrator. An indication
of success (if all of the constraints are satisfied) or failure (if
all of the constraints are not satisfied) can be returned. In
addition, if one or more of the constraints are not satisfied, then
an indication of which constraint was not satisfied can be
returned, as well as optionally an indication of which component
caused the constraint to not be satisfied. Returning such
information can assist the application developer in modifying the
application so that it can be installed in the system, or
identifying another system that may be better capable of supporting
the test deployment of the application.
[0221] Process 1000 then proceeds based on the results of the
evaluation in act 1006. If the evaluation indicates that the
application can be installed in the system, then process 1000 can
proceed to act 1008. Act 1006 may also optionally be repeated for a
different class of computing device in the system. However, if the
evaluation indicates that the application cannot be installed in
the system, then the evaluation of act 1006 can be repeated for a
different class of computing device in the system, or alternatively
the application may be modified in order to overcome the problem(s)
identified in the evaluation of act 1006, and process 1000 can
return to act 1002 to build a model of the modified
application.
[0222] A model(s) of one or more test environments is also built
(act 1008). The test environment includes at least some of the
components (and optionally all of the components) in the system for
which the system model is built in act 1004. This building process
in act 1008 is typically performed by an administrator of the
system where the application is to be tested, although could
alternatively be performed by others. The system where the
application is to be tested can be the same as the system where the
application is to be installed and used by one or more end users,
although typically it is a different system. Each of these models
is an SDM model of a test environment analogous to model 100 of
FIG. 1, and includes one or more components. Each model of a test
environment includes types and instances, and optionally
configurations.
[0223] A test environment is a system, and the model of a test
environment is similar to the model of a system discussed above in
act 1004. However, a test environment is typically expected to have
a shorter lifespan than other systems. The test environment is
created for the purpose of testing an application(s), and then the
machines in the test environment are typically re-provisioned for
other uses.
[0224] Different test environments can be created for an
application in order to test different characteristics and/or
functionality of an application. For example, one test environment
may have a single computing device on which the application is to
be installed in order to test the functionality of the computing
device. By way of another example, another test environment may
have 20 or 30 computing devices on which the application is to be
installed in order to test the performance or scalability of the
application.
[0225] The model for the application to be tested can include
constraints that specify a range of values that should be used
during testing. For example, the memory for the application could
be specified as ranging from 512 MB to 4096 MB in increments of 512
MB. Acts 1010 through 1016 of process 1000 are then repeated for
each such configuration. If sufficient computer resources are
available, several test systems can be provisioned at the same time
and several tests executed in parallel. If sufficient resources are
not available for such a parallel test, the various configurations
are queued and provisioned sequentially. Combinations of parallel
and sequential provisioning are also possible.
[0226] The model for the application to be tested can also include
specifications that certain values should be randomized. For
example, the size of data files that are to be used when testing a
backup utility can be set to a random set of values and the tests
executed ten times with the different values. This can be useful
because, for example, it eliminates systematic bias in the testing,
helping ensure that a truly representative set of tests are
run.
[0227] In order to reduce the cost of provisioning the test
environment, such as the network bandwidth required to send
applications and operating systems to the computer systems employed
in the test environment, process 1000 can take into account the
amount of change required to transition from one test environment
to another and sequentially provision the test environments in a
way that reduces that cost. The same technique can be applied when
provisioning a single test environment, or the first test
environment in a sequence, by evaluating existing environments that
have been used for other purposes and identifying which one would
require the least amount of provisioning work. This analysis of the
amount of change required is based on simple comparisons of the
attributes of the systems in the model, both the application model
and the test environment model.
[0228] A test environment can optionally be a virtual system. In
the case of a virtual system, the test environment can describe one
or more new virtual machines onto which the application is to be
installed. As such, no instance for the virtual machines exist yet
in the model of the test environment. However, the computing device
on which the virtual machine will run may already exist, in which
case an instance of that computing device is in the model of the
test environment.
[0229] In act 1010, physical deployment of the application to one
of the test environment(s) is determined. Determining physical
deployment of the application to the test environment refers to
identifying which particular computing device(s) in the test
environment will have the application installed thereon (and
optionally also have a new virtual machine created thereon). This
physical deployment can also take into account the amount of change
required to transition from one test environment to another as
discussed above. As part of act 1010, which computing device(s) in
the system are to have the test environment created thereon can
also be identified. Such computing device(s) can be identified in
the same manner as the particular computing device on which the
application is to be installed is determined as discussed below
(such as manually, automatically, semi-automatically).
[0230] The particular computing device(s) on which the application
is to be installed can be identified in different manners. One way
in which the particular computing device(s) on which the
application is to be installed can be identified is manually, such
as by a system administrator or other party manually selecting a
particular computing device(s). This manually selected computing
device(s) could be a computing device(s) already in the system, or
alternatively a new computing device(s) that needs to be purchased
or a computing device(s) that needs to be removed from storage and
added to the system (e.g., coupled to the network that the other
computing devices in the system are coupled to).
[0231] Alternatively, the particular computing device(s) on which
the application is to be installed can be identified automatically.
An application running in the system can identify various
characteristics of the computing devices on which the computer
could possibly be installed (e.g., the computing devices of the
particular class of computing device on which the application is to
be installed), such as load characteristics of each computing
device. The load characteristics could identify, for example, the
average or maximum amount of processor usage, the average amount of
memory usage, the amount of available network bandwidth being used,
the amount of hard disk drive space being used, and so forth. Based
on these load characteristics, the computing device(s) most likely
to be able to support the application would be identified as the
computing device(s) on which the application is to be installed
(e.g., the application having the lightest load, such as the lowest
average processor usage, the smallest amount of available network
bandwidth being used, the most hard disk drive space available, and
so forth).
[0232] In situations where the application is installed on a
virtual machine, typically a new virtual machine is created on
which the application will be installed. Thus, the characteristics
of the computing devices are evaluated for purposes of determining
which computing device will have the new virtual machine installed.
Alternatively, a new virtual machine may not be created, and the
application may be installed on an already running virtual machine.
In such situations, the characteristics of the currently running
virtual machines are evaluated for purposes of determining which
virtual machine will have the new application installed on it.
[0233] Alternatively, the particular computing device(s) on which
the application is to be installed can be identified in a
semi-automatic manner. An application running in the system can
identify various characteristics of the computing devices on which
the application could possibly be installed (or characteristics of
the virtual machines on which the application could possibly be
installed) analogous to the automatic manner, and then present
those results to a user (such as the system administrator) for
manual selection of one or more of the computing devices (or
virtual machines). One or more of the computing devices may
optionally be recommended to the user as the best candidate(s) for
selection, but the ultimate selection would remain at the user's
discretion.
[0234] In addition, selection of different sources of data and/or
other systems to which access is needed may be performed as part of
the physical deployment determining of act 1010. For example,
multiple sources may exist from which data identified as being
required in the model of the application can be obtained, or
multiple replicated file servers may exist that can be a file
server identified as being required in the model of the
application. Particular sources of data and/or other systems to
which access is needed may be selected in act 1010 based on various
factors, such as the load on the various sources and/or other
systems, the bandwidth of the connection to those sources and/or
systems, and so forth. Alternatively, rather than being performed
as part of act 1010, selection of such sources of data and/or other
systems to which access is needed may be performed as part of the
physical deployment in act 1014 discussed below.
[0235] It should be noted that one additional factor that can be
optionally taken into account when identifying the characteristics
of the various computing devices is that virtual machines can be
rearranged to run on different computing devices. For example, a
virtual machine running on one computing device could be moved to
another computing device, thereby freeing up capacity on the
original computing device. Such a process of moving or rearranging
virtual machines is also referred to as migration of the virtual
machines. Virtual machines can be migrated in any of a variety of
manners, such as with the assistance of the Virtual Server
Migration Toolkit (VSMT) available from Microsoft Corporation of
Redmond, Wash.
[0236] Accounting for the possibility of migrating virtual machines
allows the load characteristics of the computing devices to be
changed by migrating the virtual machines. For example, the
situation may arise where none of the computing devices have the
desired spare capacity to create a virtual machine on which the
application could be installed, but that capacity of one of the
computing devices could be released by moving a virtual machine
from that one computing device to another of the computing devices.
After the virtual machine is moved, however, the released capacity
results in that one computing device having sufficient capacity so
that the new virtual machine on which the application is to be
installed can be created and the application installed on that new
virtual machine.
[0237] When creating new virtual machines, this identification of
which computing device should have a virtual machine created
thereon, and optionally which virtual machines should be migrated
to different computing devices, is performed as part of the
physical deployment determining of act 1010.
[0238] An application installation specification for physical
deployment of the application to the test environment is then
generated (act 1012). The application installation specification
can be saved as an installation page associated with the component
representing the application in the application model. The
application installation specification includes an identification,
for each class of device in the test environment on which the
application may be installed, of how to install the application. As
each of these identifications indicates how to install the
application on a particular class of devices, these identifications
can also be referred to as device class installation
specifications. The device class installation specifications can
also identify which particular computing device(s) of that class
the application is to be installed on (the computing device(s)
determined in act 1010).
[0239] This identification of how to install the application
includes, for example, all of the settings for a virtual machine to
be created on the device, the operating system to install on the
virtual machine (including all of the settings of the operating
system and the identification of all of the files that need to be
copied to the virtual machine to install the operating system), all
of the settings of the computing device that should be made or
changed, an identification of all of the files that need to be
copied to the computing device and where those files should be
copied, an order in which files should be copied and/or settings
made or changed, any initialization programs that need to be run
after the files have been copied and/or settings made or changed,
and so forth. This identification may also include installing an
operating system and/or one or more additional applications on the
computing device prior to creating a virtual machine on the device.
For example, one class of computing device may be a bare computing
device with no operating system installed on it. In such
situations, the installation specification for that class of
computing device would include initially installing the appropriate
operating system on the computing device, followed by creating the
virtual machine on the computing device, then installing an
operating system on the virtual machine, and then installing the
application on that operating system of the virtual machine.
[0240] It should be noted that this identification of how to
install the application can include how to install the appropriate
operating system, virtual machine, and/or other applications on the
computing device(s) in a system in order to create the desired test
environment. Once the test environment is created, the application
can then be installed to computing device(s) and optionally virtual
machine(s) in the test environment.
[0241] In situations where workloads are used, this identification
of how to install the application identifies a particular image
file that is the image to be run to perform the computing of the
workload. The image file can be created as part of the process of
building the model of the application in act 1002, or alternatively
can be created at other times (e.g., after the logical deployment
evaluation has been performed in act 1006). The image file includes
the application files and data, and optionally the files and data
for the operating system on which the application will be executed,
for the workload. The image file can be copied to a disk drive or
other storage device and executed by a virtual machine to perform
the computing of the workload--no additional installation or
configuration of the operating system or the application of the
workload is typically required. The image file can be generated in
any of a variety of conventional manners, such as by installing the
application and operating system onto a virtual machine and
generating a file that includes all the folders and files installed
onto that virtual machine, by a user (e.g., the designer of the
workload) manually identifying the folders and files to be included
in the image file, and so forth. The image file can then be simply
copied to the computing device(s) as part of the physical
deployment in act 1014 discussed below.
[0242] Additionally, if any migration of virtual machines is to be
performed for a particular class of device, as identified in act
1010, then the device class installation specification for that
class of device includes an indication of the migration that is to
be performed.
[0243] At least a portion of each device class installation
specification can be generated automatically based on the
information contained in the information pages associated with the
software application to be installed. As discussed above, the
constraint information page can include various default values.
These default values can be used during act 1012 to identify the
settings or configuration values that should be set when installing
the application, and thus which should be included in the device
class installation specification. For example, a particular default
value may be included in the configuration information page for a
buffer size. This default value would be included in the device
class installation specification so that when the application is
installed on a particular computing device, the computing device
settings (such as in an operating system registry) can be modified
to include this default value for the buffer size (possibly
replacing another value for the buffer size previously stored in
the computing device settings).
[0244] In addition to default values, other constraint information
included in the constraint information page can be used in act 1012
to identify the settings or configuration values that should be set
when installing the application. If a range of values for a
particular setting were included in the constraint information
page, then a setting to be used when installing the application can
be derived from that range. For example, the lowest value in the
range could be selected, the highest value in the range could be
selected, the average of the highest and lowest values in the range
could be computed and selected, a value in the range could be
selected randomly, and so forth.
[0245] Furthermore, in addition to information contained in the
information pages associated with the application, information
contained in the information pages associated with the system (such
as the computing device on which the application is to be
installed) can be used as a basis for automatically generating at
least a portion of each device class installation specification.
Default values and/or ranges of values can be used to automatically
generate values for the device class installation specification in
the same manner as discussed above.
[0246] Additionally, information contained in the information pages
associated with the test environment can be used as a basis for
automatically generating at least a portion of each device class
installation specification. Default values and/or ranges of values
can be used to automatically generate values for the device class
installation specification in the same manner as discussed above.
Furthermore, information pages such as description pages can
include identifications of particular operating systems and/or
other applications that are to be part of the test environment.
Each device class installation specification can then have
automatically added thereto identifications of the appropriate
files for the operating systems and/or other applications, as well
as the proper settings for the operating systems and/or other
applications.
[0247] It should also be noted that different components can have
different constraints and different default values for the same
settings or configuration values. In such situations, even though
there is overlap of the constraints so that the different
components can all be installed on a system, one or more of the
default values may violate the constraints of another component.
Thus, a suitable value that is compliant with the constraints of
all of the components is determined. This suitable value can be
determined in different manners, including manually, automatically,
and semi-automatically. A suitable value can be determined manually
by a user (such as the system administrator) inputting a suitable
value for the setting or configuration value.
[0248] A suitable value can be determined automatically by
evaluating the various constraints and selecting a value that
satisfies all the constraints. This selected value is then used as
the suitable value. For example, if each constraint lists a range
of acceptable values, then a value that falls within each range of
acceptable values can be automatically identified and used as the
suitable value.
[0249] A suitable value can be determined semi-automatically by
evaluating the various constraints and selecting a value that
satisfies all the constraints analogous to the automatic manner.
However, rather than automatically using the selected value as the
suitable value, the selected value can be presented to a user (such
as the system administrator) for approval. The user can accept this
selected value, or alternatively input a different value.
Alternatively, rather than presenting a single selected value to
the user, the range of possible values (or portion of the range of
possible values) that satisfies the constraints of the different
components may be presented to the user.
[0250] It should further be noted that at least a portion of a
device class installation specification may be generated manually
rather than automatically. This manual generation refers to user
inputs (such as by the application developer or system
administrator) rather than automatic generation by some component
or module (e.g., development module 1100 discussed below). For
example, the particular files to be identified in the device class
installation specification may be identified manually rather than
automatically.
[0251] Additionally, an assignment record is generated in act 1012
that maintains a record of which device class installation
specifications are to be used for which device classes. This record
can be, for example, a mapping of device class to device class
installation specification. Thus, given the application
installation specification including multiple device class
installation specifications, a determination as to which particular
device class installation specification to use can be made based on
the class of the device on which the application is to be
installed. The assignment record generated can also be stored as
part of the application installation specification.
[0252] Alternatively, rather than having a separate assignment
record, an identification of which device class installation
specification is associated with which particular class of device
may be maintained in other manners. For example, the indication may
be inherent in the naming convention used for the device class
installation specification (e.g., each device class installation
specification may be a separate file having a file name that
identifies the particular class of device), or each device class
installation specification may include an indication of the
associated class of device.
[0253] The application installation specification is generated
after the logical deployment evaluation in act 1006. Thus, the
application installation specification is generated only after it
is verified that the application can be installed in the system.
Additionally, the constraint information (such as default values)
associated with the application, as well as information associated
with the system and the test environment, can be used to determine
settings to be included in the application installation
specification. Furthermore, the application installation
specification is generated for particular device class(es) that are
present in the test environment and identified in the test
environment model. Thus, it can be seen that the application
installation specification generated in act 1012 is derived at
least in part from the model of the application as well as the
model of the system and the model of the test environment.
[0254] After the application installation specification is created,
physical deployment of the application to the test environment is
performed (act 1014). This physical deployment includes making the
application installation specification available to a deployment
system and having the deployment system install the application on
the particular device(s) identified in act 1010, including
installing any necessary operating systems and/or other
applications for the test environment, and optionally creating a
new virtual machine(s) on the particular device(s). If the
application installation specification indicates that migration of
any virtual machines is to be performed, then this migration can
also be carried out by the deployment system (optionally with the
assistance of another component, such as the Virtual Server
Migration Toolkit discussed above). Once it is given the
application installation specification, the deployment system
operates in a conventional manner to install the application. Any
of a variety of deployment systems could be used in act 1014, such
as the Windows.RTM. Installer service or Microsoft.RTM. Systems
Management Server, both available from Microsoft Corporation of
Redmond, Wash.
[0255] Once the application is installed the application (and any
newly created virtual machine) becomes part of the system and part
of the test environment and thus the application model is
incorporated into the system model and a component for any new
virtual machine (as well as the operating system for the new
virtual machine, and any other components running on the virtual
machine) is added to the system model. Similarly, the application
model is incorporated into the test environment model and a
component for any new virtual machine (as well as the operating
system for the new virtual machine, and any other components
running on the virtual machine) is added to the test environment
model. Thus, after installation of the application, the SDM for the
system includes the SDM of the application as well as a
component(s) for any newly created virtual machine, and the SDM for
the test environment includes the SDM of the application as well as
a component(s) for any newly created virtual machine.
[0256] Once the application is installed one or more tests are run
on the application in the test environment (act 1016). The exact
nature of these tests can vary by application and based on the
desires of the application developer. The tests can include fully
automated tests, where one or more test programs provide input to
the application and monitor the performance of and/or outputs of
the application. Additionally, the tests can include manual tests,
where a system administrator or other user provides input to the
application and/or monitors outputs of the application.
[0257] Process 1000 continues based on the results of the tests
that are run in act 1016. In some instances, the tests may indicate
that changes to the application need to be made. These changes may
be minor in nature and not result in a change to the model of the
application. However, if the changes result in a change to the
model of the application, then process 1000 returns to act 1002 for
a new model of the application to be built. Alternatively,
additional tests in additional test environments may be run before
the changes to the application are made, thus delaying the return
to act 1002. It should be noted that, if only the application is
changed, then the model of the system need not be rebuilt in act
1004 and the model of the test environment(s) need not be rebuilt
in act 1008; rather, the previously built system model and test
environment model(s) can be used.
[0258] If process 1000 does not return to act 1002 after act 1016,
then a check is made as to whether there are any additional test
environments in which one or more tests are to be run (act 1018).
If there are any such test environments, then process 1000 returns
to act 1010 to determine physical deployment to one of the test
environments. However, if there are no such test environments, then
the testing process is complete (act 1020).
[0259] Alternatively, the evaluation in act 1006 may be for a
particular computing device or virtual machine rather than for a
class of computing device. In this alternative, the evaluation in
act 1006 is the same as discussed above, except that constraint and
description information for a particular instance of a computing
device are used rather than constraint and description information
for a class of computing device. In such situations, the
identification of the particular computing device is made in, or
prior to, act 1006 rather than in act 1010, and can be made in the
same manner as discussed in act 1010.
[0260] It should also be noted that a particular device class
installation specification may indicate to install the application
on multiple different computing devices within the test
environment. For example, the application developer or system
administrator may desire to install the application on all of the
computing devices of a particular class. In such a situation, an
indication is included in the device class installation
specification for that particular device class that the application
is to be installed on all of the computing devices of that
particular class, or alternatively may identify the particular
computing devices (e.g., by name or other unique identifier) on
which the application is to be installed. The deployment system
used to install the application receives this indication and
installs the application on the appropriate computing devices.
[0261] FIG. 11 illustrates an example application installation
specification in additional detail. An installation specification
development module 1100 generates an application installation
specification 1102. Installation specification module 1100 can be
implemented in software, firmware, hardware, or combinations
thereof, and can perform act 1012 of FIG. 10, and optionally
additional acts of FIG. 10 (such as act 1006, 1008 and/or act
1010). Application installation specification 1102 includes
multiple (x) device class installation specifications 1104(1),
1104(2), . . . 1104(x). Each of the device class installation
specifications 1104 identifies how the application is to be
installed on a particular class of computing device. Application
installation specification 1102 also includes specification
assignment record 1106 to identify which specification 1104
corresponds to which class of computing device.
[0262] Application installation specification 1102 is input to a
deployment system 1108 along with any necessary installation
file(s) 1110. Installation file(s) 1110 include the file(s) that
are to be installed on the computing device in order to install the
application, such as one or more files of executable code, one or
more files of data, and so forth. Alternatively, although
illustrated separately, application installation specification 1102
and installation file(s) 1110 may be stored together in a single
package (e.g., a compressed file).
[0263] FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating the generation of an
application installation specification for physical deployment to a
test environment of act 1012 of FIG. 10 in additional detail. FIG.
12 can be implemented in software, firmware, and/or hardware.
[0264] Initially, a device class in the test environment on which
the application could be installed is selected (act 1202). In
certain embodiments the system administrator and/or application
developer (or alternatively some other party) may desire that the
application be installed only on certain classes of devices, in
which case the devices on which the application could be installed
is less than all of the devices in the system. Alternatively, the
application may be able to be installed on any device in the
system.
[0265] A device class installation specification for the selected
device class is then generated, identifying how to install the
application (and optionally a virtual machine) on the selected
device class, as well as how to install any operating system and/or
other applications needed for the test environment (act 1204). As
discussed above, this generation can include using default values
included in an information page associated with the application in
the application model for setting values to include in the
installation specification being generated.
[0266] In some situations, the device class installation
specification is generated in a format that is expected and
understood by a deployment system that will be installing the
application. The device class installation specification may be
generated in this format in act 1204, or alternatively may be
subsequently translated into this format (e.g., by a translation
component of the distribution system).
[0267] It should be noted that different device installation
specifications may be generated for computing devices that will
have the same functionality but are currently configured
differently, such as computing devices that do not yet have an
operating system installed and computing devices that already have
an operating system installed. Alternatively, such computing
devices may be considered to be part of the same device class, but
the device class installation specification would include a
conditional portion to be used based on the configuration of the
particular instance of the computing device on which the
application is being installed (e.g., the conditional portion may
be bypassed if the computing device already has an installed
operating system, or used to install an operating system on the
computing device if an operating system is not already installed on
the computing device).
[0268] A check is then made as to whether there are any additional
device class(es) in the test environment for which no device class
installation specification has been generated (act 1206). If there
are any such additional device class(es), then one such additional
device class is selected (act 1208) and the process returns to act
1204 to generate a device class installation specification for the
selected device class.
[0269] Returning to act 1206, if device class installation
specifications have been generated for all of the device class(es),
then a specification assignment record is generated associating
particular installation specifications with particular device
classes (act 1210). Alternatively, the specification assignment
record may be generated in act 1204 as the device class
installation specifications are being generated, and an indication
of which device class is associated with which device class
installation specification added to the specification assignment
record as the device class installation specification is
generated.
[0270] The device class installation specifications generated in
act 1204 and the assignment record generated in act 1210 are then
combined into an application installation specification for the
application (act 1212).
[0271] Configuration Monitoring
[0272] Configuration policies are defined in terms of a model
(e.g., a system definition model as discussed herein) that
represents the structure and topology of the entire system.
Defining configuration policies in terms of a model allows the
configuration policies to easily adapt to changes in the system
configuration. Additionally, systems and methods discussed herein
can represent the hosting relationship between, for example, a SQL
Server and the Windows.RTM. operating system, and then specify a
constraint that flows across that relationship. This relationship
allows the system to determine and maintain applicability and
handle conflicts. However, the configuration policy for the SQL
Server does not refer to internal details of the Windows.RTM.
operating system. Thus, the relationship reduces the impact on the
SQL Server policies when the Windows.RTM. operating system is
modified. Systems and methods discussed herein can further provide
for the reconciliation of multiple conflicting policies. For
example, the SQL Server and other applications may have different
policies on how the Windows.RTM. operating system should be
configured. The described systems and methods resolve any
differences in these policies when it is possible to do so by
finding compromise settings that are compliant with all the
policies. When such a resolution is not possible, the unresolvable
conflict is identified and brought to the attention of a user, such
as an administrator, who can handle the problem on a higher level,
for example by deploying the applications on other computer systems
where there is no conflict.
[0273] The SDM contains static information (e.g., the topology of
software services within an application) and dynamic information
(e.g., the control flow of a particular transaction). This
information is used to describe components, system architecture,
and transaction flows (e.g., a series of steps that perform a
function).
[0274] Configuration management is important to allow an
administrator to monitor configuration settings and identify
potential problems with various configuration changes. Systems and
methods discussed herein can validate the compliance of systems
(and components) with a prescribed configuration and report any
violations of this prescribed configuration. The prescribed
configuration may represent a secure configuration, thereby
minimizing vulnerability to attack, or it may represent a
configuration desired by an IT (Information Technology) department
to maintain consistency and reduce support costs. Information
contained in the SDM is used to provide a context for the
configuration settings, such as the components or applications with
which the settings are associated and the relationships between the
components and applications in the system.
[0275] The systems and methods described herein inspect the
configuration of one or more components or systems, and compare the
configuration(s) with the prescribed configuration policy.
Different configuration policies can be associated with different
components or systems based on, for example, organizational groups
or departments, geography, type of component or system, and the
like.
[0276] FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an example process 1300
for managing and monitoring the configuration of a system. Process
1300 can be implemented in software, firmware, and/or hardware.
Initially, process 1300 identifies models associated with one or
more applications (act 1302). An application model can identify any
number of configuration settings or constraints associated with the
application. In one embodiment, the configuration settings or
constraints are defined by a developer of the application. Example
configuration settings include buffer sizes, acceptable data
formats, acceptable application or operating system versions, and a
setting indicating whether a firewall is activated. Constraint
information can be contained in, for example, a constraint page of
the type discussed above with respect to the SDM. Process 1300
continues by identifying a model associated with the system (act
1304). In one embodiment, this model is an SDM model of the type
discussed above with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2.
[0277] After identifying one or more application models and a
system model, the process deploys the logical and physical portions
of the system (act 1306). This deployment of the system "activates"
the system and defines interrelationships between the various
components and applications in the system. Although it is common
that the process includes deployment of the system based on the
model, in certain embodiments the system may be deployed in other
ways, with or without reference to the model. Such deployment may
have occurred well before the model-based configuration management
process is started, and before the model was created. In these
embodiments, act 1306 may be omitted from the process.
[0278] The process continues by creating a configuration policy
associated with the system (act 1308). In a particular embodiment,
the configuration policy is created automatically based on the
system model and the configuration settings associated with the
components and the applications. A system may have configuration
constraints or dependencies on related systems. For example, if a
particular application is installed in the system, it may have a
dependency on another system and may require a specific
configuration setting on that other system. A "dependency" is also
referred to as a "relationship."
[0279] In one embodiment, the process extracts the desired
information from the system model and discards the remaining
information contained in the system model. The system model
structure is then flattened to create configuration settings for
each component in the system. These configuration settings are then
saved in a simplified schema that is consistent with the full
system model.
[0280] The process continues by monitoring the configuration of the
components and applications in the system for compliance with the
configuration policy (act 1310). An administrator or other user
typically defines the frequency with which the components and
applications are checked for compliance. This compliance checking
may occur at any interval, such as every 10 minutes, every hour,
every day, or every week. In particular embodiments, different
components or applications are checked for compliance at different
intervals. For example, critical components or applications are
checked once every 10 minutes while less critical components or
applications are checked once every two hours.
[0281] If any component or application is not in compliance with
the configuration policy, the process generates an alert or a
report identifying the non-compliance (act 1312). The alert or
report may be, for example, an email message, a pager message, a
cell phone message, an audible alarm, or a pop-up message on a
computer monitor. Additionally, information regarding the alert or
report may be recorded in a daily log with other alerts and
activities.
[0282] Based on information contained in alerts or reports, various
types of corrective actions can be taken. For example, a management
system operating on the managed computer system can immediately
correct a configuration setting when it detects the configuration
setting is out of compliance with an associated configuration
policy. In another example, a central management system can respond
to an alert by starting a process to bring the system into
compliance. Additionally, a central management system can add the
system that is found to be out of compliance to a list of systems
that is later used as a target for various management systems. In
any of these examples, the corrective action can use techniques
such as changing a configuration setting, installing a software
system, removing a software system, or running a program that
performs an operation such as moving information off a storage
device.
[0283] A management system can also enforce a configuration policy
by preventing changes from being made that would result in a
configuration that is out of compliance. The intended setting is
compared with the configuration policy, and if it would result in a
compliance violation, the change is rejected and an error message
is returned. To reliably enforce a change, the management system
intercepts the change before it is applied to the system.
Additionally, the management system can operate in an advisory
mode, where an application can choose to consult the management
system. For example, the application may ask if the intended change
would be in compliance with the configuration policies. If the
intended change would not be in compliance with the configuration
policies, the application can choose not to make the change.
[0284] FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an example process 1400
for creating a configuration policy associated with the system.
Initially, process 1400 identifies application configuration
settings (act 1402). For example, a particular application may have
a dependency on another system and may require a specific
configuration setting to properly interact with the other system.
The process continues by identifying configuration settings
associated with all component classes (act 1404). Component classes
may include classes of machines, groups of machines, and the like.
A particular component class may contain any number of component
instances.
[0285] Next, process 1400 identifies a response action associated
with each configuration setting (act 1406). The response action
identifies an action to take in response to identifying a violation
of a configuration constraint. Example response actions include
generating a report, activating an alarm, sending an alert message
to an administrator, logging a violation in a daily log, halting
operation of a component or application, resetting a component, or
restarting an application. A configuration constraint defines the
allowable value(s) or a range of values that are permitted for a
particular configuration setting. The process continues by
identifying all component and application instances in the system
(act 1408). In one embodiment, component and application instances
are identified from the system model.
[0286] Process 1400 then identifies targeting information
associated with one or more configuration settings (act 1410).
Targeting information identifies particular components or
particular applications, or may identify groups of components
and/or groups of applications. For example, a group of components
may include all components of a particular type, all components in
a particular geographic region, or all components in a particular
department of an organization. The process continues by identifying
scheduling information associated with one or more configuration
settings (act 1412). Scheduling information determines the
frequency with which certain configuration settings are checked for
compliance with their associated constraints. As discussed above,
some configuration settings may be checked for compliance more
frequently than others.
[0287] Finally, process 1400 generates and stores a configuration
policy associated with the system (act 1414). This configuration
policy includes constraints associated with all components and
applications in the system as well as information regarding
response actions, targeting information, and scheduling information
associated with the system. In certain implementations, an
administrator or other user can modify the configuration policy to
meet their desires or operating requirements. The configuration
policy can specify, for each constraint, what the corrective action
should be (if any), or specify that only a report or alert should
be created.
[0288] In one embodiment, the identification of components and
applications is 11 performed automatically based on information
contained in the system model. However, the identification of
target information and the identification of scheduling information
is determined by an administrator or other user.
[0289] System Monitoring
[0290] Systems and methods described herein are capable of
detecting the health of a managed system (e.g., good, fair, or
poor) and can detect problems and potential problems. By monitoring
all components in the managed system, the overall health and
performance of the managed system can be determined. Systems and
methods described herein automate much of the performance and
health monitoring tasks using the model discussed below.
[0291] In a particular implementation, the SDM is created, for
example, by a developer having knowledge of the various components,
relationships, and other aspects of the system being defined. In
this implementation, the developer has intimate knowledge of the
various components in the system and how they interact with one
another. This knowledge is useful in defining the manner in which
the various components are monitored or otherwise managed.
[0292] FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating an example process 1500
for monitoring a system. Process 1500 can be implemented in
software, firmware, and/or hardware. Initially, a service is
identified, including the parts of the service and the
interrelationship between the parts (act 1502). The process the
identifies health aspects associated with each part of the service
(act 1504) and defines a health model for each aspect (act 1506).
Each health model includes multiple states and transitions between
those states. Each state may represent, for example, a health
condition or a performance status that is associated with the
particular component being monitored.
[0293] The process continues by defining rules that detect
transitions between states and by defining knowledge for the states
(act 1508). The various definitions are combined into a package
(also referred to as a "Management Package") and one or more
policies are defined that modify the behavior of the package (act
1510). Systems and methods described herein combine the various
models and policies associated with a system into a management
package that is portable. This portable management package can be
sold or deployed.
[0294] The monitoring policy defines the manner in which the
managed system is monitored. In a particular embodiment, the
monitoring policy contains information regarding all instances or
components to be monitored. For example, the monitoring policy may
define the states, severities, and transitions for one or more
components. The monitoring policy may also define information
regarding different aspects of a particular component. For example,
the monitoring policy can monitor server performance, average
response time for web page requests, database performance,
percentage of requests that timeout, or the number of component
failures. When monitoring the performance of a component or system,
one or more health-related alerts or messages may be generated. For
example, when monitoring the average response time for web page
requests, if the average response time increases significantly, an
alert or other message may be generated indicating a problem or
potential problem with the handling of web page requests.
[0295] The monitoring policy is also capable of monitoring
service-level compliance (e.g., system compliance with one or more
service agreements) of the system. Service level agreements may
define, for example, a maximum number of page requests that fail
during a particular time period, or a minimum number of minutes
that a particular resource or component is active each month. As
discussed herein, the monitoring policy may also identify problems,
potential problems, or other situations that may cause the system
to operate improperly.
[0296] Authors and administrators typically like policies to have
modified behavior when encountering different environments. These
different behaviors are described in one or more policies which are
associated with dynamically discovered instances of the policy
type.
[0297] The process then deploys the package to a management system
which discovers instances of components and services in a system
(act 1512). The management system provides the apparatus or
platform to run the models and monitoring policies discussed
herein. The monitoring policies include rules to discover real
instances of components, systems, and relationships between
components and/or systems. The management system discovers these
things and builds a model representing the system or environment
being managed.
[0298] The management system then deploys the rules to monitor the
components and services in the system (act 1514). The management
system modifies the rules, as necessary, based on the
administrative policies that apply to the discovered instances.
Conflicts may occur between multiple administrative policies. When
a conflict occurs, the management system resolves the conflict to
generate a resulting administrative policy that appropriately
modifies the monitoring rules.
[0299] Next, the management system creates a model of the system
and tracks the health of the components in the system (act 1516).
This monitoring of the system is ongoing and monitors the system
components for failures, poor performance, erroneous performance,
and the like. The management system then rolls up the health of the
components to one or more aggregation services (act 1518). A
managed entity that groups or contains other entities can express
its health in terms of the health of the child entities--this is
commonly referred to as "roll-up". Roll-up is used to draw
attention to a problem in a contained entity, in a scaleable
fashion or to report on aggregate metrics.
[0300] Finally, the management system detects a root cause of a
problem or error when one or more components are detected as bad
(act 1520).
[0301] The above approach simplifies the management of the
components (and aspects of the components) in a system by providing
smaller, manageable units. For example, instead of pre-determining
all possible transitions between states in a system, each aspect
(such as virtual CPU performance) is defined along with its
possible states. Each aspect is orthogonal to other aspects such
that the state of each aspect has little or nothing to do with the
state of other aspects. Monitoring of an additional aspect is
accomplished by defining the new aspect and its possible
states.
[0302] As discussed above, one or more monitoring pages contained
in the SDM include information related to monitoring the
performance and/or health of the associated component. This
information can include rules describing how the associated
component is to be monitored (e.g., what events or other criteria
to look for when monitoring the component), as well as what actions
to take when a particular rule is satisfied (e.g., record certain
settings or what events occurred, generate an alert, etc.).
[0303] Additionally, one or more service level agreement pages
include information describing service level agreements between two
or more parties regarding the associated component (e.g., between
the purchaser of the associated component and the seller from which
the associated component was purchased). These pages can be
accessed during operation of the system to determine, for example,
whether the agreement reached between the two or more parties is
being met by the parties. In one embodiment, accessing of
monitoring pages and service level agreement pages is defined by
the monitoring policy.
[0304] Each aspect of each component in a system has an associated
monitor, which tracks the health and/or performance of the
associated component. The severity of the state of each aspect is
"rolled-up" to compute the severity of the component. If a
component is composed of one or more components, the state gets
rolled-up based on a choice of aggregation algorithms. For example,
a domain controller that cannot accept one or more requests is put
into a critical state, while delays in servicing those requests are
marked as being in a warning state. In one embodiment, monitors
have a hierarchical structure similar to the structure shown in
FIG. 1, which allows the monitors to "roll up" health and
performance information to other monitors. In particular, the
hierarchy "rolls up" based on the SDM model. The hierarchy and
"roll up" described herein represents one type of structure that
can be used with the described model-based system monitoring.
Alternate embodiments can propagate information through
relationships in the model based on propagation algorithms
associated with each kind of relationship. For example, "roll up"
can be performed in a containment hierarchy based on a
worst-case-among-the-children algorithm.
[0305] The health of a particular component can be determined based
on various factors, such as the availability of the component,
available capacity, configuration, security policy compliance, etc.
A health model is a framework for describing a managed components'
potential operational, degradation and failure states.
[0306] In particular embodiments, a management system may use
information from multiple sources. For example, a management system
may receive an SDM from one source, another SDM from a second
source, and a set of monitoring policies from a third source. A
management system can receive information from any number of
different sources. The management system identifies and handles the
various relationships between objects in different models and/or
received from different sources. Thus, the management system pulls
together the information from various sources and uses all of the
information in managing a particular system or environment.
[0307] Additionally, the same management system and the same
information can be used by different administrators in different
disciplines to display alerts or data of interest to that
administrator or discipline. For example, the management system may
display application security compliance to an administrator
responsible for overseeing such security compliance. The same
management system (using the same information) may display
information regarding available storage resources to an
administrator responsible for handling or monitoring those storage
resources. Thus, the management system uses filters or otherwise
manages data to display the appropriate data (e.g., requested data)
to various administrators or disciplines.
[0308] FIG. 16 illustrates an example health model 1600. In this
example, health model 1600 defines the updating of a security
credentials monitor. During normal operation, health model 1600 is
in a valid state 1602. At periodic intervals, the security
credentials need to be refreshed. Such a request causes the model
to transition to a refresh state 1604. If the security credentials
are properly refreshed, the model transitions back to valid state
1602. If the security credentials are not properly refreshed, the
model transitions to state 1606, where another attempt is made to
refresh the security credentials. If the second attempt is
successful, the model transitions back to valid state 1602.
Otherwise, the security refresh has failed and the model
transitions to state 1608, which generates an alert. Thus, the
health of model 1600 can be determined by evaluating the current
state of the model. This information is useful in detecting,
verifying, diagnosing and resolving problems with the system as
well as particular components in the system.
[0309] Typical health models include one or more states that help
detect, verify, diagnose, and resolve a problem state. For example,
a problem (or potential problem) can be detected by interpretation
of data that indicates a transition to a particular state in the
health model. Diagnostic information includes actions necessary to
understand the nature of the detected problem. The actions include,
for example, automated tasks or examining supporting data (e.g.,
event data and performance data). Resolution information includes
the operations necessary to resolve the problem.
[0310] In a particular embodiment, a monitor is configured via
rules to declaratively express conditions when state transitions
should occur. The rules include various modules, which are
precompiled functions that can deliver reusable functionality for
event sourcing, probing, interpreting the collected data by
checking for conditions or performing a correlation and taking
action. A rule configuration defines the interaction among the
various modules. These same modules can also used to create one or
more tasks. Tasks are actions such as diagnostic functions or
problem recovery actions.
[0311] For example, a rule may monitor various data sources or
components that generate events, alerts, and other notices. If a
particular event or alert is detected, the rule modifies the state
of the health model based on the transition associated with the
event or alert. The rule then identifies an appropriate response,
such as taking a corrective action, generating an alert, sending an
email message to an administrator, or paging an administrator.
[0312] Certain human-readable information may be associated with a
health model. This information is provided as knowledge along with
the monitor. The information can be supplied by the product vendor
or by the user of the product. The information may include embedded
links to views and tasks necessary to diagnose and fix a problem.
Example information provides a summary of the problem, one or more
steps to diagnose the problem, and one or more steps to resolve the
problem based on the results of performing the diagnosis steps.
[0313] Various relationships can be defined between different
managed entities (or components). Example relationships include:
[0314] a containment relationship (a particular application
contains a database), [0315] a hosting relationship (a web site is
hosted on IIS), [0316] a communication relationship (an application
is an SQL client of a database server), [0317] a reference
relationship (a loose relationship between applications,
components, etc.), [0318] grouping information (such as static and
dynamic computer groups. Groups can be nested or overlapping), and
[0319] "caused by" information (any of the above relationships can
be used to define a dependency. For example, "an underperforming
host can cause a guest to under perform.")
[0320] A component that groups or contains other components can
express its health or performance in terms of the health or
performance of the child components--this is commonly referred to
as "roll-up". Roll-up is useful in identifying a problem in a
contained component in a scaleable manner. Roll-up is also useful
in reporting on aggregate metrics. Roll-up is performed using
aggregation algorithms for expressing the state, performance, and
events of a container in terms of contained or grouped objects. For
example, referring back to FIG. 1, component 110 can express its
health or performance in terms of the health or performance of
component 112 and component 114. In one embodiment, a user can
define the roll-up policy based on the SDM topology.
[0321] In addition to monitoring the health or performance of
particular components, administrators are interested in identifying
causes of failures or other improper operation. For example, a
component may fail or operate improperly based on a problem with
that particular component. Alternatively, a component may fail or
operate improperly due to a problem with another component. For
example, if a SQL server fails, applications attempting to access
the failed SQL server will likely generate error notices.
[0322] Analyzing a failure of one component to see if another
component is actually responsible for the failure is referred to as
"probable cause" analysis or "root cause" analysis. For example, a
failed web service (first component) may trace its probable cause
to a database (second component), which traces its probable cause
to a failed SQL server (third component) that hosts the database,
which traces its probable cause to a backup of disk input/output
operations (fourth component) in the underlying server.
[0323] In certain situations, it is desirable to suppress certain
alerts and other notices. For example, if a SQL server fails,
applications attempting to access the failed SQL server will
generate alerts. Since the SQL server failure is already known,
generation of additional alerts by the applications is unnecessary.
These additional alerts would likely be a distraction to the
administrator attempting to correct the SQL server failure.
[0324] In other situations, administrators may want to know the
impact of a change or failure on other components. For example,
referring again to FIG. 1, an administrator may want to know the
impact on the health or performance of component 112 if a change is
made to the state of component 110. This "impact analysis" allows
an administrator to predict the impact on the system caused by a
particular change before implementing the change. For example,
impact analysis can predict changes in system performance, changes
in system health, whether or not system level agreements will
continue to be satisfied, and the like. Impact analysis uses
information available through the SDM to determine the impact of
one or more changes to one or more components in the system.
Additionally, impact analysis can determine the impact on the
overall performance and/or health of the system caused by one or
more changes. This impact analysis can be performed using the SDM
information without actually implementing the changes. Thus, an
administrator can perform various "what if" analyses without
affecting the normal operation of the system. Rules, discussed
herein, use relationships to dynamically and declaratively express
logic for roll-up, aggregation, root cause analysis, and impact
analysis.
[0325] As mentioned above, one or more service level agreement
pages of the SDM include information describing service level
agreements between two or more parties regarding the associated
component. Service level agreements are generally set based on the
service as experienced by the users. "Users" may include human
users, software systems, hardware systems, and the like.
Administrators can define their level of service as a component of
the SDM. This component aggregates pre-discovered and predefined
components and rolls-up their health and performance according to
one or more service level agreements. To enable self-managing
service structures, the grouping of components can be dynamic. For
example, if a service level agreement calls for 99% availability
for all print servers in Redmond, Wash., the service will add and
remove print servers automatically as they are deployed and
retired. Remote monitoring services may be used to observe real or
representative clients.
[0326] When monitoring a system, the monitoring policy performs
end-to-end analysis of the system. End-to-end analysis of the
system includes monitoring the performance of the entire system and
monitoring the performance of a group of components that handle
data, requests, or other information in a sequential manner.
[0327] For example, FIG. 17 illustrates multiple components that
process data in a sequential manner. The data being processed can
be any type of data received from any data source. Initially, a
component 1702 receives the data to be processed, followed by
components 1704 and 1706. After component 1706 has processed the
data, any number of other intermediate components (not shown) may
process the data, after which the data is provided to a component
1708. Each component 1702-1708 shown in FIG. 17 has an associated
percentage (e.g., component 1702 has an associated percentage of
99.0 and component 1704 has an associated percentage of 98.5).
These percentages indicate, for example, the current efficiency
associated with the component or the current delay imposed by the
component in processing data. When viewing each component
individually, the associated percentage is within a reasonable
range. For example, the lowest percentage in FIG. 17 is 98.5%. If a
service level agreement calls for a minimum component performance
of at least 98%, all components shown in FIG. 17 satisfy the
service level agreement.
[0328] However, when performing an end-to-end analysis of the
components, the end-to-end performance may be unacceptable. For
example, if the percentages represent delays in processing data,
the multiple delays are cumulative. If data is processed
sequentially by fifteen different components, each of which
introduces an average of 1.2% delay, the cumulative end-to-end
delay in processing the data is 18%. Thus, although each component
is individually within an acceptable operating range, the
end-to-end analysis indicates significantly lower performance.
[0329] The systems and methods described herein can use the SDM to
perform end-to-end analysis. This end-to-end analysis can identify
potential points of failure or identify areas that are reducing the
overall system performance. Although a failure may not yet have
occurred, the results of the end-to-end analysis are helpful in
avoiding failures and maintaining the system at a high level of
performance.
[0330] Capacity Planning
[0331] Systems and methods described herein are capable of
estimating the performance and capability of a managed system.
These estimations are useful in determining current and future
system requirements to meet the requirements of certain types and
quantities of transactions handled by the system. This capacity
planning simplifies the selection of components (and component
capacities) for the system and allows the various components to be
tested in an expected operating environment prior to actually
implementing the system. Systems and methods described herein also
permit various capacity planning activities using different system
architectures defined by one or more system models.
[0332] Capacity planning allows users to manage future software and
hardware requirements proactively instead of reactively. Capacity
planning is part of a performance modeling process that guides a
user's decision-making process before application deployment, and
continues to assist them after deployment in predicting the
application's behavior under changing loads, identifying future
bottlenecks, and experimenting with other "what if" scenarios.
Example "what if" scenarios include anticipated company growth,
increased network traffic, increased database access requests, and
new applications or features provided by the system. Accurate and
simple capacity planning is useful in server consolidation and
virtualization scenarios. Proper capacity planning can avoid the
over-provisioning of resources to ensure correct operation.
Instead, proper capacity planning can identify the appropriate
resources to correctly perform the desired operations.
[0333] Capacity planning uses the data contained in the SDM
discussed herein. One or more SDMs may define multiple
architectures that are accessed by the capacity planning system and
methods. Each architecture definition includes information
regarding various options and constraints associated with the
architecture. The SDM may also contain information collected from
one or more live systems, such as performance data and
configuration information for the various components in the
system.
[0334] The SDM contains static information (e.g., the topology of
software services within an application) and dynamic information
(e.g., the control flow of a particular transaction). This
information is used to describe components, system architecture,
and transaction flows (e.g., a series of steps that perform a
function).
[0335] FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating an example process 1800
for capacity planning. Process 1800 can be implemented in software,
firmware, and/or hardware. A "planned system" may be an existing
system, proposed modifications to an existing system, or a new
system not yet implemented.
[0336] Initially, process 1800 retrieves a model associated with a
system having multiple components (act 1802). In one embodiment,
this model is an SDM model of the type discussed above with respect
to FIGS. 1 and 2. A planned system can be defined as a hypothetical
system that might be implemented depending on the results of the
capacity planning process. Alternatively, a planned system may
include at least a portion of an existing system (e.g., an
expansion or modification of an existing system). In this
situation, certain data (such as performance data) associated with
the existing system may be used in modeling the planned system.
[0337] The procedure continues by identifying a quantity of each
type of component in a planned system (act 1804). In a particular
embodiment, the SDM is scale invariant. For example, the SDM may
contain information about different types of components, but does
not necessarily indicate the number (or quantity) of each type of
component in a specific system. To properly identify the
characteristics and requirements of a specific system, it is
important to know the number of components involved in the system
and their expected (or actual) interactions with one another.
Procedure 1800 identifies transaction steps and transaction flows
in the planned system (act 1806). These transaction steps and
transaction flows are useful in determining resources (e.g.,
storage capacities, communication bandwidth, etc.) in the planned
system.
[0338] Procedure 1800 continues by determining a cost associated
with each transaction step in each of the transaction flows (act
1808). A "cost" can vary depending on the transaction and/or the
step being discussed. For example, a cost can be time, bandwidth,
storage capacity, processing capacity, and the like. This cost
information can be stored in the SDM using one or more information
pages associated with one or more components. Alternatively, the
cost information can be stored separately from the SDM. A
particular transaction may include multiple different steps. In
this situation, a cost is associated with each of the multiple
steps and a cost is associated with the various transitions between
the multiple steps.
[0339] Next, the procedure executes a capacity planning algorithm
(act 1810). The capacity planning algorithm simulates the actions
taken by an application as it runs on a distributed system. The
simulated application, users, hardware, and workload can be
modified to see the likely effects of the modification on the
throughput, latency, etc. of the application, and the utilization
of the hardware. This simulation eliminates the need to build and
test a real system in a test lab or similar setting. Various types
of capacity planning approaches include simulation, statistical
analysis (e.g., trending), operational research analytics, queuing
theory, or a hybrid approach (e.g., a combination of any two or
more approaches).
[0340] If the capacity planning algorithm returns satisfactory
results (act 1812), the results of the capacity planning algorithm
are stored (act 1814) along with information about the planned
system. If the capacity planning algorithm does not return
satisfactory results, one or more aspects of the planned system are
changed (act 1816). Satisfactory results include, for example,
worst-case time to process a transaction, maximum wait time for a
response, average wait time for a response, maximum number of
concurrent requests, and the like. Changes to a planned system may
include increasing storage capacity, increasing processing
resources, increasing communication bandwidth between certain
components, adding components, removing components, etc.
[0341] When performing the capacity planning process, different
system architectures may be considered. Other variables may include
different numbers of servers or other components, different
component sizes and component configurations, different storage
capacities, and different types and quantities of transactions.
These different architectures and/or variables allow a wide range
of differences among various planned systems to see which system is
best suited for the anticipated transactions.
[0342] In a particular embodiment, a planned system is defined by
an SDM as well as additional information regarding the various
transactions to be executed, including the cost of each step in
each transaction. In other embodiments, all information about the
planned system is contained in an SDM.
[0343] FIG. 19 illustrates example transactions that are performed
by a planned system. In this example, two separate transactions are
launched in response to a particular request. For example, a
customer may place an order for a particular product. In other
implementations, each transaction may be executed independently of
the other transaction. A first transaction (Transaction 1) performs
an inventory check to determine whether the requested product is
available and, if not available, determine a reasonable time
required to obtain and deliver the product to the customer. A
second transaction (Transaction 2) performs a credit check to be
sure the customer is authorized to purchase the requested
product.
[0344] For example, Step 1 and Step 2 of Transaction 1 represent
steps necessary to perform an inventory check, such as looking up a
product identification code, querying one or more warehouse
databases to see if the product is in stock, etc. Step 3 and Step 4
of Transaction 2 represent steps necessary to perform a credit
check, such as verifying past account payments, verifying credit
card information, and the like.
[0345] When evaluating a planned system, an estimation is performed
to determine an approximate number of transactions performed in a
given time period. For example, if an average of ten separate
inventory queries are performed for each order that is placed, and
the system is expecting 5000 orders per day, then there are 50,000
expected inventory queries per day. Additionally, the planned
system may be expected to maintain 25,000 different product
identifiers in a product database. These parameters, along with
various system model information from the SDM and other information
regarding the planned system are used by a capacity planning
algorithm to estimate the performance of the planned system. If the
performance of the system is not satisfactory, changes are made to
the planned system and the capacity planning algorithm is run again
to identify the results of the changes.
[0346] In one example, a first planned system has a bottleneck
created by a hard disk drive. The speed and the capacity of the
hard disk drive is upgraded to create a second planned system. This
second planned system encounters a bottleneck caused by lack of
processor resources to handle all of the necessary operations.
Thus, an additional processor or a faster processor is added to the
second planned system to create a third planned system. This
process continues until all a planned system is defined that is
estimated to produce satisfactory results based on the capacity
planning algorithm.
[0347] Referring to the example of FIG. 19, each step (Step 1, Step
2, Step 3, Step 4) has an associated cost, which is measured in
time required to perform the step as well as storage capacity and
processor capacity required to perform the step. Transitions
between steps may also have associated costs, such as time required
to transition from one step to the next and bandwidth required to
communicate data from one step to the next or to communicate data
between different components in the planned system. These costs may
be estimated based on an administrator's knowledge of similar
systems or past experience with similar systems. Alternatively, one
or more of these costs can be determined based on actual results
from an existing system. For example, if the planned system is a
modification of an existing system, performance data from the
existing system may be used to estimate similar performance data in
the modified system.
[0348] Attribute Propagation
[0349] A constraint can "flow" over a relationship between two
systems or components, such as a constraint on an application that
makes a statement on how the operating system on which the
application is hosted should be configured. Additionally,
attributes can propagate over one or more relationships to provide
a more meaningful policy, as discussed in greater detail below.
Although particular constraints, policies, and attributes are
discussed herein, alternate embodiments may include additional
constraints, policies, or attributes, or may omit certain
constraints, policies, or attributes discussed herein. Although a
particular model is described herein, alternate embodiments may use
any type of model having any type of structure for defining
components in a system.
[0350] The SDM contains static information (e.g., the topology of
software services within an application) and dynamic information
(e.g., the control flow of a particular transaction). This
information is used to describe components, system architecture,
and transaction flows (e.g., a series of steps that perform a
function).
[0351] FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating an example process 2000
for propagating attributes throughout a system model. Process 2000
can be implemented in software, firmware, and/or hardware.
Initially, process 2000 retrieves a model associated with a system
having multiple components (act 2002). In one embodiment, this
model is an SDM model of the type discussed above with respect to
FIGS. 1 and 2. A particular model may contain any number of objects
to define the associated system.
[0352] Process 2000 continues by defining (or identifying) various
attributes, policies, constraints, dependencies, and other
information associated with the system and/or particular components
of the system. This information can be defined by a system
administrator, a system manager, or other person responsible for
managing the system. Alternatively, this information may be
retrieved (or received) from one or more data sources. In
particular, process 2000 defines policies associated with the
system and specific components of the system (act 2004). These
policies may include, for example, business policies such as data
backup frequency, licensing information, and whether the system is
permitted to export certain data.
[0353] The process further defines constraints associated with the
components of the system (act 2006) and defines relationships
between the various components of the system (act 2008).
Constraints can be defined, for example, in one or more constraint
pages (discussed above), which are examples of information pages
contained in SDM 100. Certain constraints may be specified as part
of another model (such as an SDM model of a SQL Server database),
yet those constraints also become part of this SDM model when the
other model is included. A constraint can flow over a relationship.
For example, if an application A has a relationship with a SQL
Server S, a constraint defined for application A can reference an
attribute of server S. A constraint on application A may state that
application A must store its data on a RAID device. Thus, even
though the SQL Server S does not itself have this RAID constraint,
the constraint flows from application A to SQL Server S due to the
relationship between the two items.
[0354] Dependencies include, for example, dependencies between two
or more components in the system. A dependency definition may (or
may not) include a reason why a particular component depends on
another component. A particular dependency definition may simply
identify the dependency such that if one component fails, the
system can determine what other components depend on the failed
component. Dependencies may also be referred to as
"relationships."
[0355] Next, process 2000 defines attributes and other information
associated with the system and/or particular components of the
system (act 2010). In one example, a system may have attributes
such as business-importance, with possible values of 4 representing
customer-facing-mission-critical, 3 for internal-mission-critical,
2 for internal-standard, 1 for test, and 0 for retired. The process
then defines how the various attributes are to be propagated
throughout the model based on one or more propagation rules (act
2012). For example, if an application has a dependency on a
database, a health attribute is propagated from the database to the
application. If the database fails, the system can determine that
the application fails as well. Business-importance is propagated in
the opposite direction. For example, if the application has a
business-importance rating of 3, the database gets the same rating,
unless it already has a higher rating.
[0356] In another implementation, an attribute propagation rule for
a containment relationship may specify how a health attribute is to
be propagated from the contained systems (the children) to the
container (the parent). In many cases, the health monitoring
systems give the parent the worst-case health value of the
children. Thus, if any single child has a "red" health status, the
parent gets that same health status. In some situations, when the
container represents a system with a redundant architecture, health
monitoring systems may implement an aggressive algorithm that
recognizes the redundancy. For example, the parent only gets the
"red" status if at least all three children have "red" status. The
attribute propagation systems and methods discussed herein allow
more flexible algorithms. For example, the systems and methods can
weigh the health value of the children using the
business-importance rating, or traffic volume, size, or cost of
each child system when calculating the aggregate health value for
the parent. In one such model, there may be a system representing
all the printers in an office. When calculating the aggregate
health state of printing, a large invoicing printer is more
important and is given greater weight than small inkjet printers on
most users' desks. The systems and methods can determine the
business-importance rating, or traffic volume, size, or cost of
each child by propagating attributes to other related systems,
including lower-level children.
[0357] Finally, after the models, policies, constraints,
attributes, and propagation rules have been defined, the process
propagates the attributes throughout the model based on information
contained in the model associated with the system (act 2014). The
process then interprets the policies during continual management of
the systems (act 2016). For example, information contained in SDM
100, discussed above, describes relationships and other data
regarding components in the system that is useful in propagating
the attributes to the appropriate objects in the system model. With
this knowledge of the system architecture, the attributes are
propagated throughout the model.
[0358] As mentioned above, attributes can propagate over
relationships. For example, an administrator may specify that a
business-importance attribute should propagate over the
application-to-database communications relationship. In this
example, if application A has a high business-importance rating,
when application A and SQL Server S are connected with such a
relationship, SQL Server S gets the same business-importance
rating. Using this technique for propagating attributes, the
administrator or other user can define a more meaningful policy for
the database storage. Namely, SQL Server S receives a policy that
indicates "if my business-importance rating is 4, then I must use a
RAID device to host the data." This expresses the desired policy,
but keeps the internal details of the SQL Server out of the
policies associated with the application.
[0359] FIG. 21 illustrates an example attribute propagation module
2102 that receives a system model and various attributes, and
propagates attributes throughout the model. Attribute propagation
module 2102 receives system model information, such as information
contained in an SDM. Additionally, attribute propagation module
2102 receives policy information 2106, constraint information 2108,
dependency information 2110, and information regarding other
attributes 2112. Attribute propagation module 2102 then distributes
one or more attributes to an evaluation module 2114, which
evaluates constraints and policies based on the attribute values.
Evaluation module 2114 detects deviations in any constraints or
policies and takes appropriate action to correct the deviation.
Alternatively, evaluation module 2114 may bring the deviation to
the attention of an administrator or other user.
[0360] For example, two different applications (application A and
application B) both use a SQL Server database and the database uses
a disk drive to host the data. If application A has a
business-importance rating of 1, and application B has a
business-importance rating of 2, the database gets the highest of
these two ratings, which is 2. When application A is released to
production, its business-importance rating is raised to 4,
representing customer-facing-mission-critical, and this rating is
propagated to the database. If there is a policy that every
database with business-importance of 4 must be stored on a RAID
storage subsystem, the evaluation module detects that a change to
one of the applications caused the database to be out of compliance
with a policy. The evaluation module then initiates actions to
correct that situation or notify an administrator of the situation.
If, at a later time, Application A is removed or no longer
connected to the database, the database gets a lower
business-importance rating and no longer requires a costly RAID
storage device. Having a RAID storage device is not a violation of
the initial policy, but it is unnecessary, and there may be another
policy that databases should not use RAID storage devices unless
their business-importance rating is high enough.
[0361] In another example, the propagated attribute is communicated
to an administrator when a constraint violation is detected, but
not used in the analysis. The database may have a simpler
constraint that is not dependent on any propagated attribute, such
as "the journaling file should not be installed on a compressed
drive." The corrective action for this constraint may be specified
as "notify the administrator with a warning" because the rule is
not important (not classified as a serious error). In this
situation, the management system should not take any form of
automated corrective action or otherwise enforce the policy.
However, if the rule indicates that the business-importance
attribute should be included in the notification to the
administrator, the administrator may decide to give the violation
greater attention for a mission-critical database than for other
databases.
[0362] In yet another example, an attribute may influence the
schedule by which a management action is taken. If many systems are
found to be in violation of a particular security policy, and
correcting that violation requires manual intervention, the systems
with high business-importance may be prioritized ahead of other
systems.
[0363] In a particular implementation, attribute propagation module
2102 may not receive one or more of: policy information 2106,
constraint information 2108, dependency information 2110, or
information regarding other attributes 2112. Attribute propagation
module 2102 may receive policy information 2106, constraint
information 2108, dependency information 2110, and information
regarding other attributes 2112 from any number of sources. In
other embodiments, attribute propagation module 2102 receives
additional information not shown in FIG. 21.
[0364] Example Computer Environment
[0365] FIG. 22 illustrates an example general computer environment
2200, which can be used to implement the techniques described
herein. The computer environment 2200 is only one example of a
computing environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation
as to the scope of use or functionality of the computer and network
architectures. Neither should the computer environment 2200 be
interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to any
one or combination of components illustrated in the example
computer environment 2200.
[0366] Computer environment 2200 includes a general-purpose
computing device in the form of a computer 2202. Computer 2202 can
be, for example, a computing device on which an application is
installed or monitored, or a computing device on which at least
portions of process 300 of FIG. 3 are implemented. Computer 2202
can be, for example, a desktop computer, a handheld computer, a
notebook or laptop computer, a server computer, a game console, and
so on. The components of computer 2202 can include, but are not
limited to, one or more processors or processing units 2204, a
system memory 2206, and a system bus 2208 that couples various
system components including the processor 2204 to the system memory
2206.
[0367] The system bus 2208 represents one or more of any of several
types of bus structures, including a memory bus or memory
controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, and a
processor or local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures.
By way of example, such architectures can include an Industry
Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, a Micro Channel Architecture (MCA)
bus, an Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, a Video Electronics Standards
Association (VESA) local bus, and a Peripheral Component
Interconnects (PCI) bus also known as a Mezzanine bus.
[0368] Computer 2202 typically includes a variety of computer
readable media. Such media can be any available media that is
accessible by computer 2202 and includes both volatile and
non-volatile media, removable and non-removable media.
[0369] The system memory 2206 includes computer readable media in
the form of volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM)
2210, and/or non-volatile memory, such as read only memory (ROM)
2212. A basic input/output system (BIOS) 2214, containing the basic
routines that help to transfer information between elements within
computer 2202, such as during start-up, is stored in ROM 2212. RAM
2210 typically contains data and/or program modules that are
immediately accessible to and/or presently operated on by the
processing unit 2204.
[0370] Computer 2202 may also include other
removable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer storage
media. By way of example, FIG. 22 illustrates a hard disk drive
2216 for reading from and writing to a non-removable, non-volatile
magnetic media (not shown), a magnetic disk drive 2218 for reading
from and writing to a removable, non-volatile magnetic disk 2220
(e.g., a "floppy disk"), and an optical disk drive 2222 for reading
from and/or writing to a removable, non-volatile optical disk 2224
such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or other optical media. The hard disk
drive 2216, magnetic disk drive 2218, and optical disk drive 2222
are each connected to the system bus 2208 by one or more data media
interfaces 2226. Alternatively, the hard disk drive 2216, magnetic
disk drive 2218, and optical disk drive 2222 can be connected to
the system bus 2208 by one or more interfaces (not shown).
[0371] The disk drives and their associated computer-readable media
provide non-volatile storage of computer readable instructions,
data structures, program modules, and other data for computer 2202.
Although the example illustrates a hard disk 2216, a removable
magnetic disk 2220, and a removable optical disk 2224, it is to be
appreciated that other types of computer readable media which can
store data that is accessible by a computer, such as magnetic
cassettes or other magnetic storage devices, flash memory cards,
CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage,
random access memories (RAM), read only memories (ROM),
electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), and
the like, can also be utilized to implement the exemplary computing
system and environment.
[0372] Any number of program modules can be stored on the hard disk
2216, magnetic disk 2220, optical disk 2224, ROM 2212, and/or RAM
2210, including by way of example, an operating system 2226, one or
more application programs 2228, other program modules 2230, and
program data 2232. Each of such operating system 2226, one or more
application programs 2228, other program modules 2230, and program
data 2232 (or some combination thereof) may implement all or part
of the resident components that support the distributed file
system.
[0373] A user can enter commands and information into computer 2202
via input devices such as a keyboard 2234 and a pointing device
2236 (e.g., a "mouse"). Other input devices 2238 (not shown
specifically) may include a microphone, joystick, game pad,
satellite dish, serial port, scanner, and/or the like. These and
other input devices are connected to the processing unit 2204 via
input/output interfaces 2240 that are coupled to the system bus
2208, but may be connected by other interface and bus structures,
such as a parallel port, game port, or a universal serial bus
(USB).
[0374] A monitor 2242 or other type of display device can also be
connected to the system bus 2208 via an interface, such as a video
adapter 2244. In addition to the monitor 2242, other output
peripheral devices can include components such as speakers (not
shown) and a printer 2246 which can be connected to computer 2202
via the input/output interfaces 2240.
[0375] Computer 2202 can operate in a networked environment using
logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a
remote computing device 2248. By way of example, the remote
computing device 2248 can be a personal computer, portable
computer, a server, a router, a network computer, a peer device or
other common network node, and the like. The remote computing
device 2248 is illustrated as a portable computer that can include
many or all of the elements and features described herein relative
to computer 2202.
[0376] Logical connections between computer 2202 and the remote
computer 2248 are depicted as a local area network (LAN) 2250 and a
general wide area network (WAN) 2252. Such networking environments
are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks,
intranets, and the Internet.
[0377] When implemented in a LAN networking environment, the
computer 2202 is connected to a local network 2250 via a network
interface or adapter 2254. When implemented in a WAN networking
environment, the computer 2202 typically includes a modem 2256 or
other means for establishing communications over the wide network
2252. The modem 2256, which can be internal or external to computer
2202, can be connected to the system bus 2208 via the input/output
interfaces 2240 or other appropriate mechanisms. It is to be
appreciated that the illustrated network connections are exemplary
and that other means of establishing communication link(s) between
the computers 2202 and 2248 can be employed.
[0378] In a networked environment, such as that illustrated with
computing environment 2200, program modules depicted relative to
the computer 2202, or portions thereof, may be stored in a remote
memory storage device. By way of example, remote application
programs 2258 reside on a memory device of remote computer 2248.
For purposes of illustration, application programs and other
executable program components such as the operating system are
illustrated herein as discrete blocks, although it is recognized
that such programs and components reside at various times in
different storage components of the computing device 2202, and are
executed by the data processor(s) of the computer.
[0379] Various modules and techniques may be described herein in
the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as
program modules, executed by one or more computers or other
devices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs,
objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular
tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Typically, the
functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed
as desired in various embodiments.
[0380] An implementation of these modules and techniques may be
stored on or transmitted across some form of computer readable
media. Computer readable media can be any available media that can
be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and not limitation,
computer readable media may comprise "computer storage media" and
"communications media."
[0381] "Computer storage media" includes volatile and non-volatile,
removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or
technology for storage of information such as computer readable
instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data.
Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM,
EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital
versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes,
magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage
devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired
information and which can be accessed by a computer.
[0382] "Communication media" typically embodies computer readable
instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a
modulated data signal, such as carrier wave or other transport
mechanism. Communication media also includes any information
delivery media. The term "modulated data signal" means a signal
that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such
a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example,
and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such
as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media
such as acoustic, RF, infrared, and other wireless media.
Combinations of any of the above are also included within the scope
of computer readable media.
[0383] Alternatively, portions of the framework may be implemented
in hardware or a combination of hardware, software, and/or
firmware. For example, one or more application specific integrated
circuits (ASICs) or programmable logic devices (PLDs) could be
designed or programmed to implement one or more portions of the
framework.
CONCLUSION
[0384] Although the invention has been described in language
specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is
to be understood that the invention defined in the appended claims
is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts
described. Rather, the specific features and acts are disclosed as
exemplary forms of implementing the claimed invention.
* * * * *