Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Bradley M Hammond

Bogdan I Berce

Jakub M Oleksy

Daniel Ron Simon

Michael Todd Kramer

Yuhang Zhu

Lee M Butler

Joel Pothering

Paul Roberts

Josh R Cohen

An object template system is described herein that allows an administrator of an IT management application to define templates that provide a streamlined mechanism for pre-populating IT objects with common values based on business logic and processes. The object template system addresses manipulation of objects both as part of a user interactive session as well as in programmatic workflows, while also allowing for referencing of existing objects to assume integrity of data. A metadata-driven schema allows for portable definitions of simple and complex extensible objects. The system validates these definitions against the extensible types that define the objects to ensure structural integrity. Users can then apply these definitions at runtime to both create and/or update simple and complex management objects. Thus, the object template system allows an administrator to define controlled processes for creating and modifying management objects within a flexible IT management application.

Object templates for data-driven applications

Techniques are described herein for using a management pack to define a structure of management packs. A management pack is business logic expressed in terms of an extensible language, such as extensible markup language (XML). Instances of entities that are described by a management pack are stored in an instance space that is defined by the management pack. An entity can be a computer, software program, employee, customer, management pack, management pack element, or anything else in the system that an administrator may wish to describe. A management pack that defines the structure of management packs is referred to as a 'management pack management pack' (MPMP). Accordingly, management packs (including MPMPs) having a structure that is defined by a MPMP are stored in an instance space that is defined by the MPMP. The instance space that is defined by the MPMP is materialized in a database.

Instance space based management pack infrastructure

Providing secure end-to-end notifications from a notification source to a notification sink despite the notification mechanism including one or more message transit points between the notification source and the notification sink. Initially, security information (e.g., the master security, the cryptographic algorithm, and the like) is negotiated out-of-band from the one or more message transit points so that the message transit points are not apprised of the security information. When a designated event occurs, the notification source generates a push message that includes the notification encrypted using the pre-negotiated security information. When the notification sink receives the push message, the notification sink decrypts the notification using the pre-negotiated security information, as well as supplemental information provided in the push message. Thus, the message transit points only have access to the encrypted form of the notification.

Secure end-to-end notification

A system for creating database partial replicas is provided where the referential integrity of the original database is maintained in the partial replica. Filters are specified to allow a user to select, using boolean logic, which rows of the original database are to be propagated to the partial replica. A row containing the primary key corresponding to a foreign key of a row propagated to the partial replica is also propagated to the partial replica. Also, a filter may be specified to include rows that are part of a relationship between multiple record sources. The result is a partial replica database containing only those records desired by the user but also all the records necessary to maintain the referential integrity of the original database.

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Bellevue, WA, United States of America

Bradley M Hammond