Bmc Software, Inc.

Douglas Mueller

Narayan Kumar

Ajoy Kumar

Govindarajan Rangarajan

Darius Wallace

Jiani Chen

Charles Mousseau

Kia Behnia

Richard Mayfield

Josie George

Matthew Dennis Connors

Duncan Paul Grisby

Matthew Conners

A data management system includes a data reconciliation engine that identifies data sources that contain data records referencing a resource and determines whether each of the identified data sources is a creative data source or an additive data source. When all of the identified data sources are additive data sources, the reconciliation engine terminates a data reconciliation process. When all of the identified data sources are not additive data sources, the reconciliation engine finds a first creative data source from among the identified data sources, and initiates the data reconciliation process by merging data from the identified data sources including the first creative data source, one data source-by-one data source, into a reconciled data record.

Creative and additive reconciliation of data records

A first datastore discovers a configuration item (CI), without a persistent unique identifier in a distributed datastores environment. When the first datastore has authoritative naming rights, it determines an authoritative identification for the CI. When the first datastore has advisory naming rights, it suggests a name for the CI to a second datastore having authoritative naming rights. The second datastore determines that a pre-existing identification for the CI in the second datastore is the authoritative identification for the CI. If there is no pre-existing identification for the CI in the second data store, the second data store accepts the suggested name as the authoritative identification for the CI. When the first datastore has no naming rights for the CI, it sends the CI to a third data store having authoritative naming rights for the CI to get an authoritative identification for the CI.

Cooperative naming for configuration items in a distributed configuration management database environment

Disclosed is a method, a system and a computer readable medium for additive independent object modification. The method includes determining an association between an independent object modification and a base object of a software application, modifying at least one element of the base object based on the associated independent object modification, and configuring the software application to execute in a computer system using the modified base object.

Additive independent object modification

Task implementation tools are registered to interface with a change management tool. The change management tool configures a plurality of tasks to implement a change to an information technology infrastructure's configuration, and sends a plurality of task instructions to the plurality of task implementation tools for performing the plurality of tasks. Each task instruction is directed to a targeted task implementation tool for performing a particular task and includes task-related information for the targeted implementation tool to perform the particular task. Registering the plurality of task implementation tools to interface with the change management tool includes registering each the plurality of task implementation tools to accept the task instruction for the particular task directed to it from the change management tool, to know what to do with the task instruction and to know how to respond to the task instruction.

Bi-directional communication between change management tool and implementation tools

In accordance with aspects of the disclosure, systems and methods are provided for normalizing data representing entities and relationships linking the entities including defining one or more graph rules describing searchable characteristics for the data representing the entities and relationships linking the entities, applying the one or more graph rules to the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities, identifying one or more matching instances between the one or more graph rules and the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities, and performing one or more actions to update the one or more matching instances between the one or more graph rules and the data representing the entities and the relationships linking the entities.

Multi-entity normalization

A method to reconcile multiple instances of a single computer resource identified by resource discovery operations includes: (1) accessing information describing one or more resources; (2) identifying, via the accessed information, at least one resource that has been detected or discovered by at least two of the discovery operations; and (3) merging attributes associated with the identified resource from each of the at least two discovery operations into a single, reconciled resource object. Illustrative 'resources' include, but are not limited to, computer systems, components of computer systems, data storage systems, switches, routers, memory, software applications (e.g., accounting and database applications), operating systems and business services (e.g., order entry or change management and tracking services).

System and method for resource reconciliation in an enterprise management system

Disclosed are methods and systems to provide coordinated identification of data items across a plurality of distributed data storage repositories (datastores). In one disclosed embodiment, a single configuration management database (CMDB) controls identification rights for all CIs as they are first identified in a master/slave relationship with all other CMDBs in the distributed environment. In a second embodiment, a plurality of CMDBs divide identification rights based upon coordination identification rules where certain CMDBs are assigned authoritative identification rights for CIs matching the rules of a particular CMDB in the distributed environment. In a third embodiment, one or more of the plurality of CMDBs may also have advisory identification rights for CIs which do not already have an identifiable unique identity and can coordinate with an authoritative CMDB to establish an identity for CIs.

Data is often populated into Configuration Management Databases (CMDBs) from different sources. Because the data can come from a variety of sources, it may have inconsistencies&#x2014;and may even be incomplete. A Normalization Engine (NE) may be able to automatically clean up the incoming data based on certain rules and knowledge. In one embodiment, the NE takes each Configuration Item (CI) or group of CIs that are to be normalized and applies a rule or a set of rules to see if the data may be cleaned up, and, if so, updates the CI or group of CIs accordingly. In particular, one embodiment may allow for the CI's data to be normalized by doing a look up against a Product Catalog and/or an Alias Catalog. In another embodiment, the NE architecture could be fully extensible, allowing for the creation of custom, rules-based plug-ins by users and/or third parties.

Normalization engine to manage configuration management database integrity

Disclosed are methods and systems to automatically integrate work requests from multiple Spoke systems at a centralized Hub system. In one embodiment, a Hub system receives a portion of a work request from a problem tracking system executing in the region (e.g., geographic area or network subnet) of an associated Spoke system. The request comprises enough information for the Hub system to prioritize this work request against other work requests already received from this same Spoke system, other Spoke systems in the same region, or even other Spoke systems from other regions. A Hub user can then be presented with an integrated work queue of requests to service after they have been properly prioritized. The Hub user may be supporting multiple clients in an outsourcing style Information Technology (IT) support model or a call center model. Supported clients can execute on different data center platforms, at the same time.

Integrating action requests from a plurality of spoke systems at a hub system

Overlay datasets provide an efficient, flexible and scalable mechanism to represent the logical replication of one or more prior defined datasets. Only changes made to an entity in an overlay dataset's underlying dataset are replicated into the overlay dataset (such changes do not affect the underlying dataset). Read operations directed to the overlay dataset will find entities in the overlay dataset if they exist and in the underlying dataset(s) if no overlay-specific entity exists. Accordingly, overlay datasets provide an efficient mechanism for making changes to an existing dataset without suffering the high processing time and storage overhead associated with prior art copying and versioning techniques. Overlay datasets also provide a natural mechanism to keep two or more datasets in synchronization because changes to a base or underlying dataset's entities are 'visible' in its associated overlay dataset (unless the entity has been modified in the overlay dataset).

Overlay dataset

According to an aspect, a system for assisting a user with configuration management may include a configuration management database (CMDB) system having a plurality of configuration items, and an application external to the CMDB system. The CMDB system may associate an invocation string with a first configuration item and the application external to the CMDB system. The CMDB system may obtain information from the first configuration item, where the information from the first configuration item provides information for launching the application external to the CMDB system. The CMDB system may insert the information from the first configuration item into the invocation string to create an application execution command. The CMDB system may execute the application external to the CMDB system, independently from the CMDB system, based on the application execution command.

Growing community of inventors

Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Douglas Mueller