MDR federation facility for CMDBf
View Patent ↗This disclosure relates generally to the field of federated configuration management databases (CMDBs). To claim compliance with the CMDBf Standard (“the Standard”), a CMDB implementation must provide working and interoperable implementations of the interfaces defined in the Standard. To make a working implementation, certain non-obvious features are required that are not addressed by the Standard. Among these requirements are: registering management data repositories (MDRs) so that they can be federated; managing/maintaining the list of federated MDRs; querying an MDR for its Data Model; using such MDR Data Models to define mappings of one or more attributes from the MDR data model to one or more attributes of one or more of the CMDB's data models; identifying attributes and defining rules to be used when reconciliation is performed; and managing as well as storing data representative of those mappings. This disclosure addresses these and other deficiencies.
1. A computer system comprising a programmable control device programmed to perform a federated management data repository (MDR) query method for a configuration management database (CMDB), the method comprising:
receiving interface information for one or more registered MDR services from a computer system possessing a Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) registry;
querying, by the CMDB, one or more of the registered MDR services for their respective MDR data models using a CMDBf compliant query interface;
storing the queried MDR data models in a first memory;
for each of the queried MDR data models:
mapping one or more attributes from an entity in the MDR data model to one or more attributes of an entity or entities in the CMDB's federated data model; and
registering, at the CMDB, an item within an MDR.
2. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the programmable control device is further programmed to store data representative of the attribute mappings in a second memory.
3. The computer system of claim 2 , wherein the programmable control device is further programmed to:
receive a query from a client application;
federate data from one or more MDRs in response to the received query; and
return a federated results set to the client application.
4. The computer system of claim 3 , wherein the program to federate comprises a program to utilize a rules engine programmed to apply the stored mappings to the received query.
5. The computer system of claim 3 , wherein the program to federate comprises a program to retrieve data from a plurality of MDRs.
6. The computer system of claim 5 , wherein the program to retrieve further comprises a program utilizing one or more MDR services compliant with a CMDBf Standard.
7. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the programmable control device is further programmed to:
receive a selection of one or more of the registered MDR services about which interface information was received,
wherein the act of querying one or more of the registered MDR services for their respective MDR data models is limited to only the selected MDR services.
8. The computer system of claim 3 , wherein the program to query is written by an administrator or an end-user.
9. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the program to map one or more attributes from an entity in the MDR data model to one or more attributes of an entity or entities in the CMDB's federated data model is specified by an administrator or an end-user via a user interface tool.
10. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the registering is initiated by the CMDB.
11. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the registering is initiated by the MDR.
12. A computer usable memory medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, wherein the computer readable program code is adapted to be executed to:
receive interface information for one or more registered management data repository (MDR) services from a computer system possessing a Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) registry;
query, by a configuration management database (CMDB), one or more of the registered MDR services for their respective MDR data models using a CMDBf compliant query interface;
store the queried MDR data models in a first memory of the CMDB; and
for each of the queried MDR data models:
store a mapping of one or more attributes from an entity in the MDR data model to one or more attributes of an entity or entities in the CMDB's federated data model in a second memory.
13. The computer usable memory medium of claim 12 , wherein the computer readable program code is further adapted to be executed to:
receive a query from a client application;
federate data from one or more MDRs in response to the received query; and
return a federated results set to the client application.
14. The computer usable memory medium of claim 13 , wherein the program to federate comprises a program utilizing a rules engine to apply the stored mappings to the received query.
15. The computer usable memory medium of claim 12 , wherein the computer readable program code is further adapted to be executed to:
receive a selection of one or more of the registered MDR services about which interface information was received,
wherein the act of querying one or more of the registered MDR services for their respective MDR data models is limited to only the selected MDR services.
16. A federated query method, the method comprising:
receiving, at a first computer system, interface information for one or more registered management data repository (MDR) services from a computer system possessing a Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) registry;
querying, by a configuration management database (CMDB), the one or more registered MDR services for their respective MDR data models using a CMDBf compliant query interface;
storing the queried MDR data models in a first memory of the first computer system; and
for each of the queried MDR data models:
storing, in a second memory of the first computer system, a mapping of one or more attributes of an entity in the MDR data model to one or more attributes of an entity or entities in the CMDB's federated data model.
17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
receiving at the first computer a query from a client application;
federating data from one or more MDRs in response to the received query; and
returning a federated results set to the client application.
18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the federating comprises utilizing a rules engine programmed to apply the stored mappings to the received query.
19. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
receiving a selection of one or more of the registered MDR services about which interface information was received,
wherein the act of querying one or more of the registered MDR services for their respective MDR data models is limited to only the selected MDR services.
20. The method of claim 16 , further comprising the act of registering one or more items within an MDR at the CMDB, wherein the act of registration is initiated by the CMDB.
21. The method of claim 16 , further comprising the act of registering one or more items within an MDR at the CMDB, wherein the act of registration is initiated by the MDR.
22. A computer network executing a federated management data repository (MDR) query method for a configuration management database (CMDB), the computer network comprising:
one or more non-volatile storage devices for maintaining enterprise configuration management information;
one or more computer systems communicatively coupled to the network, the one or more computer systems each configured to:
receive interface information for one or more registered management data repository (MDR) services from a computer system possessing a Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) registry;
query the one or more registered MDR services for their respective MDR data models using a CMDBf compliant query interface;
store the queried MDR data models in a first memory; and
for each of the queried MDR data models:
store, in a second memory, a mapping of one or more attributes of an entity in the MDR data model to one or more attributes of an entity or entities in the CMDB's federated data model.
23. The computer network of claim 22 , further comprising:
a plurality of MDRs; and
a plurality of MDR web services,
wherein each of the plurality of MDRs is associated with one or more MDR web services, and
wherein the plurality of MDR web services are configured to interface with the CMDB.
24. The computer network of claim 22 , wherein the plurality of MDRs exist on a single computer system.
25. The computer network of claim 22 , wherein the plurality of MDRs do not all exist on a single computer system.
26. The computer network of claim 22 , further comprising a UDDI Registry, wherein the UDDI Registry is configured to be in communication with the CMDB.
27. The computer network of claim 22 , further comprising a client application, wherein the client application is configured to query the CMDB.