Granted Patent B2

US 9,191,380 · App. 12/727,837 · Granted Nov 17, 2015

Abstract

Claims (60)

1. A system for managing information technology models in an intelligent workload management system, comprising:

an identity vault that stores federated information defining unique identities for a plurality of managed entities across a plurality of authentication domains;

a discovery engine that populates a model of an information technology infrastructure and enriches the model of the information technology infrastructure with the federated information stored in the identity vault and identity information obtained from the information technology infrastructure; and

a management infrastructure that manages one or more planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the management infrastructure is configured to cause one or more physical processors to:

construct an implementation plan for the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the implementation plan includes an approval workflow that coordinates interaction between one or more human approvers and one or more of the plurality of managed entities;

manage the implementation plan constructed for the planned changes, wherein managing the implementation plan includes coordinating the interaction between the one or more human approvers and the one or more of the plurality of managed entities to implement the planned changes in the information technology infrastructure;

capture a snapshot of the information technology infrastructure in response to implementing the planned changes in the information technology infrastructure, wherein the snapshot comprises information about a plurality of resources in the information technology infrastructure, a plurality of managed identities associated with the plurality of resources in the information technology infrastructure, and relationships for the plurality of resources in the information technology infrastructure, wherein the plurality of resources in the information technology infrastructure include one or more physical devices in the information technology infrastructure, one or more applications in the information technology infrastructure, and one or more services in the information technology infrastructure;

compare the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure to a planned configuration state for the information technology infrastructure; and

detect a real-time drift in the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure in response to determining that the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure does not conform to the planned configuration state of the information technology infrastructure, wherein to detect the real-time drift, the management infrastructure is further configured to cause the one or more physical processors to:

identify a location of the real-time drift in the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure based at least on the relationships for the plurality of resources in the information technology infrastructure.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to cause the one or more physical processors to:

validate the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure in response to determining that the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure conforms to the planned configuration state of the information technology infrastructure;

create a real-time remediation workload associated with the identified location of the real-time drift to recover from the real-time drift in the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the real-time remediation workload includes a recovery workflow that the one or more human approvers interact with to recover the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure to a previously validated state of the information technology infrastructure; and

execute the recovery workflow in the real-time remediation workload, wherein the one or more human approvers interact with the executed recovery workflow to roll back one or more changes that occurred in the information technology infrastructure during a time interval between the previously validated state and the drifted state of the information technology infrastructure.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to cause the one or more physical processors to:

validate the operational state for the information technology infrastructure in response to determining that the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure conforms to the planned configuration state of the information technology infrastructure;

create a real-time remediation workload associated with the identified location of the real-time drift to recover from the real-time drift in the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the real-time remediation workload includes a recovery workflow that the one or more human approvers interact with to implement one or more changes to the information technology infrastructure; and

execute the recovery workflow in the real-time remediation workload, wherein the one or more human approvers interact with the executed recovery workflow to cause the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure to conform to the planned configuration state of the information technology infrastructure.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to cause the one or more physical processors to:

determine that the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure violate one or more policies, wherein the implementation plan modifies one or more of the planned changes for compliance with the violated policies;

determine that the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure competes with one or more other planned changes to model of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the implementation plan modifies one or more of a schedule or a priority for the planned changes or the other planned changes to resolve the competition between the planned changes and the other planned changes; and

determine that the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure interfere with availability or performance for one or more resources in the information technology infrastructure, wherein the implementation plan modifies one or more of the planned changes to resolve the interference with the availability or the performance for the one or more resources in the information technology infrastructure.

5. A system for managing information technology models in an intelligent workload management system, comprising:

an identity vault that stores federated information defining unique identities for a plurality of managed entities across a plurality of authentication domains;

a discovery engine that populates a model of an information technology infrastructure and enriches the model of the information technology infrastructure with the federated information stored in the identity vault and identity information obtained from the information technology infrastructure; and

a management infrastructure that manages one or more planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the management infrastructure is configured to cause one or more physical processors to:

construct an implementation plan for the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the implementation plan includes an approval workflow that coordinates interaction between one or more human approvers and one or more of the plurality of managed entities;

manage the implementation plan constructed for the planned changes, wherein managing the implementation plan includes coordinating the interaction between the one or more human approvers and the one or more of the plurality of managed entities to implement the planned changes in the information technology infrastructure;

capture a snapshot of the information technology infrastructure in response to implementing the planned changes in the information technology infrastructure, wherein the snapshot comprises information about a plurality of resources in the information technology infrastructure, a plurality of managed identities associated with the plurality of resources in the information technology infrastructure, and relationships for the plurality of resources in the information technology infrastructure, wherein the plurality of resources in the information technology infrastructure include one or more physical devices in the information technology infrastructure, one or more applications in the information technology infrastructure, and one or more services in the information technology infrastructure; and

in response to a determination that the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure does not conform to a planned configuration state of the information technology infrastructure, identify a location of a real-time drift in the snapshot from the planned configuration state of the information technology infrastructure based at least on the relationships for the plurality of resources in the information technology infrastructure.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to cause the one or more physical processors to determine that the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure violate one or more policies, wherein the implementation plan modifies one or more of the planned changes for compliance with the violated policies.

7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to cause the one or more physical processors to determine that the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure competes with one or more other planned changes to model of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the implementation plan modifies one or more of a schedule or a priority for the planned changes or the other planned changes to resolve the competition between the planned changes and the other planned changes.

8. The system of claim 5 , wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to cause the one or more physical processors to determine that the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure interfere with availability or performance for one or more resources in the information technology infrastructure, wherein the implementation plan modifies one or more of the planned changes to resolve the interference with the availability or the performance for the one or more resources in the information technology infrastructure.

9. The system of claim 5 , wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to cause the one or more physical processors to:

receive the planned configuration state of the information technology infrastructure from a database storing version-controlled planned configuration state information;

compare the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure to the planned configuration state for the information technology infrastructure to determine whether the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure conforms to the planned configuration state of the information technology infrastructure;

validate the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure in response to determining that the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure conforms to the planned configuration state of the information technology infrastructure.

10. The system of claim 5 , wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to cause the one or more physical processors to:

manage a real-time remediation workload associated with the identified location of the real-time drift to recover from the real-time drift in the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the real-time remediation workload includes a recovery workflow that the one or more human approvers interact with to recover the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure to a previously validated state of the information technology infrastructure, and wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to cause the one or more physical processors to execute the recovery workflow in the real-time remediation workload, wherein the one or more human approvers interact with the executed recovery workflow to roll back one or more changes that occurred in the information technology infrastructure during a time interval between the previously validated state and the drifted state of the information technology infrastructure.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the real-time remediation workload includes a recovery workflow that the one or more human approvers interact with to implement one or more changes to the information technology infrastructure, and wherein the management infrastructure is further configured to cause the one or more physical processors to execute the recovery workflow in the real-time remediation workload, wherein the one or more human approvers interact with the executed recovery workflow to cause the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure to conform to the planned configuration state of the information technology infrastructure.

13. A method for managing information technology models in an intelligent workload management system, comprising:

storing, in an identity vault, federated information defining unique identities for a plurality of managed entities across a plurality of authentication domains;

populating, by a discovery engine, a model of an information technology infrastructure, wherein the discovery engine enriches the model of the information technology infrastructure with the federated information stored in the identity vault and identity information obtained from the information technology infrastructure; and

managing, by a management infrastructure, one or more planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure, wherein managing the planned changes includes:

constructing an implementation plan for the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the implementation plan includes an approval workflow that coordinates interaction between one or more human approvers and one or more of the plurality of managed entities;

managing the implementation plan constructed for the planned changes, wherein managing the implementation plan includes coordinating the interaction between the one or more human approvers and the one or more of the plurality of managed entities to implement the planned changes in the information technology infrastructure;

capturing a snapshot of the information technology infrastructure in response to implementing the planned changes in the information technology infrastructure, wherein the snapshot comprises information about a plurality of resources in the information technology infrastructure, a plurality of managed identities associated with the plurality of resources in the information technology infrastructure, and relationships for the plurality of resources in the information technology infrastructure, wherein the plurality of resources in the information technology infrastructure include one or more physical devices in the information technology infrastructure, one or more applications in the information technology infrastructure, and one or more services in the information technology infrastructure; and

in response to a determination that the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure does not conform to a planned configuration state of the information technology infrastructure, identifying a location of a real-time drift in the snapshot from the planned configuration state of the information technology infrastructure based at least on the relationships for the plurality of resources in the information technology infrastructure.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein managing the planned changes further includes determining that the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure violate one or more policies, wherein the implementation plan modifies one or more of the planned changes for compliance with the violated policies.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein managing the planned changes further includes determining that the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure competes with one or more other planned changes to model of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the implementation plan modifies one or more of a schedule or a priority for the planned changes or the other planned changes to resolve the competition between the planned changes and the other planned changes.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein managing the planned changes further includes determining that the planned changes to the model of the information technology infrastructure interfere with availability or performance for one or more resources in the information technology infrastructure, wherein the implementation plan modifies one or more of the planned changes to resolve the interference with the availability or the performance for the one or more resources in the information technology infrastructure.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein managing the planned changes further includes:

receiving the planned configuration state of the information technology infrastructure from a database storing version-controlled planned configuration state information;

comparing the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure to the planned configuration state for the information technology infrastructure to determine whether the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure conforms to the planned configuration state of the information technology infrastructure; and

validating the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure in response to determining that the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure conforms to the planned configuration state of the information technology infrastructure.

18. The method of claim 13 , wherein managing the planned changes further includes:

managing a real-time remediation workload associated with the identified location of the real-time drift to recover from the real-time drift in the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the real-time remediation workload includes a recovery workflow that the one or more human approvers interact with to recover the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure to a previously validated state of the information technology infrastructure, and wherein the one or more human approvers interact with the recovery workflow to roll back one or more changes that occurred in the information technology infrastructure during a time interval between the previously validated state and the drifted state of the information technology infrastructure.

20. The method of claim 18 , wherein the real-time remediation workload includes a recovery workflow that the one or more human operators interact with to implement one or more changes to the information technology infrastructure, and wherein the one or more human approvers interact with the recovery workflow to cause the snapshot of the information technology infrastructure to conform to the planned configuration state of the information technology infrastructure.

Assignments (16)