Live migration method for large-scale IT management systems

1. A computer implemented method of migrating services and clients from a legacy topology to a new topology, the method comprising:

receiving user input selecting a first client managed by a first configuration management system to migrate to a second configuration management system;

determining dependencies of the first client including services and their data on which the first client depends to function in a topology;

migrating the dependencies of the first client including services and their data on which the first client depends to function in a topology to the second configuration management system; and

allowing one or more services to continue to be managed by the first configuration management system after migrating to the second configuration management system, thus sharing services between topologies.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein migrating the dependencies of the first client comprises:

creating one or more migration jobs for migrating the dependencies; and

executing the one or more migration jobs to migrate services from the first configuration management system to the second configuration management system.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising, after migrating the dependencies of the first client, then migrating the client to the second configuration management system.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising, after migrating the client to the second configuration management system, then migrating one or more additional services not identified in the act of determining dependencies of the first client.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying core services that are a basic set of services needed for a topology to function, and

migrating the core services from the first configuration management system to the second configuration management system.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining that one or more services managed by the first configuration management system are obsolete and as a result preventing the obsolete services from being migrated to the second configuration management system.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein acts for determining dependencies of the first client are performed at a low level to improve migration performance.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein acts for migrating the dependencies of the first client are performed at high level to improve data integrity.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising synchronizing object metadata for the dependencies between the first and second configuration management systems allowing administrators to monitor services or clients at one console or tool without the need to switch between consoles or tools for the different configuration management systems.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method includes:

alerting the administrator of the dependencies of the first client including services and their data on which the first client depends to function in the topology.

11. A computer implemented method of migrating services and clients from a legacy topology to a new topology, the method comprising:

receiving user input selecting a collection of clients managed by a first configuration management system to migrate;

calculating dependencies for the collection of clients including calculating services needed for clients in the collection of clients to function with a second configuration management system;

creating one or more migration jobs for migrating the services needed for clients in the collection of clients from the first configuration management system to the second configuration management system;

executing the one or more migration jobs to migrate the services needed for clients in the collection of clients from the first configuration management system to the second configuration management system; and

allowing one or more services to continue to be managed by the first configuration management system after migrating to the second configuration management system, thus sharing services between topologies.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising, after all of the services needed for clients in the collection of clients have been migrated to the second configuration management system, then migrating the clients in the collection of clients to the second configuration management system.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising, after at least a portion of the clients in the collection of clients have been migrated to the second configuration management system, then migrating one or more additional services not identified in the act of calculating dependencies for the collection of clients.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

identifying core services that are a basic set of services needed for a topology to function, and

creating one or more migration jobs for migrating the core services from the first configuration management system to the second configuration management system.

15. The method of claim 11 further comprising determining that one or more services managed by the first configuration management system are obsolete and as a result preventing the obsolete services from being migrated to the second configuration management system.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein acts for calculating dependencies are performed at a low level to improve migration performance.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein acts for executing the one or more migration jobs to migrate the services needed for clients in the collection of clients from the first configuration management system to the second configuration management system are performed at high level to improve data integrity.

18. The method of claim 11 further comprising synchronizing object metadata for the services between the first and second configuration management systems allowing administrators to monitor services or clients at one console or tool without the need to switch between consoles or tools for the different configuration management systems.

19. A computing system comprising:

at least one processor; and

system memory storing computer-executable instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, implement a method of migrating services and clients from a legacy topology to a new topology, the method comprising:

receiving user input selecting a first set of one or more clients from a plurality of clients managed by a first configuration management system to migrate to a second configuration management system;

based upon the selection of the first set of one or more clients, determining the dependencies of the first set of one or more clients that are required for the first set of one or more clients to function properly, the dependencies including services and their data on which each of the one or more clients in the first set depends to function properly; and

migrating the dependencies of the first client including services and their data on which the first client depends to the second configuration management system,

wherein the determining the dependencies is performed at a low level while the migrating is performed at a high level.

20. The computing system of claim 19 , wherein the migration is performed while refraining from migrating data that is not in use.

21. The computing system of claim 19 , wherein the performing of migration at the high level includes performing data validation and wherein performing the determining at the low level is performed without data validation.