Patent ID: 8010576
Filing Date: 2011-08-30
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method for inventory control and configuration management, the method comprising: receiving, at an information processing device configured to manage a plurality of software components where each software component has a non-uniform way of representing its metadata that configures the software component, a textual description of a simplest aggregate that configures a software component in the plurality of software components for execution, the simplest aggregate being an atomic entity aggregatable in another aggregate and identifying at least an executable and a set of parameters for the executable, the textual description of the simplest aggregate expressed according to a description schema modeling all activities handled by the information processing device that is different from the way the software component represents its metadata; receiving, at the information processing device, an instance schema for the simplest aggregate, the instance schema describing how to form instances of the simplest aggregate; generating, with a processor associated with the information processing device, an instance of the simplest aggregate based on the textual description of the simplest aggregate and the instance schema for the simplest aggregate; storing the instance in a memory associated with the first information processing device; determining, with the processor associated with the information processing device, one or more values for each parameter in the set of parameters; storing the one or more values for each parameter in the instance of the simplest aggregate; and configuring the software component with the processor associated with the information processing device based on the instance of the simplest aggregate and metadata for the software component that configures the software component.