Patent ID: 8997091
Filing Date: 2015-03-31
Classification: G06F,G06Q,H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for performing compliance testing comprising: receiving configuration state information in a first form for each of one or more devices managed using a configuration management system, said first form of the configuration state information for said each device including information in one of a plurality of formats that vary with said each device; performing a plurality of conversions to convert the first form of configuration state information for each of the one or more devices to a data container representation of the configuration state information; storing the data container representation of the configuration state information in a data container; executing one or more compliance tests using the configuration state information to determine if the one or more devices are compliant, said one or more compliance tests being defined using one or more queries and one or more compliance rules, said one or more queries used for retrieving a portion of said configuration state information from said data container and generating one or more result sets, said one or more compliance rules specifying compliance criteria used for determining whether said one or more result sets include configuration state information which is compliant; determining whether a first of the one or more devices fails a first of the compliance tests; and responsive to determining that the first device fails the first compliance test, automatically generating a corresponding remedial action including one or more device commands to make the first device compliant with an expected configuration state based on a portion of the compliance criteria of the first compliance test, wherein first metadata describes a hierarchical object model including a first object and a second object nested in the first object, the first metadata including a first remedial action atomicity level indicator for the first object indicating it is allowable for remedial action processing to generate the first object, the first metadata including a second remedial action atomicity level indicator for the second object indicating whether it is allowable for remedial action processing to generate the second object, said second object including a first portion corresponding to corrected configuration state information of the first device, wherein said automatically generating the corresponding remedial action includes performing first processing comprising: