Abstract:
An automated system generates installation instructions for software installation on a multiple machine cluster system. Pre-configured instruction modules gather information about the components on the system to be installed. From this information, an instruction installation scenario is created for each machine in the cluster system. From this scenario, the system determines which installation instructions are to be performed for each cluster machine. This system also determines the ordering of the instruction installations within a specific machine and between the machines. The invention tracks the installation process and notes the completion of each installation or installation event within the installation process. Also, a written or electronic document of the installation steps can be made available to a system user.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]    The present invention relates to a method and system for generating documentation of instructions for computer system installations and in particular the invention relates to a method and system for automatically generating documentation of instructions for installation of clusters of hardware and software components that comprise a computing system. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]    Many activities involve installation or assembly activities. In these activities, it is often necessary to consult instructions that describe and illustrate the process of installing or assembling objects. The instructions are found installation manuals that accompany the systems for installation. In the technology arena in general and in computer technologies in particular, the installation document can be quite voluminous and complex. Installation manuals for some products are thousands of pages in length and require expert knowledge of system installations in order to correctly and efficiently install certain components in a computing system. Persons spend countless hours trying to identify and understand the installation steps for products. 
         [0003]    Numerous methods have been proposed and implemented to automate the installation of software applications into systems in computing environments. Although numerous methods and systems have been proposed to automate many of the stages of software application development such as testing or library version maintenance, creation of the installation instructions for an executable software application, usually a final step in software application creation, has been largely underdeveloped. 
         [0004]    Creation of software application installation documentation such as for a software interface applications can be a difficult task. Care must be taken to include documentation of all files associated with the software application and, their respective expected or required installation destination, e.g. directory or folder. Software tools for system installations may address the creation of portions of the installation process but these tools mainly focus on packaging the software itself for the installation, e.g. by supplying a “laundry list” of what goes where and when during the software installation. 
         [0005]    Some existing methods also require an initial authoring of documentation including installation documentation followed by manual technical edits, one or more processes to include the edited documentation in a larger overall manual, distribution of the documentation, and ongoing maintenance and support. In times of updates to the software application, revision of installation documentation can be costly and involve a significant investment in labor and time. 
         [0006]    In a typical software application installation, an installation interface is created to help users install the software application both easily and accurately. Creation of such an installation interface typically comprises creating an installation “wizard” as that term is understood by those of ordinary skill in the software programming arts, such as by using a wizard-making facility within the MICROSOFT® VISUAL STUDIO environment. Creation of the wizard typically further comprises creation of installation prompts that a software application installer must answer to set up environment specific values, by way of example and not limitation including a name of an environment being connected to, TCP/IP addresses, file locations, and the like. 
         [0007]    A further typical component of making an installation interface is the creation and distribution of end-user installation documentation. However, creating such user documentation for installing interfaces on an integration engine is a typically manual process. For example, a developer must document the steps that an installer must follow to successfully install an interface. Moreover, a manual update of installation documentation occurs every time a change is introduced to an interface where the install procedures are changed. This process is time consuming and lends itself to having documentation and the software being out of sync. This process is also prone to error because often a plurality of people write it, usually over time, and the documentation is based on each person&#39;s interpretation of the software, whether or not it is accurate or agrees with the prior interpretations. 
         [0008]    Attempts to address the problems associated with system installations include, U.S. Patent application 20020188939, which describes an invention that comprises a system for automated generation of installation instructions and documentation for a software interface as well as a method of using the system to automatically generate the instructions and/or documentation required to install the interface. The system comprises configuration data for a software application; a template into which data derived from the configuration data will be incorporated; a computer system comprising a memory and a processor; and software executable in the computer system for creating one or more data files that contain installation data derived from the configuration data and incorporated into the template. 
         [0009]    U.S. Pat. No. 6,117,187 describes a method of automatically generating a software installation package. The method operates on an application program that has been ported to and debugged on a target computer system. A manifest is automatically generated, listing all application program files that must be installed on the target computer system. Then the method automatically determines which resources, in particular shared libraries, are needed by any of the listed files. Necessary filesets and sub-products are then automatically generated. Program files are then automatically assigned to the filesets and filesets are automatically assigned to the sub-products. The need for control scripts is automatically detected and control scripts are automatically generated. Then the installation package is generated by combining the listed files, filesets, sub-products, control scripts, the needed resources, and any related installation materials. The needed resources are determined by generating a dependency list, comparing it with existing software installation packages, and identifying any packages that contain needed shared libraries as needed resources. 
         [0010]    U.S. Pat. No. 6,226,784, describes a reliable and repeatable process for specifying, developing, distributing, and monitoring a software system or application within a dynamic environment includes the steps of specifying a set of software system requirements during a discovery process within a data processing environment, establishing a development and delivery schedule for distribution of the software system, developing a software system corresponding to the software system requirements during a development process, and developing and testing an install package to be used to install the software system in a test environment within the data processing environment. The install package includes the software system and routines configured to automatically instantiate the software system in the test environment. 
         [0011]    Although these disclosures show efforts to address problems in this area, these solutions address the installation of software applications into an existing computer system. There still remains a need for a means that can automatically generate installation instructions for multiple components of a computing system. With multiple computing components, the order of installation of the components can be critical. The solution must contain a dynamically generated sequence of the installation components and steps for the installation of the computing system components. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0012]    It is an objective of the present invention to provide a method and system for generating documentation for installation of cluster components of a computing system. 
         [0013]    It is a second objective of the present invention to provide a database of installation processes from which installation documentation for a specific computer system configuration is dynamically generated. 
         [0014]    It is a third objective of the present invention to provide an interactive process for gathering information on a computer configuration for which installation is desired. 
         [0015]    It is a fourth objective of the present invention to dynamically generate an instruction guide for the installation of cluster components of a computing system by compiling a document identifying locations of an installation manual that describe the instructions needed to install the components of the computer system. 
         [0016]    It is a fifth objective of the present invention to track the installation process for installing a computer system cluster and inform the user of the current step in the installation process. 
         [0017]    The present invention provides a method and system for dynamically generating installation instructions for installing software on cluster components in a computing system. In this system is a database component that contains questions, installation instruction sets and installation scenarios of typical and known machine and cluster installations. This method compiles a series of inquiries for the purpose of gathering information about the features or characteristics of the computing systems. These inquiries are arranged in a structure that allows the prompting of a question based on a response to a previous question. These inquiries involve both static questions of basic information related to any computing system and dynamic questions, which would be asked, based on information gathered during the inquiry process. A static question could be whether the desired computer system will be a functional cluster, regular or sub-cluster. A cluster is a collection of machines in a system. 
         [0018]    After completion of the database construction, the next step is to detect when there is a system installation inquiry. This installation inquiry initiates the actual system installation process. The third step is to actually gather the information that will be used to generate the specific installation documentation. This step accesses the questions stored in the database and records the response to these questions. The next step is to generate the specific installation instructions and instruction documentation. From the responses to these questions, the present invention can compile a set of instructions from an instruction database or from an electronic version of an installation manual. The final step produces a document containing the set of installation instructions. With regard to the instructions generated from the electronic manual, the documented instructions can comprise a list of locations in the installation manual of the descriptions for installing a particular computer system software component. 
         [0019]    An optional feature of the present invention is the capability to track the steps during the actual installation of software on the cluster system. In this step, there would be listing of the instructions to be completed during an installation. At the completion of each instruction, this completion would be recorded. The installer could be notified of the completion of that step and shown where they are in the installation process. If the installer chose not to complete the entire installation at one time, the stopping would be noted. When the installer wanted to continue the installation, the process would continue at the previous stopping point. 
     
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0020]      FIG. 1  is an illustration of a multiple machine cluster to which the methods and instructions of the present invention can apply. 
           [0021]      FIG. 2  is an illustration of a computer network configuration through which one can implement the method of the present invention. 
           [0022]      FIG. 3  is a flow diagram that illustrates the basic steps in the method of the present invention. 
           [0023]      FIG. 4  is an illustration of a database containing various instructions and instruction sets that are used in the implementation of the present invention. 
           [0024]      FIG. 5  shows a configuration for generating installation questions and installation scenarios in accordance with the present invention. 
           [0025]      FIG. 6  shows a configuration for generating installation questions and installation scenarios in accordance with the present invention. 
           [0026]      FIG. 7  shows an example of various installation scenarios for the installation of machines of cluster in accordance with the present invention. 
           [0027]      FIG. 7   a  gives examples of different installation instruction scenarios for machine in a cluster system. 
           [0028]      FIG. 8  is a flow diagram of steps in the implementation of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0029]    The present invention provides a method to generated documented instructions for the installation of a multiple machine-computing network. There are least two connected machines in this network configuration. The devices that comprise the computing network can extend over multiple cites and can include both central and remote locations.  FIG. 1  is an illustration of a multiple machine cluster to which the methods and instructions of the present invention can apply. As shown, the cluster has four machines  10 ,  11 ,  12  and  13 . In the installation process, machine  10  may be directly connected to machine  11 . Machine  11  may then be connected to machine  12 . With the multiple machines, it may not be well understood that the sequence of installing these machines can be critical to the successful installation of the system. The connection sequence is very important for proper installation of the system. 
         [0030]      FIG. 2  is depicted a pictorial representation of a distributed computer network environment  20  in which one may implement the method and system of the present invention. The installation can be from the standpoint of interacting via a webpage to generate a set of installation instructions.  FIG. 2  also illustrates a system in which one can install a cluster configuration. As may be seen, distributed data processing system  20  may include a plurality of networks, such as Local Area Networks (LAN)  21  and  22 , each of which preferably includes a plurality of individual computers  23  and  24 , respectively. Of course, those skilled in the art will appreciate that a plurality of Intelligent Work Stations (IWS) coupled to a host processor may be utilized for each such network. Any of the processing systems may also be connected to the Internet as shown. As is common in such data processing systems, each individual computer may be coupled to a storage device  25  and/or a printer/output device  26 . One or more such storage devices  25  may be utilized, in accordance with the method of the present invention, to store the various data objects or documents which may be periodically accessed and processed by a user within distributed data processing system  20 , in accordance with the method and system of the present invention. In a manner well known in the prior art, each such data processing procedure or document may be stored within a storage device  25  which is associated with a Resource Manager or Library Service, which is responsible for maintaining and updating all resource objects associated therewith. 
         [0031]    Still referring to  FIG. 2 , it may be seen that distributed data processing system  20  may also include multiple mainframe computers, such as mainframe computer  27 , which may be preferably coupled to Local Area Network (LAN)  21  by means of communications link  28 . Mainframe computer  27  may also be coupled to a storage device  29  which may serve as remote storage for Local Area Network (LAN)  21 . A second Local Area Network (LAN)  22  may be coupled to Local Area Network (LAN)  21  via communications controller  31  and communications link  32  to a gateway server  33 . Gateway server  33  is preferably an individual computer or Intelligent Work Station (IWS), which serves to link Local Area Network (LAN)  22  to Local Area Network (LAN)  21 . As discussed above with respect to Local Area Network (LAN)  22  and Local Area Network (LAN)  21 , a plurality of data processing procedures or documents may be stored within storage device  29  and controlled by mainframe computer  27 , as Resource Manager or Library Service for the data processing procedures and documents thus stored. Of course, those skilled in the art will appreciate that mainframe computer  27  may be located a great geographical distance from Local Area Network (LAN)  21  and similarly Local Area Network (LAN)  21  may be located a substantial distance from Local Area Network (LAN)  24 . That is, Local Area Network (LAN)  24  may be located in California while Local Area Network (LAN)  21  may be located within Texas and mainframe computer  27  may be located in New York. 
         [0032]      FIG. 3  is a flow diagram that illustrates the basic steps in the method of the present invention. As shown, step  40  is an initial step where the compiling of an instructional database occurs. In this step, system creators/designers assemble sets of instructions for installing known network (cluster) configurations. These instruction sets represent both installation scenarios for individual devices within clusters as well as the entire cluster system. A scenario is a set of steps in an installation of a known machine. For example, there could be a set of installation instructions for each machine in  FIG. 1 . Further, there could be instructions for installations of a machine (i.e. a network interface) in various system configurations.  FIG. 4  shows database containing various the instruction sets  50 , question sets  51  and ordering rules  52  for the installation of a cluster in the present invention. The instruction set module contains both installation instruction sets and installation scenarios. The number of scenarios and instruction sets can extend into the thousands. Each instruction or instruction can have an identifier and is indexed to facilitate prompt location of the set. For example, if machine  10  from  FIG. 1  was an interface device, instruction sets related to this machine and/or installation of interface devices would be tagged and possibly linked. In addition, the instruction sets could be identified based on the specific machine. The instruction set information can also indicate the actual machine model in addition to the machine&#39;s function as an interface device. 
         [0033]    In addition to the instructions sets, the database can have a section that contains an electronic version of the corresponding installation manual for a particular system. As mentioned, one of the problems with the conventional approach to system installations is that the user has to search through one or more voluminous documents for all of the relevant locations for installation of the components of the system. This electronic document can have installation sections identified in an index that correspond to the instructions for installing components in the system configuration. For example, the instructions for installing a machine interface component may be found in a certain section of the installation guide. The present invention could have a specific instruction set for installing that interface. The present invention can also generate the actual manual section that contains that information. This approach provides at least two forms of benefits. First, the user will have a set of installation instructions for that interface. Second, the user will have a reference in the installation guide for the source of the installation instructions. Both of these resources can useful for future interface installations. 
         [0034]    Again, referring to  FIG. 3 , step  41  generates a series of inquires/questions for the purpose of gathering information about the features and characteristics of the system that is the subject of the installation. These inquiries will be in two parts: a static set of questions and a dynamic set of questions. In step  41 , the static questions comprise questions that are asked with each installation process. These questions are designed to gather information about certain features that are basic to any system installation. With information gained from the responses to the static questions, the invention can generate a set of dynamic questions. 
         [0035]      FIG. 5  shows an example of a dynamic question configuration. For a machine (machine  1 ), each box represents potential question and optional answer information. For an initial static question, there can be a three-option answer. These answers would be  61   a,    61   b  and  61   c.  The answer selected by a user to this initial question would provide system configuration information and would determine the next question. System designer know that for certain types of machines, there are certain configuration options that will define the function of the machine in the cluster. One option,  61   a,  could be a user interface function. The  61   b  option could a network interface function. If option  61   a  were chosen, the next question, also with options, could be question  61   e.  These additional questions would also be configured to flow from the previous questions and answers. If the machine was a network interface ( 61   b ), the flow-up questions would related to network interface installations. This process would continue through the question configuration for that machine. This series of questions and answers will result in a question configuration that can be useful for future installations. The responses would reveal more information about the machines in the cluster configuration in general and a particular machine  1  in the context of this cluster. The designers can configure the question scenarios based on their experience with the various types of cluster configurations, the types of machines incorporated into these configurations and the types of tasks the machines perform. 
         [0036]    Referring again to  FIG. 3 , step  42  detects an installation inquiry. This detection indicates that a user is interested in installing a cluster system. Step  43  begins the process of obtaining specific information about the installation. This step  43  will incorporate the question generating techniques and resources related to the question configuration in  FIG. 6 . The inquiry would begin with a series of static or standard questions. Depending on the answers to these questions, there would be an identification of a dynamic question scenario such as a  61   a,    61   e,    61   k  question sequence of  FIG. 5 . The answers to these questions would generate a set of system characteristics for use in determining the type of instructions necessary for the system installation. 
         [0037]    Step  44  of  FIG. 3  would generate a set of installation instructions for the system components based on the system characteristics information gathered in step  43 . In an example, the answer for each question in step  43  could indicate the installation of a certain instruction set. If the answer to one question was that machine  1  would have a WebSphere® application server, then the instructions for installation of a WebSphere application server could be retrieved from the database as part of the overall set of installation instructions. At the completion of step  44 , all of the retrieved installation instruction sets would be compiled in step  45  in order to generate a documented set of instructions for the particular system installation. 
         [0038]    In  FIG. 6 , there can be a series of installation instructions that result from the information gathered from the user. In practice, the dynamic questioning of step  43  and the generating of a set of instructions in step  44  can occur in combination. As previously mentioned,  FIG. 6  shows configurations for determining an installation configuration.  FIG. 6  shows an example of an installation configuration with sets of instructions. The cluster machine is machine  65 . The first question related to machine  65  might result in the selection of option  65   b.  This selection would indicate the need perform a certain set of installation instructions corresponding to option  65   b.  The selection could also generate an additional or follow-up question. The answer to this follow-up question  65   g  would indicate the need to perform another set of installation instructions. In both cases, the designers will compile various configurations that can occur with the technology that a user wants to install. The type of technology may limit these configurations. In other cases, there can be numerous installation configurations. For example, in  FIG. 6 , there could be an instruction scenario based on  65   a,    65   c,    65   h  Initially, the number of installation configurations is limited by the knowledge of the designers or by the practically of selecting certain typical or standard configurations for which a technology was designed to work. 
         [0039]      FIG. 7  shows various installation scenarios based on the configuration of  FIG. 6 . Although the actual configuration contains many more combinations, this example is to illustrate the concepts and steps of the present invention. Each machine of a cluster will have a similar installation instruction generation configuration. For example, in a four-machine cluster, the question and instruction configurations of  FIG. 5 and 6  could be used to determine the installation instructions for each machine. In a cluster installation containing these four machines, there are in excess of 64 different instruction combinations. An actual installation instruction model could easily have several thousand instruction installation combinations. 
         [0040]      FIG. 8  illustrates the steps in a specific implementation of the present invention. As with  FIG. 3 , step  90  compiles a database of possible installation instruction scenarios. This structure will similar to  FIG. 7 . As mentioned, the particular format of the instruction scenarios can vary. In this example, the format is the tree structure of illustrated in  FIG. 7 . Step  90  also compiles a database of possible question scenarios. This process for compiling the question scenarios is similar to the compilation of installation instructions in this step  90 . The database can have a component that determines the order of installation steps. This instruction installation ordering will affect both instruction sets and individual installation instructions. With cluster systems comprising multiple machines, in addition to installing the proper components for the cluster, it is important to install the components in a proper order. Failure to adhere to the proper installation order or sequence can result in many installation problems. 
         [0041]    At this point, the method goes to a monitoring state. In step  91 , the method detects a system installation inquiry. This inquiry could come via an HTML webpage entry. Step  92  begins the process of gathering information in order to generate a scenario of the potential installation. This step uses the question scenario format of  FIG. 5  to generate this list of questions. In this step, the method starts by using a set of static questions to gather information from the user. From this information, the method generates a particular dynamic question scenario from which to gather additional information from the user. The scenario of  FIG. 5  could be the scenario used to dynamically gather information. As the process moves through the set of questions, it also generates an installation instruction scenario. The instruction scenario is internally generated from the results of the questions. In an example of the user asking questions for machine  1 , if the user selects option  61   b,  this answer would generate a set of installation instructions to perform that portion of the installation. If option  61   b  was a websphere feature, then the instruction set for installation of the WebSphere would be tagged and incorporated into the into the installation instructions for machine  2 . 
         [0042]    At the completion of step  92 , there is an instruction installation scenario for the installation the system. This installation scenario may be viewed as the path created as the user navigates through the question configuration of  FIG. 5  or the instruction installation configuration of  FIG. 6 . Referring to  FIG. 7   a  and based on the installation instruction configuration of  FIG. 6 , the installation scenario for a four-cluster machine may be: Machine  1 —ACH; Machine  2 —BFM; Machine  3 —BGM and Machine  4 —AE. These letter combinations represent the installation instruction sets for each machine as determined by a configuration module such as shown in  FIG. 6 . Step  93  uses predetermined rules to establish an order for installation of the sets of instructions. For example, there may be a rule, which requires the simultaneous or sequential installation of machines that share an installation instruction set. In this case, machines  2  and  3  share instruction set m ( 65   m ). According to the rule, there is a defined order installation for machines  2  and  3 . Another ordering may be that a machine having the fewest installation instructions is installed first. In this example, the machine would be machine  4  having only two instruction sets. For this particular instruction scenario, there may not be any additional installation rules. In another situation, there may be rules that define the installation for each machine and each instruction or instruction set within the machines. 
         [0043]    In an alternate embodiment, the instruction scenarios in the database can be generated in an order that has already incorporated any required ordering. With this approach, the generated installation scenario of step  92  would be compared to (or matched with) the predetermined scenarios in the database. A corresponding instruction scenario would be identified from the database. 
         [0044]    With either approach, step  94  would compile the instructions for the installation scenario that matches the desired system installation. The generated instruction set can be compiled into a written set of instructions for the user or electronically stored. When the user is ready to install the system, step  95  can monitor the installation using the electronically stored instructions. As the installation takes place, the monitor notes the completion of each step. If the installer, decides not complete the installation in one setting, the monitor will note the stopping point of the installation. When the installer is ready to resume the installation, the monitor informs the installer of previous stopping point. The installer can resume the installation at that point. Step  96  can generate a written or electronic compilation of the installation steps to better assist the installer/user in the future. 
         [0045]    It is important to note that while the present invention has been described in the context of a fully functioning data processing system, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the processes of the present invention are capable of being distributed in the form of instructions in a computer readable medium and a variety of other forms, regardless of the particular type of medium used to carry out the distribution. Examples of computer readable media include media such as EPROM, ROM, tape, paper, floppy disc, hard disk drive, RAM, and CD-ROMs and transmission-type of media, such as digital and analog communications links.