Patent Description:
Computer resources hosted in distributed computing (e.g., cloud-computing) environments may be disparately located with each having its own functions, properties, and/or permissions. Such resources may include hardware assets, such as computing devices, switches, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the resources may include software assets, such as database applications, application programming interfaces (APIs), and the like. Additionally, other assets may be tracked (e.g., on-call staff assigned, etc.). Since these assets (and their related models) may change, a recomputation process may be used to address potentials changes and update modeling accordingly. However, the recomputation process may consume processing resources, thereby negatively effecting platform performance, and/or may significantly increase a load on an instance.

<CIT> relates to the automatic discovery of configuration items. <CIT> describes the processing of alerts indicative of conditions of a computing infrastructure. <CIT> describes scheduling threads for execution on multiple processors.

The invention provides medium storing instructions, a method, and a system as set out in claims <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>.

The description herein makes reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views.

It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and enterprise-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another.

Information Technology (IT) devices are increasingly important in an electronics-driven world in which various electronic devices are interconnected within a distributed context. As more and more functions are performed by services using some form of distributed computing, the complexity of IT network management increases. As these devices are separated geospatially, managing and tracking configuration of these devices may become more difficult.

In such an interconnected but distributed context, the configuration of each of these devices may be represented by configuration items (CIs) that detail certain configurations, parameters, components, software, or settings associated with a respective device. CIs may include information related to physical entities (e.g., hardware), logical entities (e.g., version, instance of a database), conceptual entities (e.g., service), and/or a combination thereof. Furthermore, a conceptual entity may include multiple conceptual entities, such as multiple virtual datacenters, in one or more physical locations. Alternatively, a single conceptual entity (e.g., cloud service) may include multiple physical locations (e.g., datacenters) distributed to perform a specific function.

The CIs may change (e.g., configuration file changes, removal, relationship changes, additions) that may change a function/purpose (e.g., service or service layer) that utilizes the CIs. To ensure that a function works properly, a service model may be used to model the service. A service is made of one or more service layers each performing sub-functions of the service, and one or more services may be grouped together to form an environment. Recomputing each service on demand may congest a job scheduler and prevent worker threads from being available for other functions. Instead, a number of recompute jobs may be set that look for environments to be recomputed thereby leaving a remaining portion of worker threads available for other functions and lessening instance load and/or performance.

By way of introduction, <FIG> is a block diagram of a system <NUM> that utilizes distributed computing framework, which may perform one or more of the techniques described herein. As illustrated in <FIG>, a client <NUM> communicates with a platform <NUM> (e.g., a platform) over a communication channel <NUM>. The client <NUM> may include any suitable computing system. For instance, the client <NUM> may include one or more computing devices, such as a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a desktop computer, or any other suitable computing device or combination of computing devices. The client <NUM> may include client application programs running on the computing devices. The client <NUM> can be implemented using a single physical unit or a combination of physical units (e.g., distributed computing) running one or more client application programs. Furthermore, in some embodiments, a single physical unit (e.g., server) may run multiple client application programs simultaneously or separately.

The platform <NUM>, such as a cloud service, may include any suitable number of computing devices (e.g., computers) in one or more locations that are connected together communicate using one or more networks. For instance, the platform <NUM> may include various computers acting as servers in datacenters at one or more geographic locations where the computers are connected together using network and/or Internet connections. The communication channel <NUM> may include any suitable communication mechanism for electronic communication between the client <NUM> and the platform <NUM>. The communication channel <NUM> may incorporate local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), virtual private networks (VPNs), cellular networks (e.g., long term evolution networks), and/or other network types for transferring data between the client <NUM> and the platform <NUM>. For example, the communication channel <NUM> may include an Internet connection when the client <NUM> is not on a local network common with the platform <NUM>. Additionally or alternatively, the communication channel <NUM> may include network connection sections when the client and the platform <NUM> are on different networks or entirely using network connections when the client <NUM> and the platform <NUM> share a common network. Although only a single client <NUM> is shown connected to the platform <NUM>, it should be noted that platform <NUM> may connect to multiple clients (e.g., tens, hundreds, or thousands of clients).

Through the platform <NUM>, the client <NUM> may connect to various devices with various functionality, such as gateways, routers, load balancers, databases, application servers running application programs on one or more nodes, or other devices that may be accessed via the platform <NUM>. For example, the client <NUM> may connect to an application server <NUM> and/or databases, such as the configuration management database (CMDB) <NUM>, via the platform <NUM>. The application server <NUM> may include any computing system, such as a desktop computer, laptop computer, server computer, and/or any other computing device capable of providing functionality from an application program to the client <NUM>. The application server <NUM> may include one or more application nodes running application programs whose functionality is provided to the client via the platform <NUM>. The application nodes may be implemented using processing threads, virtual machine instantiations, or other computing features of the application server <NUM>. Moreover, the application nodes may store, evaluate, or retrieve data from a database and/or a database server (e.g., the CMDB <NUM>).

The CMDB <NUM> is a series of tables containing information about all of the assets (e.g., hardware assets, software assets, etc.) and enterprise services controlled by a client <NUM> and the configurations of these assets and services. The assets and services include configuration items (CIs) <NUM> that may be computers, other devices on a network <NUM> (or group of networks), software contracts and/or licenses, or enterprise services. The CIs <NUM> include hardware resources, such as server computing devices, client computing devices, processors, memory, storage devices, networking devices, or power supplies; software resources, such as instructions executable by the hardware resources including application software or firmware; virtual resources, such as virtual machines or virtual storage devices; and/or storage constructs such as data files, data directories, or storage models. As such, the CIs <NUM> may include a combination of physical resources or virtual resources. For example, the illustrated embodiment of the CIs <NUM> includes printers <NUM>, routers/switches <NUM>, load balancers <NUM>, virtual systems <NUM>, storage devices <NUM>, and/or other connected devices <NUM>. The other connected devices <NUM> may include clusters of connected computing devices or functions such as data centers, computer rooms, databases, or other suitable devices. Additionally or alternatively, the connected devices <NUM> may include facility-controlling devices having aspects that are accessible via network communication, such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) units, fuel tanks, power equipment, and/or the like. The CMDB <NUM> may include an index of CIs <NUM>, attributes (e.g., roles, characteristics of elements, etc.) associated with the CIs <NUM>, and/or relationships between the CIs <NUM>. Furthermore, the CMDB <NUM> may track which configuration files identified pertain to each CI <NUM>.

Additional to or in place of the CMDB <NUM>, the platform <NUM> may include one or more other database servers. The database servers are configured to store, manage, or otherwise provide data (e.g., available workers for on-call actions, and so forth) for delivering services to the client <NUM> over the communication channel <NUM>. The database server includes one or more databases (e.g., CMDB <NUM>) that are accessible by the application server <NUM>, the client <NUM>, and/or other devices external to the databases. The databases may be implemented and/or managed using any suitable implementations, such as a relational database management system (RDBMS), an object database, an extensible markup language (XML) database, a configuration management database (CMDB), a management information base (MIB), one or more flat files, and/or or other suitable non-transient storage structures. In some embodiments, more than a single database server may be utilized. Furthermore, in some embodiments, the platform <NUM> may have access to one or more databases external to the platform <NUM> entirely.

In the depicted topology, access to the platform <NUM> is enabled via a management, instrumentation, and discovery (MID) server <NUM> via an External Communications Channel (ECC) Queue <NUM> and/or other queueing mechanisms. The MID server <NUM> may include an application program (e.g., Java application) that runs as a service (e.g.. , Windows service or UNIX daemon) that facilitates communication and movement of data between the platform <NUM> and external applications, data sources, and/or services. The MID server <NUM> may be executed using a computing device (e.g., server or computer) on the network <NUM> that communicates with the platform <NUM>. As such, in some embodiments, the MID server <NUM> may connect back to the platform <NUM> using a virtual private network connection that simulates the CIs <NUM> being connected to the platform <NUM> on a common physical network.

As discussed below, the MID server <NUM> may periodically and/or intermittently use discovery probes to determine information on devices (e.g., service mapping of services using the devices) connected to the network <NUM> and return the probe results back to the platform <NUM>. Probes may have different types and functions. For example, some probes get the names of devices of specific operating systems (e.g., Windows or Linux) while other exploration probes return disk information for those devices using the operating systems. Some probes run a post-processing script to filter the data that is sent back to the platform <NUM>.

As a non-limiting example, the probe types available for use by the MID server <NUM> may include a Shazzam probe that determines what devices are active using a targeted port scan, a user-defined probe class, a multi-probe that combines probe types, and/or any combination thereof. Additionally or alternatively, the probe types may include any probe type that determines information about CIs <NUM>.

In the illustrated embodiment, the MID server <NUM> is located inside the network <NUM> thereby alleviating the use of a firewall in communication between the CIs <NUM> and the MID server <NUM>. However, in some embodiments, a secure tunnel may be generated between a MID server <NUM> running in the platform <NUM> that communicates with a border gateway device of the network <NUM>.

The ECC queue <NUM> may be a database table that is typically queried, updated, and inserted into by other systems. Each record in the ECC queue <NUM> is a message from an instance in the platform <NUM> to a system (e.g., MID server <NUM>) external to the platform <NUM> that connects to the platform <NUM> or a specific instance running in the platform <NUM> or a message to the instance from the external system. The fields of an ECC queue <NUM> record include various data about the external system or the message in the record. For example, the record may include an agent field, a topic field, a name field, a source field, a response to field, a queue field, a state field, a created time field, a processed time field, a sequence number for the message, an error string field, a payload field, and/or other suitable fields for identifying messages and/or the systems sending/receiving the message. The agent field identifies a name (e.g., mid. xxxx) of the external system that the message is directed to or originates from. The topic field is a value (e.g., arbitrary values) that indicates that a message pertains to a particular subject. For example, during discovery of CIs <NUM>, the topic field may be populated with a value to identify a name of the probe that has been/is going to be run. The name field provides more detail in a context indicated by the topic field. For example, in discovery, the name field may be a descriptive and human-readable name or a command to be run by the probe identified in the topic field. Alternatively, if the topic field contains "SSHCommand", the name field may indicate the shell command to be run.

The source field indicates a target or recipient of the message outside of the platform <NUM>. In discovery, the source field may contain an Internet Protocol (IP) address that the discovery probe is to be/has been run against, or the field may include a human-readable description when the probe is to be/has been run against multiple IP addresses.

The response to field, when included, contains a reference (e.g., sys_id) to the ECC queue <NUM> that the message is a response to. In discovery, a discovery result may be a response to a discovery schedule message.

The queue field indicates whether the message is incoming to the platform <NUM> or outgoing from the platform <NUM>. The state field indicates whether the message is ready to be processed, is being processed, or has been processed. The recipient of the message generally updates this field. The time created field indicates when the record was first stored in the ECC queue <NUM>. The time processed field indicates when the record was updated to processed.

In some embodiments, the messages are sequenced using a sequencing field that includes a number assigned at generation of the record. The error string field, when included, indicates that an error occurred and/or a type of error that occurred.

The payload field is the body of the message. The contents of this field are specific to the context of the record and the system that is exchanging information with the platform <NUM>. For example, a result of a discovery probe uses Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents for the payload. For instance, in some embodiments, the returned XML document may have a root tag of <results> containing one or more <result> tags and a single <parameters> tag. The parameters are simply an echo of those sent to the MID server <NUM> in the probe.

Further, it should be noted that server systems described herein may communicate with each other via a number of suitable communication protocols, such as via wired communication networks, wireless communication networks, and the like. In the same manner, the client <NUM> may communicate with a number of server systems via a suitable communication network without interfacing its communication via the platform <NUM>.

In any case, to perform one or more of the operations described herein, the client <NUM>, the application server <NUM>, the MID server <NUM>, and other server or computing system described herein may include one or more of the computer components depicted in <FIG>.

<FIG> generally illustrates a block diagram of example components of a computing device <NUM> and their potential interconnections or communication paths, such as along one or more busses.

As briefly mentioned above, the computing device <NUM> may be an embodiment of the client <NUM>, the application server <NUM>, a database server (e.g., CMDB <NUM>), other servers in the platform <NUM> (e.g., server hosting the ECC queue <NUM>), device running the MID server <NUM>, and/or any of the CIs <NUM>. As previously noted, these devices may include a computing system that includes multiple computing devices and/or a single computing device, such as a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a desktop computer, a server computer, and/or other suitable computing devices.

As illustrated, the computing device <NUM> may include various hardware components. For example, the device includes one or more processors <NUM>, one or more busses <NUM>, memory <NUM>, input structures <NUM>, a power source <NUM>, a network interface <NUM>, a user interface <NUM>, and/or other computer components useful in performing the functions described herein.

The one or more processors <NUM> may include processor capable of performing instructions stored in the memory <NUM>. For example, the one or more processors may include microprocessors, system on a chips (SoCs), or any other performing functions by executing instructions stored in the memory <NUM>. Additionally or alternatively, the one or more processors <NUM> may include application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and/or other devices designed to perform some or all of the functions discussed herein without calling instructions from the memory <NUM>. Moreover, the functions of the one or more processors <NUM> may be distributed across multiple processors in a single physical device or in multiple processors in more than one physical device. The one or more processors <NUM> may also include specialized processors, such as a graphics processing unit (GPU).

The one or more busses <NUM> includes suitable electrical channels to provide data and/or power between the various components of the computing device. For example, the one or more busses <NUM> may include a power bus from the power source <NUM> to the various components of the computing device. Additionally, in some embodiments, the one or more busses <NUM> may include a dedicated bus among the one or more processors <NUM> and/or the memory <NUM>.

The memory <NUM> may include any tangible, non-transitory, and computer-readable storage media. For example, the memory <NUM> may include volatile memory, non-volatile memory, or any combination thereof. For instance, the memory <NUM> may include read-only memory (ROM), randomly accessible memory (RAM), disk drives, solid state drives, external flash memory, or any combination thereof. Although shown as a single block in <FIG>, the memory <NUM> can be implemented using multiple physical units in one or more physical locations. The one or more processor <NUM> accesses data in the memory <NUM> via the one or more busses <NUM>.

The input structures <NUM> provide structures to input data and/or commands to the one or more processor <NUM>. For example, the input structures <NUM> include a positional input device, such as a mouse, touchpad, touchscreen, and/or the like. The input structures <NUM> may also include a manual input, such as a keyboard and the like. These input structures <NUM> may be used to input data and/or commands to the one or more processors <NUM> via the one or more busses <NUM>. The input structures <NUM> may alternative or additionally include other input devices. For example, the input structures <NUM> may include sensors or detectors that monitor the computing device <NUM> or an environment around the computing device <NUM>. For example, a computing device <NUM> can contain a geospatial device, such as a global positioning system (GPS) location unit. The input structures <NUM> may also monitor operating conditions (e.g., temperatures) of various components of the computing device <NUM>, such as the one or more processors <NUM>.

The power source <NUM> can be any suitable source for power of the various components of the computing device <NUM>. For example, the power source <NUM> may include line power and/or a battery source to provide power to the various components of the computing device <NUM> via the one or more busses <NUM>.

The network interface <NUM> is also coupled to the processor <NUM> via the one or more busses <NUM>. The network interface <NUM> includes one or more transceivers capable of communicating with other devices over one or more networks (e.g., the communication channel <NUM>). The network interface may provide a wired network interface, such as Ethernet, or a wireless network interface, such an <NUM>, Bluetooth, cellular (e.g., LTE), or other wireless connections. Moreover, the computing device <NUM> may communicate with other devices via the network interface <NUM> using one or more network protocols, such as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), power line communication (PLC), WiFi, infrared, and/or other suitable protocols.

A user interface <NUM> may include a display that is configured to display images transferred to it from the one or more processors <NUM>. The display may include a liquid crystal display (LCD), a cathode-ray tube (CRT), a light emitting diode (LED) display, an organic light emitting diode display (OLED), or other suitable display. In addition and/or alternative to the display, the user interface <NUM> may include other devices for interfacing with a user. For example, the user interface <NUM> may include lights (e.g., LEDs), speakers, haptic feedback, and the like.

<FIG> is a block diagram of an embodiment of an electronic computing and communication system <NUM> for discovering and/or managing connected CIs. The electronic computing and communication system <NUM> includes one or more environments such as environments <NUM> and <NUM> each including resources <NUM> and <NUM>, respectively. Each environment <NUM>, <NUM> may include one or more networks coupling resources together in a location-based, function-based, and/or common credentials-based grouping. For example, the environments <NUM>, <NUM> may include a customer service environment used to represent customer service infrastructure in a technical support, sales, billing, and/or other groupings.

For example, the environments <NUM>, <NUM> may include a datacenter and all devices coupled to one or more networks located at the datacenter. Additionally or alternatively, the environment <NUM>, <NUM> may be distributed across multiple geographical locations. Thus, the environment <NUM>, <NUM> may include any devices that are accessible by a user account including resources that may be spatially distant from each other. In some embodiments, resources <NUM>, <NUM> of the environments <NUM>, <NUM> may communicate with each other across environments. However, in other embodiments, aspects of various environments may be provided by different vendors without communication therebetween. In such embodiments, the resources of disparate environments may communicate using the platform <NUM> (e.g., a configuration management service <NUM> that is a part of the platform <NUM> including the CMDB <NUM>). The resources <NUM> and <NUM> may include any of the CIs <NUM> previously discussed.

The configuration management service <NUM> may include one or more servers providing access to and managing the CMDB <NUM>. The configuration management service <NUM> may allocate or provision resources, such as application instances in the resources <NUM> or <NUM> from a respective environment <NUM> or <NUM>. Further, the configuration management service <NUM> may create, modify, or remove information in the CMDB <NUM> relating to the resources <NUM> or <NUM>. Thus, the configuration management service <NUM> may manage a catalogue of resources in more than a single environment (even if the environments do not directly communicate with each other). Using this catalogue, the configuration management service <NUM> may discover new resources, provision resources, allocate resources, modify, and/or remove resources from the catalogue across a single environment or multiple environments. In some embodiments, these actions may be initiated using the client <NUM>, scheduled for periodic occasions (e.g., periodic discovery), or a combination thereof. For example, a client <NUM> may receive a request, via its input structures, to query an identity of an application program interface (API) used by a resource to access a particular vendor/provider for the environment <NUM> that is passed to the configuration management service <NUM> to query the CMDB <NUM>. As another example, the client <NUM> may receive a request, via its input structures, to query an identity of a user authorized to access a particular resource that is passed to the configuration management service <NUM>.

As previously discussed, the CMDB <NUM> may be populated utilizing a discovery process which may be used to discover the resources <NUM> or <NUM>. Moreover, as previously discussed, the discovery process may include determining the properties or attributes of the resources <NUM> or <NUM> in their respective environments <NUM> or <NUM> using a respective MID server 126A or 126B. In the illustrated embodiment, each environment <NUM> and <NUM> has its own MID server 126A and 126B. In some embodiments, a single MID server 126A or 126B may be employed when the MID server may reach into multiple environments. For example, if the MID server 126A or 126B is run in the platform <NUM> (e.g., in the configuration management service <NUM>), a single MID server 126A or 126B may be used to manage both environments <NUM> and <NUM>. Additionally or alternatively, if the MID server 126A has access to the environment <NUM>, the MID server 126B may be omitted.

As previously discussed, each discovered resource may be identified as a configuration item <NUM> with a record stored in the CMDB <NUM> including data indicating properties, attributes, dependencies, or other information about the resource. The CMDB <NUM> may be encoded, for example, as a relational database management system (RDBMS); an object-oriented database (e.g. an XML database); a network model database; or a flat-file database.

A service model <NUM> is used to supply a common infrastructure to service assurance, service mapping, and service delivery. In other words, the service model <NUM> models relationships and connections of resources as reflected in the CMDB <NUM>. The service model <NUM> includes one or more service containers <NUM> that contain information about various service environments <NUM> and <NUM>. These service environments <NUM> and/or <NUM> may enable separation into various environments (e.g., development, production, testing, etc.) of a service corresponding to the container <NUM>. In some embodiments, these service environments <NUM> and/or <NUM> may correspond to the environments <NUM> and/or <NUM>. Each service environment includes one or more service layers <NUM>. These layers <NUM> may include information and/or actions for the service corresponding to the container <NUM>. For example, the service layers <NUM> may include service definitions, environment definitions, states, and/or other information about the service container <NUM> and/or the service environments <NUM> and <NUM>. The layers <NUM> may include entry points, mapping information, and/or other suitable information. In some embodiments, these service layers <NUM> may be arranged hierarchically.

As previously discussed, service modeling uses the service model as infrastructure for discovered services. Each service-mapping-discovered service's structure depends on the service model being synchronized with the CMDB <NUM>. Synchronization between the CMDB <NUM> and the service model is maintained using a recomputation process. The recomputation process includes recalculating the structure of a business service following a change in CMDB <NUM>. The change in the CMDB <NUM> may include either a change to a CI attribute or a change to the service topology (e.g., relations removed, relations added, etc.).

However, as previously noted, this recomputation process may negatively change instance loading and/or platform <NUM> performance. For example, if a CI change occurs, a business service triggers scheduling of a new job (e.g., by calling an API). These jobs may be scheduled for an immediate one-time run. These jobs may include a default or configurable priority. The target layer to run the job is indicated in the job's document key. Each job runs the recomputation process on its assigned layer. In other words, each job recomputes a specific layer of a specific business service. However, a job scheduler <NUM>, as illustrated in <FIG>, may become congested with recompute jobs <NUM> (denoted as "ASYNC: Script Job"). Even with some limitation on recomputations (e.g., no concurrent recomputations on a same layer), the number of recomputations may become unwieldy, flooding the job scheduler <NUM>. This flooding of the job scheduler may lead to many or all of the worker threads being simultaneously utilized for recomputation for at least a duration of time. This also causes high load on the instance negatively effecting instance performance and/or responsiveness. To address this issue, a number of worker threads being used simultaneously may be limited to a threshold value. This may be done by <NUM>) postponing execution of recomputation jobs, <NUM>) using platform <NUM> events with queuing, and/or <NUM>) using a fixed (e.g., configurable) number of recomputation jobs running periodically and querying for business services that await recomputation and recomputing the business services.

<FIG> illustrates a flow diagram illustrating a process <NUM> for generating a request for recomputation of services. The process <NUM> includes an occurrence of a change (block <NUM>) in the CMDB <NUM>. The change may include a change in a topology of a service and/or a change in a CI in the service. For example, this change may be indicated in the CMDB <NUM> as a tracked change in a configuration file for a CI and/or relations between CIs. The change causes a trigger of a service mapping engine (block <NUM>). The service mapping engine may be implemented using the platform <NUM>. The service mapping engine determines whether the change is valid (block <NUM>). When the change is invalid, the change is ignored (block <NUM>). When the change is valid, the service mapping engine invalidates a service map due to the CI change (block <NUM>). The service mapping engine then obtains CI layers for CIs that have changed (block <NUM>). For example, the CI layers may be obtained from a service model database <NUM> that includes service model associations for the appropriate CIs. For each layer obtained (block <NUM>), the service mapping engine marks each obtained layer for recomputation (block <NUM>). For example, the service mapping engine may flag entries in a service layer database <NUM>.

In some embodiments, this flagging may cause a recomputation to be invoked. However, if such recomputations are automatic, the job scheduler <NUM> and/or corresponding worker threads may become congested. Instead, each layer's environment may also be flagged for recomputation rather than causing recomputing of the service layers/services individually. In this way, each recomputation job may search for recomputations to perform rather than automatically creating a scheduled recomputation job and/or a queue entry in response to a change. To enable recomputation jobs to search for services and/or environments to be recomputed, the service mapping engine marks an environment corresponding to each layer for recomputation (block <NUM>). For example, the environment may be flagged by marking the corresponding environment in a service environment database <NUM> indicating which recomputations are to be completed for each layer. The entries in the service environment database <NUM> may be used by the service mapping engine to later determine environments that are available and marked for recomputation.

<FIG> shows a flow diagram of a process <NUM> for processing recomputation requests <NUM>. Recomputation requests <NUM> may include a worker thread allocated to recomputation using a recomputation engine that is running on the platform <NUM>. The recomputation engine may determine that a recomputation is to be performed. For example, the recomputation engine may determine that at least one environment in the service environment database <NUM> is flagged as needing a recomputation to be completed. A service mapping recomputation job <NUM> then queries for environments to recompute (block <NUM>). Such queries may be directed at the service environment database <NUM>. The recomputation engine then determines whether there is at least one environment to process (block <NUM>). If the service recomputation database <NUM> has no environments to process the worker thread to perform the recomputation job is cleared for other actions (block <NUM>).

If at least one environment is to be processed, the recomputation engine attempts to lock the environment to be recomputed (block <NUM>). The recomputation engine determines whether the attempt to lock the environment is successful (block <NUM>). The lock may be made by setting a flag in the service environment database. Locking the environment prevents the environment from being used before the environment is recomputed. If the environment is not successfully locked (e.g., environment used before recompute lock), the recomputation engine determines whether another environment (or the same environment) is available to complete the recompute process. If the lock is successful, the recomputation engine then determines whether recomputation is needed and not currently being processed (block <NUM>). This ensures that the environment is not recomputed by two worker threads concurrently and/or after a recent computation has been completed to correct any changes. If the environment is not to be recomputed and/or is currently being recomputed, the recomputation engine attempts to determine whether another environment and/or the same environment is ready to be recomputed. If the environment is to be recomputed and/or is not currently being recomputed, the recomputation engine marks the environment as in the process of being recomputed (block <NUM>). In some embodiments, in addition to determining whether the environment is to be recomputed and/or is currently being recomputed, the recomputation engine may determine whether a delay period has elapsed. In some embodiments, this delay period may be set when a recomputation has failed and/or has succeeded to enable other environments to recomputed after attempting to recompute one environment. By marking the environment as processing during recomputation, a worker thread performing the recomputation job may ensure that another worker thread does not attempt to recompute the same environment during the recomputation process.

Once the recomputation engine has flagged the environment as being recomputed, the recomputation engine causes the worker engine to run recomputation on the environment (block <NUM>). The recomputation, as previously discussed, may include synchronizing a service model to the CMDB <NUM> by updating the service model.

In some embodiments, an identification engine may be used to walk through the service model and matching the data in the service model against data in the CMDB <NUM>. In some embodiments, this traversal of the databases may be depth-first and/or a breadth-first traversal. A depth-first traversal results in numerous (e.g., thousands) of database queries in a single recomputation process, as a factor of the number of CIs and relations in the business service. However, a breadth-first traversal includes a number of queries as a function of the depth of the business service being recomputed. Since the depth of a business service generally is smaller that the number of CIs <NUM> and relations, each recomputation process may be divided into smaller parts suitable for the service map recomputation job <NUM> for a limited amount of time (e.g., recomputation duration threshold). Furthermore, dividing the service model database in the breadth-first traversal may also increase speed of traversal (e.g., <NUM>-<NUM> times speed of depth-first traversal).

Furthermore, in some embodiments, the identification engine may match data in the service model against data in the CMDB <NUM>. However, in other embodiments, the identification engine may be decoupled from the recomputation process. For instance, the data in the service model may be directly based on data in the CMDB <NUM> with the identification engine acting as the gatekeeper for the CMDB <NUM>. This direct relationship between data in the CMDB <NUM> and data in the service model may deal with data corruptions, duplicate entries, missing dependencies, and/or other data issues more.

In some embodiments, the recomputation may include running complete and/or limited discovery operations on the CIs, services, service layers, and/or service environment based on the CI change in the CMDB <NUM>. The recomputation engine determines whether the recomputation was successful (block <NUM>). If the recomputation fails, the recomputation engine marks the environment for recomputation with some delay (block <NUM>). As previously noted, this delay provides a period of time in which other environments may be processed before recomputation of the environment is performed. The delay may be indicated as a specific time after which the environment may be recomputed. Additionally or alternatively, the delay may be a relative amount (e.g., + <NUM> minute) that indicates the length of the delay. If the recomputation has been successful, the recomputation engine releases the environment (block <NUM>). For example, a currently recomputing flag in the service environment database <NUM> may be set to false.

In some embodiments, a single recomputation job may be used to recompute more than a single environment. In some embodiments, the amount of environments to be processed by a single recomputation job may be set using a max environments threshold. This max environments threshold may be dynamically changed or may be statically set. Once one environment has been recomputed, the recomputation engine may determine whether the recomputation job has completed the threshold number of recomputations (block <NUM>). For example, when the environment is released and/or an environment has completed, a number of completed recomputations for the recomputation job may be incremented. If this number exceeds the max threshold, the recomputation job is completed and/or the worker thread is cleared for other actions (e.g., subsequent recomputation job). If the threshold has not been exceeded, the recomputation engine determines whether an overall duration (e.g., <NUM> minute) for the recomputation job has exceeded a threshold value (block <NUM>). By setting this overall duration, the recomputation engine can ensure that a single recomputation job does not consume resources for too long. In some embodiments, this threshold may be dynamically set. For example, the threshold may be manually entered and/or may be calculated based on instance/platform load. For instance, when instance/platform load is relatively high, the threshold may be set relatively low and vice versa. Additionally or alternatively, the threshold may be statically set (e.g., to a default value). If this time has been exceeded, the recomputation job is completed. If this time has not been exceeded, the recomputation job attempts to recompute another environment.

<FIG> and <FIG> illustrate a sequence diagram <NUM> that utilizes a service environment database <NUM>. As illustrated, the service environment database <NUM> includes an environment index <NUM>, a recomputation needed field <NUM>, a next recomputation field <NUM>, a recomputing field <NUM>, and a last recomputation field <NUM>. The environment index <NUM> indexes environments as part of the platform <NUM>. The recomputation needed field <NUM> is a flag that indicates whether the environment is to be recomputed as previously discussed in reference to <FIG>. The next recomputation field <NUM> indicates a period of time after which the environment may be recomputed. The next recomputation field <NUM> may include an absolute time (as indicated) or a relative time that prevents a recomputation of a single environment from consuming too many resources for too long. The recomputing field <NUM> indicates whether the environment is being currently being recomputed. The last recomputation field <NUM> may indicate when the last recomputation has been performed.

The sequence diagram <NUM> also shows recomputation jobs <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> that may be run on separate worker threads or may be run on a same worker thread when not running at the same time.

The recomputation job <NUM> sends a query <NUM> to the service environment database <NUM> to determine whether any environments are to be recomputed. In the illustrated embodiment, the recomputation job <NUM> receives a response <NUM> from the service environment database <NUM> that E1, E2, and E3 are flagged as needs recomputation in the recomputation needed field <NUM>. The recomputation job <NUM> selects an environment using some rules. For example, the environment that has gone the longest since a last recomputation, a prioritization rule, an order of index of the environment, and/or other factors. In the illustrated embodiment, the recomputation job <NUM> selects E1. The recomputation job <NUM> then locks E1 (block <NUM>) and sets E1 as recomputing (block <NUM>) using the recomputing field <NUM>. Once the recomputing field <NUM> is set to recomputing, the recomputation job <NUM> then releases the lock on E1 (block <NUM>).

During the actions running on recomputation job <NUM> to recompute E1, the recomputation job <NUM> also sends a query <NUM> the service environment database <NUM>. In response to the query <NUM>, the recomputation job <NUM> receives a response <NUM> that indicates that E1, E2, and E3 are to be recomputed. The recomputation job <NUM> selects an environment using rules. The recomputation job <NUM> attempts to select E1 and set a lock on E1. However, since E1 has been locked by recomputation job <NUM>, the lock fails (block <NUM>). The recomputation job <NUM> moves to the next environment based on the rules. The recomputation job <NUM> then successfully locks E2 (block <NUM>). Once the lock is set, the recomputation job <NUM> sets E2 as being recomputed (block <NUM>) using the recomputing field <NUM>. Once the recomputation flag is set, the recomputation job <NUM> releases the lock on E2 (block <NUM>).

During the actions running on the recomputation jobs <NUM> and <NUM>, the recomputation job <NUM> also sends a query <NUM> to the service environment database <NUM> and receives a response <NUM> that indicates that E2 and E3 need to be recomputed.

Once a recomputation job marks an environment as being recomputed, the recomputation job begins recomputing the environment. For example, the recomputation job <NUM> recomputes E1 (block <NUM>) using one or more of the previously discussed recomputation schemes. Once recomputation has succeeded (block <NUM>), the recomputation job <NUM> releases E1 (block <NUM>). Similarly, recomputation job <NUM> recomputes E2 (block <NUM>). Once recomputation of E2 has succeeded (block <NUM>), recomputation job <NUM> releases E2 (block <NUM>).

Returning to the recomputation job <NUM>, after recomputation job <NUM> has received the response <NUM>, the recomputation job <NUM> tries to select E2. Since the lock on E2 had previously been released by the recomputation job <NUM>, the recomputation job <NUM> successfully locks E2 (block <NUM>). However, at this point, E2 is still marked as being recomputed. Accordingly, the recomputation job <NUM> skips E2 (block <NUM>). Since E3 was the only other environment marked to be recomputed, the recomputation job <NUM> locks E3 (block <NUM>). The recomputation job <NUM> then sets E3 to recomputing (block <NUM>) and releases the lock E3 (block <NUM>). Once E3 is marked as recomputing, the recomputation job <NUM> recomputes E3 (block <NUM>).

Recomputation fails with an exception (block <NUM>). Other reasons that may cause the recomputation to fail may include a failure to invalidate due to a recomputation request on a layer arriving while the recomputation is being processed. Due to the failure, the recomputation job <NUM> requeues E3 for recomputation (block <NUM>). For example, the recomputation job <NUM> may increment the next recomputation field <NUM> to some time (e.g., <NUM> seconds) in the future and/or may start a timer that shows when a next recomputation may be performed. After the recomputation job <NUM> requeues E3, the recomputation job <NUM> releases E3 for other recomputations (block <NUM>).

The recomputation job <NUM> sends a query <NUM> to the service environment database <NUM>. As illustrated, at this time, the service environment database <NUM> has no environments marked for recomputation needed. Accordingly, a response <NUM> received at the recomputation job <NUM> from the service environment database <NUM> includes no pending environments to be recomputed. For example, the response <NUM> may include a value (e.g., null) that indicates that no environments currently need to be recomputed. In some embodiments, after no environments need recomputing, the worker thread running the recomputation job <NUM> may be cleared to perform other functions.

The recomputation job <NUM> sends a query to the service environment database <NUM> requesting environments to be recomputed. As illustrated, at this time only E3 is flagged as needing recomputation. However, the next recomputation field <NUM> corresponding to E3 indicates that the delay induced in block <NUM> has not elapsed. Accordingly, the service environment database <NUM> returns a response <NUM> that includes a value (e.g., null) that indicates that no environments currently need to be recomputed. In some embodiments, after no environments need recomputing, the worker thread running the recomputation job <NUM> may be cleared to perform other functions.

<FIG> is a flow diagram of a recomputation process <NUM> that may be used to recompute the marked environments. Business service entry points (including system IDs) are passed (block <NUM>) to a topology builder <NUM>. The topology builder <NUM> is used to map a topology of the business service using the entry points. The topology builder <NUM> receives a list <NUM> of sources, relation types for the sources, and/or a max depth from the entry point and/or the CMDB <NUM>. The topology builder <NUM> uses a CMDB walker <NUM> to walkthrough the CMDB <NUM>. The CMDB walker <NUM> walks through the CMDB <NUM> to obtain system IDs <NUM> of relations and CIs for the entry points. The topology builder <NUM> then utilizes a graph resolver <NUM> to resolve these items into a graph of the CIs <NUM> and their relationships including the entry point. The graphs may be data formatted in any suitable format, such as a spreadsheet, array, drawn graph, vectors,.

The graph <NUM> and its relations and CIs <NUM> are passed to the service model <NUM>. The CIs <NUM> are added to the service model <NUM> (block <NUM>). The relations are also added to the service model <NUM> (block <NUM>). These changes are then used to update the service definition <NUM>.

<FIG> is a flow diagram of a CMDB walker <NUM> used in the process <NUM> of <FIG>. The CMDB walker <NUM> receives sources <NUM> and adds them to a queue for processing (block <NUM>). The CMDB walker <NUM> determines whether the queue is empty (block <NUM>). If the queue is empty, the CMDB walker <NUM> ends the walking process (block <NUM>). If the queue is not empty, the CMDB walker <NUM> determines whether the max depth indicated in the list <NUM> has been reached (block <NUM>). If the max depth has been reached, the CMDB walker <NUM> ends the walking process. If the max depth has not been reached, the CMDB walker <NUM> queries relations with a parent for the CI and relation types (block <NUM>). The CMDB walker <NUM> also empties the CI from the queue (i.e., empty the queue) and adds relations for any children of the CI to the results that are added back to the queue (block <NUM>).

Claim 1:
Non-transitory, computer-readable, and tangible medium storing instructions configured to cause one or more processors (<NUM>), when executed on the one or more processors, to:
determine a change for a configuration item (<NUM>) in a configuration management database (<NUM>) has occurred;
verify (<NUM>)that the change is valid;
characterized in that the instructions, based on the verification of the change, are configured to cause the one or more processors to:
invalidate (<NUM>) a service model (<NUM>) as being outmoded, wherein the service model (<NUM>) models a service made of one or more service layers each performing sub-functions of the service, by modelling relationships and connections of configuration items (<NUM>) stored in the configuration management database (<NUM>);
obtain (<NUM>) one or more service layers (<NUM>) of the service associated with the configuration item (<NUM>);
indicate (<NUM>) that each service environment for each of the obtained one or more service layers (<NUM>) is to be recomputed, wherein each service environment corresponds to a group of one or more services in the service model (<NUM>);
use a set recompute worker thread to look (<NUM>,<NUM>,<NUM>,<NUM>,<NUM>,<NUM>) for service environments indicated as to-be-computed; and
use the dedicated recompute work thread to compute changes (<NUM>) to the service model (<NUM>) for each indicated service environment based at least in part on a threshold number of set worker threads configured to perform modelling computations.