Method to automate the search for attributes of CMDB Configuration Items under Open Source Environments (20-Jan-2010)

Method to automate the search for attributes of CMDB Configuration Items under Open Source Environments

A

  program is disclosed that provides the following new values by relating software trends to software attributes,
both of which are accumulated in Open Source Repository:
- to be able to provide software attributes that have relevance to some trends
- to be able to understand what trends the software attributes are derived from
- to be able to understand the trends of the teams who raise various requests to the open source

Fig.1 illustrates the overall modules that consititue this disclosure.

Open Source repository

Open Source repository

codes

history

Discussion

codes

history

Discussion

Module for extracting S/W attributes

Module for extracting Continual Trends

CMDB

S/W Attributes

Continual Trends

Attributes

Trend Record

Submitter

Display Module

Update Module

Attribute

Attribute

Request record

Attribute

patch

 Module for relating s/w attributes to trends

Search Results DB

Fig.1 Overall Modules which constisutue the disclosure

Open Source repository consists of the source codes, change history of the codes, and discussions. The discussions are a set of requests and responses about how to modify and enhance the source codes.

Module for extracting S /W attributes:
This module extracts S/W attributes which will affect how the program works by accessing Open Source Repository and scanning the codes.

The S/W attributes are categorized into three attributes:
- attributes defined in external file
- attributes defined as system property
- attributes defined as environment variables
The module stores the progress of the search into Search Result DB and stores the attributes found into CMDB (Configuration Management DB).

When storing the attributes into CMDB, the program creates a new attribute record and relates the record to the existing configuration items.

1

Module for extracting continual trends :
The program extracts the trend words automatically by analyzing the discussions in Open Source Repository and accumulated them into Trend DB. The trend words are words which express the main theme discussed for the modifications or enhancements: for example, performance, usability, dynamic change. These trend words are accumulated continuously and so the Trend DB is called Continual Trend DB. For the sake of the continuity, the program can show how much progress the specified trend word makes in the world.

The Trend DB consists of the following information:
- Trend record that denotes why the modification request is submitted.
- Request record that have link to the modification patches (the delta codes for modifications)
- Requestor information who submits the modification request
- The above records are linked to each other.

Module for relat...