The present application is related by subject matter to commonly assigned, co-pending U.S. patent application Se. No. 10/800,067 entitled “METHOD FOR GENERATING XSLT DOCUMENTS FROM MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF A UML MODEL OR XML SCHEMAS CREATED FROM MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF A UML MODEL”, filed on Mar. 12, 2004, and hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to systems management in a dynamic electronic-business (e-business) network environment, and in particular, but not exclusively to, a method, apparatus and computer instructions for maintaining compatibility within a distributed systems management environment with a plurality of configuration versions.
2. Description of Related Art
The use of the Internet for business transactions has increased significantly in recent years. In fact, the term “e-business” has evolved to mean doing business on-line. WebSphere is a set of Java™-based tools developed by International Business Machines Corporation of Armonk, N.Y., which allows customers to create and manage relatively sophisticated e-business Web sites. The primary WebSphere tool is the WebSphere Application Server, which is a Java™-based, high-performance Web applications server that businesses can use to connect Web site customers with e-business applications.
In a distributed computing environment, such as, for example, the WebSphere 5.0 Network Deployment (ND) Applications Server, Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) product environment, a plurality of computing nodes (e.g., logical grouping of servers) are managed by an administrative facility that provides configuration settings for software applications being executed on the computing nodes. The configuration data for the WebSphere computing environment is stored in a master repository associated with the administrative facility and can be accessed as Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents.
A significant problem arises when different nodes in the computing environment are being operated with different versions of the WebSphere product, and the administrative facility synchronizes the nodes by sending configuration settings from the master repository to the nodes. The configuration settings “synched out” to the nodes can be for newer versions of the WebSphere product. Consequently, nodes configured with the older version settings are unable to operate with the format of the newer version configuration settings.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an improved method, apparatus and computer instructions for maintaining the compatibility of multiple nodes in a distributed systems management environment with multiple configuration settings, such as, for example, a WebSphere 5.x and/or 6.x Network Deployment (ND) Applications Server J2EE product environment.
The present invention provides a method, apparatus and computer instructions for maintaining the compatibility of a multiple nodes in a distributed systems management computing environment with multiple configuration settings, by transforming the configuration data stored in the master repository (one possible realization is where XML documents contain the configuration data) from one version of the product to a previous version of the product. For multiple versions of the systems management computing environment, a transformation pipeline process (one possible realization of such a process may utilize XSLT) can be used by a “master” node to transform the configuration data multiple times for each version of the environment, until the configuration data has the format of the intended recipient “slave” node. Also, in accordance with the present invention, by performing the transformation process on the “master” side of the computing environment, “slave” nodes with older versions of the configuration settings can continue to operate without having to upgrade their software applications in this regard.
The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
With reference now to the figures,
In the depicted example, distributed systems management computing environment 100 includes nodes 102, 108 and 112. For illustrative purposes and ease of understanding, only three such nodes are shown. In this regard,
For this example, node 102 is configured to function primarily as a “master” node and network deployment manager, and nodes 108 and 112 are configured to function primarily as “slave” nodes. Node 102 includes master repository 104, which functions primarily as a data storage location for storing, in this case, XML configuration files. For this exemplary embodiment, as shown in
As such, it may be assumed that node 108 is configured to operate with version 6.x (e.g. “newer”) settings, and node 112 is configured to operate with version 5.x (e.g., “older”) settings. Also, for this exemplary embodiment, it may be assumed that node 102 is functioning as a network deployment manager, and in an administrative facility role, can synchronize nodes 108, 112 with respect to node 102 by sending configuration settings from master repository 104 to nodes 108, 112. The circle denoted as 106, and the flow lines from master repository 104 to nodes 108 and 112 illustrate such a synchronization (e.g., “synch”) operation. As such, for this exemplary embodiment, it may be assumed that the configuration settings to be “synched out” to nodes 108, 112 are for a 6.x version of a WebSphere computing environment product. In other words, for this example, node 102 is attempting to upgrade the associated “slave” nodes (e.g., nodes 108, 112) to a newer version of a computing environment (e.g., WebSphere) product.
Referring to
For this exemplary embodiment, computing environment 200 includes configuration repository 202, which functions primarily as a data storage location for configuration data, such as, for example, XML documents containing configuration data. As shown, configuration repository 202 can be partitioned to store at least two versions of configuration data. For this example, storage area 202a can be used for storing version 6.0 XML configuration files conforming to the 6.0 product's schema, and storage area 202b can be used for storing version 5.x (e.g., multiple versions of a 5.0 product) XML configuration files conforming to the 5.0 product's schema. In this regard, for illustrative purposes, a plurality of version 5.x XML schema documents (e.g., documents 205a-205d) are shown stored in storage area 202b.
Exemplary computing environment 200 also includes deployment manager 204. As such, deployment manager 204 and configuration repository 202 can represent a “master” node (e.g., node 102 in
In this regard, computing environment 200 can represent an initial state during a configuration conversion operation for a computing environment, such as, for example, conversion of a WebSphere Version 5.x version ND Applications Server J2EE computing environment to a WebSphere Version 6.x ND Applications Server J2EE computing environment.
Referring now to
For this example, computing environment 300 includes configuration repository 302. As shown, configuration repository 302 has been partitioned to store two versions of configuration files. Storage area 302a can store version 6.0 XML configuration data (e.g., XML documents conforming to 6.0 schema 306a, 306b), and storage area 302b can store version 5.x XML configuration data (e.g., XML documents conforming to 5.x schema 305a-305d).
Exemplary computing environment 300 also includes deployment manager 304, and nodes 308, 310 and 312. Similar to
At this point, it is important to note that the exemplary state shown in
As such, an exemplary process for transforming configuration data in 5.x format to 6.0 format is disclosed in the above-described, related U.S. patent application No. entitled “METHOD FOR GENERATING XSLT DOCUMENTS FROM MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF A UML MODEL OR XML SCHEMAS CREATED FROM MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF A UML MODEL”, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Referring now to
For this example, computing environment 400 includes configuration repository 402, which is shown as storing (e.g., transformed) version 6.0 configuration data (e.g., XML documents conformant to 6.0 schema 406a, 406b) in storage area 402a, and version 5.x configuration data (e.g., XML documents conformant to 5.x schema 405a-405c) in storage area 402b.
Exemplary computing environment 400 also includes deployment manager 404, and nodes 408, 410 and 412. Deployment manager 404 and configuration repository 402 represent a “master” node, and nodes 408, 410 and 412 represent “slave” nodes. However, different from node 308 in
Referring now to
For example, configuration repository 502 of computing environment 500 is shown storing (transformed) version 6.0 configuration data (e.g., XML documents in 6.0 format 506a-506d) in storage area 502a, and version 5.x configuration data (e.g., XML documents in 5.x format 505) in storage area 502b.
Exemplary computing environment 500 also includes deployment manager 504 and nodes 508, 510 and 512. Deployment manager 504 and configuration repository 502 represent a “master” node, and nodes 508, 510 and 512 represent “slave” nodes. However, different from nodes 410 and 412 in
It is important to note that while the present invention has been described in the context of a fully functioning data processing system or computing environment, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the processes of the present invention are capable of being distributed in the form of a computer readable medium of instructions and a variety of forms and that the present invention applies equally regardless of the particular type of signal bearing media actually used to carry out the distribution. Examples of computer readable media include recordable-type media, such as a floppy disk, a hard disk drive, a RAM, CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, and transmission-type media, such as digital and analog communications links, wired or wireless communications links using transmission forms, such as, for example, radio frequency and light wave transmissions. The computer readable media may take the form of coded formats that are decoded for actual use in a particular data processing system.
The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, and is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention, the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
6393442 | Cromarty et al. | May 2002 | B1 |
6480860 | Monday | Nov 2002 | B1 |
6618805 | Kampe | Sep 2003 | B1 |
20010037404 | Hafsteinsson et al. | Nov 2001 | A1 |
20010049743 | Phippen et al. | Dec 2001 | A1 |
20020002567 | Kanie et al. | Jan 2002 | A1 |
20020046235 | Foy et al. | Apr 2002 | A1 |
20020049790 | Ricker et al. | Apr 2002 | A1 |
20020069224 | Asai et al. | Jun 2002 | A1 |
20020083097 | Warrington | Jun 2002 | A1 |
20020099735 | Schroeder et al. | Jul 2002 | A1 |
20020120652 | Rising, III et al. | Aug 2002 | A1 |
20020122054 | Hind et al. | Sep 2002 | A1 |
20020123993 | Chau et al. | Sep 2002 | A1 |
20020184269 | Imagou | Dec 2002 | A1 |
20020194220 | Sluiman | Dec 2002 | A1 |
20030014447 | White | Jan 2003 | A1 |
20030028521 | Teloh et al. | Feb 2003 | A1 |
20040010786 | Cool et al. | Jan 2004 | A1 |
20040123091 | Das | Jun 2004 | A1 |
20040205162 | Parikh | Oct 2004 | A1 |
20050055595 | Frazer et al. | Mar 2005 | A1 |
20050204347 | Jurkiewicz et al. | Sep 2005 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20050203953 A1 | Sep 2005 | US |