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Jianwen Chen, George Africa, Rhonda Childress,. Michael Shallcross, Chandra Ayier. IBM Global Service. 601 Pacific Highway, St. Leonards, NSW 2065, ...
A Pattern and Implementation for Configuration Management [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],[email protected]

Jianwen Chen, George Africa, Rhonda Childress, Michael Shallcross, Chandra Ayier IBM Global Service 601 Pacific Highway, St. Leonards, NSW 2065, Australia

Abstract— In this paper, we propose a runtime pattern for the deployment of a configuration management system. The aim of the proposed pattern is to provide a run time solution model to implement end-to-end configuration management processes and functions in a real business environment. Keywords- service and configuration management; enterprise architectural pattern; information discovery and integration

I.

INTRODUCTION

Service management is a set of disciplines used to provide IT services. The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is an internationally recognized framework that provides comprehensive best practice guidelines for all aspects of end-to-end service management. It also provides advice on the transformation of the IT organization to better focus on the overall business goals. ITIL focuses on how components (Configuration Items) should be defined and, once defined, how they should be managed to achieve business goals and to provide services to other elements of the business. ITIL Version 3 [1] focuses on best practices throughout the service life cycle. ITIL, however, is a framework of best practices and not a methodology. It only describes what needs to be done and does not provide prescriptive guidance on how to implement the processes. Consequently each organization must choose how best to “adopt and adapt” ITIL to suit its requirements. “Adopt” ITIL as a common language and reference point for IT Service Management, and “adapt” ITIL best practices to achieve business objectives. There are several essential ITIL service management functions: request fulfillment management, incident management, problem management, change management, asset management, configuration management, service level management, and service catalog management. Of these, configuration management identifies, controls, and maintains all elements in the IT infrastructure called Configuration Items (CI). The purpose of the configuration management process is to maintain the integrity of the configuration item employed in, or related to, IT systems and infrastructure, and to provide accurate information about CIs and their relationships. Configuration management also tracks detailed hardware and software configuration and the logical relationships between the items. This CI data provides the

foundation for automation between many other functions such as asset management, change management and release management. The configuration, incident, problem, change and asset management processes integrate with each other for data reconciliation and correlation. Configuration management can be seen as one of the most critical systems management disciplines. It spans the administration and operations of networks and systems, and must provide data to many different users and applications (such as problem, change and asset) in the enterprise. Configuration management can also be one of the most difficult and time consuming of the management disciplines. Collection and maintenance of configuration data can be labour intensive and therefore expensive. Configuration management is also one area where automation is critical in order to reduce labour required to perform the tasks involved. It is always challenging to implement and maintain an endto-end configuration management system in a real business environment and enterprise level. In this paper we propose an architectural runtime pattern for an end-to-end implementation of a configuration management system. This pattern includes a solution to deploy a configuration management process, data, and management platform that supports best practice. Compared to other architecture solutions for configuration management, our proposed pattern has the following advantages:  It is a runtime implementation pattern for an end-to-end configuration management deployment.  It is an enterprise level architectural pattern to implement the configuration management process, data model and integration, management platform, and operational management.  It aligns with ITIL V3 best practice for configuration management.  A product mapping is included in the proposed pattern for its implementation. II.

A CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT ARCHITECTURE

Figure 1 presents a generic ITIL aligned architecture overview for configuration management.

layer. A consistent data model is required for both Data Discovery Layer and Configuration Management Process Layer for data integration. We propose to adopt DMTF Common Information Model (CIM) [6] in the proposed runtime pattern.

This configuration management architecture has four layers: Layer 1: Configuration data discovery across operational domains; Layer 2: Data transfer and integration between data discovery environment and service management environment; Layer 3: Configuration management process layer. Configuration management interacts with change management, asset management, incident management, problem management and release management; Layer 4: Presentation layer for configuration management. III.

A CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT RUNTIME PATTERN

In this section, we propose a runtime pattern to implement an ITIL V3 aligned configuration management process and supporting functions. An overview of this runtime pattern for configuration management is presented in Figure 2. There are four layers in this runtime pattern: Layer 1: Configuration Data Discovery. The purpose of this layer is to discover the configuration items employed in, or related to, IT systems and infrastructure, and to provide accurate information about CIs and their logical relationships. The Discovery Server discovers CIs and their relationships in different operational domains. These may include host, network, storage and application domains. The discovered CIs and their relationships are kept in a Configuration Discovery Database and transferred/integrated through the Data Transfer and Integration Layer. CIs can be discovered through agent-based or agent-free technology. In the configuration discovery solution, a data model is required to construct and capture CI data. Layer 2: Data Transfer and Integration. In this layer, both the data model and CI data instances need to be transferred and integrated with the Configuration Management Process Layer. The discovered CIs are transferred to the Actual CI Space in management process

Layer 3: Configuration Management Process Layer. This layer provides multiple components.  Process layer database: This database needs to keep both actual CIs and authorized CIs. The actual CI space keeps the same information or a subset of discovered CIs from the Data Discovery Layer in order to provide the appropriate data to the Configuration Process Manager. An actual CI becomes an authorized CI through a promotion process.  Configuration Process Manager: The Configuration Process Manager is a system required to manage the execution of the configuration management process and to interact and integrate with other service management processes.  Runtime Services for Configuration Process Manager: The runtime services provide a work management platform and general capabilities such as job plans and workflows needed to automate processes. It enables configuration and execution of any of the end-to-end service management processes. The runtime service components provide notification mechanisms, a security model to support users and groups, and a common approach to displaying information to users.

 User interfaces: A user interface, generally web-based, for administration and an interface for the Data Discovery Layer must also be provided. Layer 4: Presentation Layer This layer provides reporting, notification, and portal functions for configuration management. IV.

PRODUCT MAPPING OF RUNTIME PATTERN

In this section, we map a potential set of IBM products to the components and functions proposed in the runtime pattern for configuration management. This product mapping provides a basis through which the pattern can be instantiated as an implementable solution. The architecture of the product mapping is presented in Figure 3. A. Configuration Discovery There are many products on the market that are able to discover CI information either directly or through the use of agent technology. The IBM Tivoli Application Dependency Discovery Manager (TADDM) is a configuration discovery solution that can deliver the following capabilities and features [2][3]:  Automatic discovery of components and relationships  Native discovery and application mapping

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Data integration and federation Configuration item reconciliation and synchronization  Open API The TADDM solution provides an agent-less approach to data discovery. The native discovery includes discovery down to layer 2 network devices, storage devices, cross-tier dependencies, and runtime configuration. On the discovery server, discovery sensors are run to extract and interpret data specific to the application for which they are written. TADDM has additional capabilities to discover not only the hardware, software, and related information in the IT environment, but also the relationships that exist between these entities. It helps the understanding what they have in their environment and of the inter-dependencies between applications, middleware, servers and network components. TADDM provides detailed maps that help visualize business applications, their relationships to one another and to the underlying infrastructure. It helps organizations coordinate and manage configuration changes and processes throughout an enterprise by providing visibility of all the relevant information needed to optimize service delivery and agility. The TADDM solution achieves data discovery through the following components:  TADDM Discovery Server: A shared or dedicated TADDM Discovery Server provides configuration data discovery through sensors installed on the server. TADDM sensors start up discovery sessions to discover configuration items in specified environment. With more than 200 sensors available at installation, TADDM provides extensive visibility into operating systems, custom application platforms, middleware, network routers and switches, and packaged applications. The discovery scope, access list and schedule are defined in Discovery Server. The discovered CIs are kept in TADDM discovery database.  TADDM Anchor and Gateway server: The TADDM Anchor server is used to transport data through different network zones. A TADDM Gateway server is to transport data from Microsoft Windows servers.  TADDM sensors discover configuration items on different type of nodes through different connections: - AIX/Solaris/Linux nodes: via ssh connection on port 22 - Windows nodes: via WMI connection on port 135 - Vcentre: via Windows login connection on port 135 or 445 - Network nodes: via SNMP connection on port 161 The detected configuration items are kept in the TADDM discovery database as discovered CIs, which will be transferred into the configuration process layer through data integration. TADDM adopts the IBM Tivoli Common Data Model (CDM) [7] to construct the configuration items. This model incorporates the DMTF Common Information Model [6].

B. Change and Configuration Management Database Today, there are different service management products and systems provided by service vendors such as IBM, BMC and Computer Associates. The IBM Service Management solution provides an enterprise level solution for a real-time, automated, and centralized service management system aligned with the ITIL V3 process framework [1]. Within this solution, the IBM Change and Configuration Management Database (CCMDB) provides the foundation system and core ITIL process capabilities. The CCMDB solution [4] provides the functions proposed in configuration management process layer of the runtime pattern. It provides configuration management process capabilities and supports multicustomer and service provider environments. The CCMDB defines CIs as managed components of an IT service, records the attributes of each CI and its relationships with other CIs and provides the underpinnings for the IT service management processes. The CCMDB is a database used to manage configuration records throughout their lifecycle. The CCMDB also provides change management capabilities – vital in maintaining the integrity of the configuration management system as changes are made to CIs. As presented in Figure 3, CCMDB has the following components [5]:  Database in configuration management process layer: The actual CI space and authorized CI space are maintained in this database. The actual CI space keeps the same information or a subset of discovered CIs from TADDM in order to provide the appropriate data to the Process Manager implementations. An actual CI becomes an authorized CI through a promotion process.  IBM Service Management Process Manager Product (PMP): Configuration and change management PMPs in CCMDB utilize an underlying process runtime environment to deliver the pre-defined and ITIL V3 aligned change management and configuration management processes. By separating the process definition from the process runtime capabilities IBM is able to easily deliver specific implementations of multiple service management processes  Tivoli Process Automation Engine (TPAE): This is the foundation that provides a common runtime service shared across multiple IBM products implementing a range of service management processes. It provides a common security model to support users, user groups, sites, organizations, and security profiles. It offers a facility for all applications to share a common approach to displaying information to users of the system and for sending notifications to a person or group. It provides capabilities such as job plans, workflows, activities, and activity groups in order to automate processes. The TPAE also provides the platform for defining and configuring end-to-end processes and workflows.

 User interfaces: There are two major user interfaces provided by the overall CCMDB solution - The CCMDB web user interface and the interface for the TADDM discovery server. The CCMDB web user interface is the primary user interface for administering and executing the configuration management and other processes. C. Data model and integration Both CCMDB and TADDM solution use the IBM Tivoli Common Data Model [7], and therefore CIs in the data layer and process layer can be transferred, integrated, and reconciled. The CDM is a way of structuring the data to provide useful and usable information. The CDM defines the constructs in models, class, attributes, relationships and data types based on the DMTF Common Information Model [6]. The very top level of this CDM hierarchy can name just the IT services being provided. Then the CIs that are associated with this top level service, and their relationships, are captured and represented in the data model. Consequently, when changes are made to these CIs, the impact on associated services can be understood, and appropriate actions are taken. IBM Tivoli Integration Composer (ITIC) provides the supporting function to share and transfer the CDM representation (model). The Integration Adapter for TADDM transfers the CI instance data. V.

CONCLUSIONS

In this paper, we have proposed an enterprise level runtime pattern to deploy an end-to-end configuration management system. This architectural pattern can be adopted to implement configuration discovery, data integration, and the configuration management process. It has been mapped to an available IBM product set to illustrate how the pattern may be instantiated to enable best practice configuration management in a real business environment. REFERENCES [1] Patrick Bolger, “ITIL State of the Nation: The Reality of ITIL”, ITSM Fusion 10, 2010. [2] Vasfi Gucer, “Deployment Guide Series: IBM Tivoli Application Dependency Discovery Manager V7.1”, IBM redbook: http://www.ibm.com/redbooks. [3] Morten Moeller, “Deployment Guide Series: IBM Tivoli Change and Configuration Management Database Configuration Discovery and Tracking”, IBM redbook: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com. [4] Yatresh K Agarwal, Bill Cary, “IBM Tivoli Change and Configuration Management Database (CCMDB) V7.2.1 Implementation Guide”, http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v32r1/index.jsp?topic=/co m.ibm.ccmdb.doc_721/overview/c_ccmdb_overview.html. [5] “IBM Service Management strategy and related technologies and Solutions”, IBM System Journal: http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj463.html [6] “The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) Common Information Model (CIM) object model”, http://www.dmtf.org [7] Ling Tai and Ron Baker, “IBM Tivoli Common Data Model: Guide to Best Practices”, IBM redbook: http://www.redbooks.ibm