Abstract: A time-efficient means for identifying and processing cascading deletes due to referential constraint violations includes: logging, to an error file, all primary key (“PK”) errors detected during table load operations; building a foreign key (“FK”) index for each child table; recursively probing each relevant FK index to identify all loaded rows that violate a referential constraint due to a PK error; logging all identified FK errors to the error file; and using the (preferably sorted) error file contents to identify, mark and physically delete table rows that violate a referential constraint. The described cascade delete processing methods make only a single pass through the table data, using ordinary computer files to track and organize rows identified for deletion. Use of error files rather than tablescans (multiple passes through the loaded table data) can provide a significant reduction in table load times, especially for large or intricately “related” tables.

Abstract: A resource monitoring method may include receiving a request to perform a read operation on an object at a first monitoring node of a plurality of monitoring nodes, and determining whether or not a copy of the object is present in a namespace associated with the first monitoring node. The namespace may include an overlay namespace and a local namespace. The local namespace may identify objects being monitored by the first monitoring node. The overlay namespace may include local viewpoints for other monitoring nodes of the plurality of monitoring nodes. Each local viewpoint may identify one or more objects that are monitored by a respective other monitoring node. The method may further include performing, by the first monitoring node, the read operation on the object if the copy of the object is determined as present in the namespace associated with the first monitoring node.

Abstract: A software license engine allows an enterprise to model software license contracts and evaluate deployment of software for compliance with the software license contracts. Deployment of software products in the enterprise is modeled in a configuration management database. The software license engine maintains a license database for connecting software license contracts with software deployment modeled by the configuration management database. Users of the software license engine may use license types that are predefined in the software license engine or may define custom license types. The software license engine may indicate compliance or non-compliance with the software license contracts.

Abstract: The method may include collecting performance data relating to processing nodes of a computer system which provide services via one or more applications, analyzing the performance data to generate an operational profile characterizing resource usage of the processing nodes, receiving a set of attributes characterizing expected performance goals in which the services are expected to be provided, and generating at least one provisioning policy based on an analysis of the operational profile in conjunction with the set of attributes. The at least one provisioning policy may specify a condition for re-allocating resources associated with at least one processing node in a manner that satisfies the performance goals of the set of attributes. The method may further include re-allocating, during runtime, the resources associated with the at least one processing node when the condition of the at least one provisioning policy is determined as satisfied.

Abstract: Data is often populated into Configuration Management Databases (CMDBs) from different sources. Because the data can come from a variety of sources, it may have inconsistencies—and may even be incomplete. A Normalization Engine (NE) may be able to automatically clean up the incoming data based on certain rules and knowledge. In one embodiment, the NE takes each Configuration Item (CI) or group of CIs that are to be normalized and applies a rule or a set of rules to see if the data may be cleaned up, and, if so, updates the CI or group of CIs accordingly. In particular, one embodiment may allow for the CI's data to be normalized by doing a look up against a Product Catalog and/or an Alias Catalog. In another embodiment, the NE architecture could be fully extensible, allowing for the creation of custom, rules-based plug-ins by users and/or third parties.

Abstract: According to one general aspect, a method of semi-automatically discovering and generating useful service blueprints may include collecting, by an apparatus, a plurality of configuration information sets regarding a plurality of network service applications. The method may also include converting, by the apparatus, the plurality of configuration information sets into one or more normalized application instance graphs. The method may further include generating, by the apparatus, one or more application blueprint files based, at least in part, upon the one or more normalized application instance graphs.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for implementing hybrid-cloud computing networks are disclosed. An example computer-implemented method includes receiving, at a computing device, a request to provision a user application. The method further includes identifying an application blueprint corresponding with the request and identifying at least one computing resource corresponding with the request. The method still further includes identifying a network blueprint that includes the at least one computing resource, provisioning a computing network in accordance with the identified network blueprint and provisioning the at least one computing resource in the provisioned computing network. The method also includes, installing the user application in the provisioned at least one computing resource in accordance with the application blueprint.

Abstract: A management system has a reconciliation engine that reconciles information describing resources from a computer network service and stores reconciled information in a database. An editing engine or server is used to access and search reconciled information in the database based on at least one search criterion. Preferably, the search criterion is user-entered. The editing engine is then used to create at least a portion of a service model of the computer network service using reconciled information obtained through accessing and searching the database. Preferably, creating the service model is done with a graphical user interface application that enables a user to graphically build and modify aspects of the service model. When the service model is created or updated, a publishing engine or server is used publish at least a portion of the service model to one or more impact managers of the computer network service.

Abstract: A computer program product is tangibly embodied on a computer-readable medium and includes executable code that, when executed, is configured to cause a data processing apparatus to display multiple objects in a three dimensional (3D) representation, where the multiple objects are visual representations of real objects, and display a subset of the objects and associated metadata in a shaped lens that is movable within the 3D representation in all three axes, where the subset of the objects displayed within the shaped lens are sized larger than the objects outside of the shaped lens.

Abstract: In a cloud computing environment customers of the cloud believe they have instantaneous access to unlimited resources however to satisfy this with finite resources there are times when resources could have to be acquired from an external cloud with potentially different security capabilities and performance capabilities. A method and system are therefore disclosed to reduce cost incurred while scaling to an external cloud to meet short term demand and to take into account security and performance requirements of customers. The proposed method and system provide automation and prediction capabilities to help with the decision of growing cloud resources or temporarily becoming a hybrid cloud. By “pre-bursting” the cloud in anticipation of a cloud burst the growth in resources can be predicted and performed (with security and load balancing in mind) prior to actual cloud consumer requests.

Abstract: Systems and methods for automated computer systems event processing are described herein. At least some example embodiments include a communication interface that receives an event message and a processing unit (coupled to the communication interface) that processes the event message and that further obtains, parses and tokenizes an character string that includes one or more delimited elements selected from the group consisting of a constant, a variable and a function, wherein each function accepts as input the one or more delimited elements. The processing unit further evaluates the parsed and tokenized character string in response to receiving the event message and initiates an action based upon the result of the evaluation. The processing unit also creates a common execution environment for performing the processing, obtaining, parsing, tokenizing and evaluation.

Abstract: In one general aspect, an apparatus can include a completion identifier configured to identify, for completion processing, a large object (LOB) deleted from an auxiliary table within a DB2 database environment based on a space map record associated with the large object where the auxiliary table functions as an auxiliary space to a base table. The apparatus can also include a completion analyzer configured to identify a resource where an image of the large object is stored at a time before the deletion of the large object from the auxiliary table.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods and systems for intelligent resource pool management of heterogeneous datacenter resources. In one embodiment, intelligent resource pool management is utilized to assist in application provisioning performed based upon a blueprint and deployment model defining requirements of the provisioned application. In other embodiments, intelligent resource pool managers are configured to work in concert with other intelligent resource pool managers and/or a centralized provisioning engine. Resource pools may also be configured in a hierarchical manner whereby higher level resource pools may automatically draw resources from lower level resource pools as directed by one or more intelligent resource pool managers.

Abstract: A provider definition represents software that implements the semantics of one or more operations on an object in an object-oriented system. A provider represents a specific instance of a provider definition. One or more providers implement operations for objects in the system. A component of the system called the provider registry maintains a mapping of providers and operations as defined by the provider definitions. When handling a request to invoke a operation on an object, the system dynamically dispatches to the correct provider based on this mapping. Where more than one provider are registered as implementing the desired operation on an object, techniques are disclosed for selecting a provider to perform the desired operation.

Abstract: Systems and methods of providing information from run-time installations of mainframe SMP/E based products. Information is embedded into a fingerprint library. The fingerprint library may then be associated with a product installed via SMP/E. The fingerprint library may then remain with the product when it is copied to its distributed location. A system administrator may later query the run-time installation and retrieve information previously only known to the SMP/E tool in an SMP/E controlled installation. In one embodiment, information may be embedded into a fingerprint library at product build time.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a computer implemented technique for discovering the information technology resources that are involved in a particular networked business transaction. The system comprises three basic components. A robotic transaction playback client records the various steps in a particular transaction and can repetitively execute these steps to analyze the results. A network record collector observes the traffic throughout the network in response to the repeated instances of the transaction executed by the robotic transaction playback client. A backend processor analyzes the observations of network traffic to determine which ones are possibly tied to the transaction, and from this information determine which network components are part of the transaction being analyzed. Event timing information from a plurality of executions of a particular transaction are used to determine resource usage and paths.

Abstract: Data is often populated into Configuration Management Databases (CMDBs) from different sources. Because the data can come from a variety of sources, it may have inconsistencies—and may even be incomplete. A Normalization Engine (NE) may be able to automatically clean up the incoming data based on certain rules and knowledge. In one embodiment, the NE takes each Configuration Item (CI) or group of CIs that are to be normalized and applies a rule or a set of rules to see if the data may be cleaned up, and, if so, updates the CI or group of CIs accordingly. In particular, one embodiment may allow for the CI's data to be normalized by doing a look up against a Product Catalog and/or an Alias Catalog. In another embodiment, the NE architecture could be fully extensible, allowing for the creation of custom, rules-based plug-ins by users and/or third parties.

Abstract: An automated system obtains performance data of a computer system having partitioned servers. The performance data includes a performance rating and a current measured utilization of each server, actual workload (e.g. transaction arrival rate), and actual service levels (e.g. response time or transaction processing rate). From the data, automated system normalizes a utilization value for each server over time and generates a weighted average for each and expected service levels for various times and workloads. Automated system receives a service level objective (SLO) for each server and future time and automatically determines a policy based on the weighted average normalized utilization values, past performance information, and received SLOs. The policy can include rules for provisioning required servers to meet the SLOs, a throughput for each server, and a potential service level for each server. Based on the generated policy, the system automatically provisions operation of the servers across partitions.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for ensuring uniqueness of database object attributes are disclosed. An example computer-implemented method includes receiving a request to insert, update or delete a versioned database object having a first identifier (ID) in a main database table. The method further includes determining, based on the request, whether to fire an insert trigger, a delete trigger or an update trigger for the main database table. In the event an insert trigger is fired, the method includes performing, in a secondary database table, a record insertion process. In the event a delete trigger is fired, the method includes performing, in the secondary database table, a record deletion process. In the event an update trigger is fired, the method includes performing, in the secondary database table, at least one of the record insertion process for a post-update versioned database object and the record deletion process for a pre-update versioned database object.

Abstract: According to one general aspect, a method of using a first probing device may include monitoring one or more encrypted communications sessions between a first computing device and a second computing device. In some implementations of the method, each encrypted communications session includes transmitting a plurality of encrypted data objects between the first and second computing devices. The method may include deriving, by the first probing device, timing information regarding an encrypted communications session. The method may also include transmitting, from the first probing device to a second probing device, the derived timing information.