JPH0991122A - Software constitution managing mechanism using hierarchy of logic name - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily construct a constitution managing method for information system and to easily change the object and method of constitution management by providing a means for automatically customizing a means to be provided for the registered person of resources corresponding to meta-data in a data base for constitution management. SOLUTION: A constitution schemer registering means 1 prepares the schemer of a constitution managing data base 4 and meta-data 6 for access. A resource constitution information access means 2 reads, adds, updates and erases data having the type of schemer customized for the person to access the constitution information. A constitution information display maintaining means 3 collects data from the constitution managing data base 4 and integrally confirms the meta-data of logical resources and group information positioned in the higher- order hierarchy than the meta-data.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a configuration management mechanism, and more particularly to a configuration management mechanism for managing the configuration of software which is an asset of an information system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this type of configuration management mechanism aims at facilitating integrated confirmation of various resource entities constituting an information system, reducing management costs and improving management accuracy.

For example, the technique described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-108323 discloses a technique for managing the hierarchical structure of resources forming an information system, its location and entity, and management information for the resources to be automatically transmitted to other sites. It is a technology to be distributed.

The contents will be described below.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional configuration management system.

The resource management means 3a is a dictionary (database) 8a based on the hierarchical structure of resources constituting the information system.
To create a command for driving the library maintenance means 7a or the text file maintenance means 2a by reading the entity information and the location information by the dictionary maintenance means 9a from this subset of resource information. The execution of this command is managed to confirm and maintain the resource entity.

The delivery management means 4a creates a subset of the resource information of the dictionary 8a based on the hierarchical structure of the resources constituting the information processing system, and from the subset of the resource information, the dictionary maintenance means 9a and the text file maintenance means 2a. Also, a command for driving the file transfer means 5a is created, the execution of this command is managed, and the resource entity is distributed to the reference site.

[0008]

The first problem of the above-mentioned conventional configuration management mechanism is that the target and method of configuration management are fixed, and the user can freely select the operation rule of the software development environment. That is not true. Alternatively, when the configuration management target is expanded and the method is changed, the dictionary for recording the contents of the resource and the access means to be provided to the registrant of the resource cannot be automatically and synchronously changed. It requires a great deal of cost to build.

The reason is that the schema (metadata) describing the configuration management target and method cannot be customized as an access means by the registrant of the resource information.

The second problem is that the substance and location of the software resource cannot be defined by anyone other than the registrant. This makes it difficult for third-party integrated verification.

The reason for this is that, as with the first problem, one of the changes in the method of configuration management is to add aliases to the entity information and group them, and to further confirm and maintain them by the aliases and group names. That is, the access method cannot be customized.

In view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, an object of the present invention is to automatically provide a means for providing a resource registrant in accordance with metadata (schema) in a database (dictionary) for configuration management. It is to provide a means to customize. As a result, the configuration management method of the information system can be easily constructed, and the configuration management target and method can be easily modified, and the cost for constructing and changing the information system is reduced. In addition, the management accuracy is improved and the reliability is improved.

Another object of the present invention is to give an alias to an asset entity to be subject to configuration management, to hierarchically group the objects identified by these aliases, and use the alias and the group name. It is to provide a means for comprehensively confirming and maintaining the components of the information system.
This makes it possible to easily maintain the resources that are components of the system and improve maintainability.

[0014]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a software configuration management mechanism using a hierarchy of logical names for managing the configuration of software which is a resource of an information system. A configuration management database that records logical assets composed of entity information, location information, and group information, and hierarchically assembled group information; and (b) when accessing the configuration management database, as metadata for customization. Access metadata used, and (c) configuration metadata registration means for creating, changing and deleting the metadata of the configuration management database and at the same time creating, changing and deleting the access metadata. ) A configuration information table for performing integrated confirmation of the information system based on the specific contents of the configuration management database Maintenance means, and (e) access metadata for reading, adding, updating, and deleting data having the type of metadata created by the configuration metadata registration means with respect to the configuration management database. Asset configuration information access means for providing a customized interface for data asset information registrants and the configuration information display maintenance means.

A software configuration management mechanism using a hierarchy of logical names for managing the configuration of software which is a resource of the second information system of the present invention is the first configuration management mechanism, which is the logical asset and the logical asset. By assigning unique names to the group information and meanings of the resources and the character of the group, respectively, by performing the integrated confirmation of the software configuration by the name, and by designating the upper layer, the subordinate layers and subordinate layers can be specified. A configuration information display / maintenance means is provided for simultaneously maintaining the logical asset located at the lowest level and the entity of the asset uniquely associated with the logical asset.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a configuration management mechanism using a hierarchy of logical names according to the present invention. The configuration management mechanism using the hierarchy of logical names according to the present embodiment includes a configuration schema registration unit 1 (a schema and metadata are used in the same meaning), an asset configuration information access unit 2, and a configuration information display maintenance unit. 3, a configuration management database 4, an asset entity 5, access metadata 6, and an asset information registrant 7 constitute a main part thereof.

FIG. 2 is an example designed by the configuration schema registration means 1 to realize configuration management using a hierarchy of logical names. This example uses a relational model to define the relationship between tables and table-to-table relationships, with the top hierarchy being the "parent project", the hierarchy below it being "subprojects", and the bottom hierarchy being "logical projects" respectively. The table name "asset" is used to distinguish between the items that make up the primary key of the table and the items that make up the non-primary key, and the foreign key defines the relationship between the tables.

Whether or not the foreign key is a subset of the primary key has an important meaning for the management method.
That is, when the foreign key of the table corresponding to a certain hierarchy is a subset of the primary key, that hierarchy must have a higher hierarchy.

In the example of FIG. 2, a member located in the hierarchy of "subproject" must have a "parent project". Conversely, the "logical asset" in this example is
The foreign key item pointing to the group to which it belongs is a non-primary key, and the NOT NULL constraint is not imposed, allowing the existence of members of "logical assets" that do not belong to any group. The configuration schema registration means 1 creates, changes, or deletes a schema (metadata) that characterizes the management method as the configuration management database 4 and the access metadata 6.

FIG. 3 shows how the “logical asset”, which is one of the elements designed in FIG. 2 and stored as the access metadata 6, is customized in the asset configuration information access means 2. . The asset configuration information access means 2 is provided as a data type of a function and an argument of the function. Of these, the function names and the number of arguments are universally provided according to the uses such as connection to the configuration management database 4, reading of data, addition, update, and deletion without depending on customization.

On the other hand, the data type of the argument inherits the type of the access metadata as shown in the example of this figure.
The internal procedures of the function are customized, such as type checking individual data items, checking compliance with constraints enforced to maintain data consistency, and so on.

FIG. 4 is a display example by the configuration information display / maintenance means 3 of FIG. 1, and displays the realized values of the contents of the hierarchy and logical assets designed in FIG. 2 for the purpose of integrated confirmation.

FIGS. 5 (a) and 5 (b) explain an example in which the maintenance function and the service function are executed based on the integrated confirmation by the configuration information display maintenance means 3 of FIG. .

In FIG. 5A, a node with a certain hierarchy on the display, for example, "Deduction amount determination V1.6".
Is specified and the assets under it are archived and copied to the medium, and similarly, the assets under a node with a certain hierarchy are transferred to another site.

In FIG. 5B, assuming that the data item of "logical asset" in the lowest layer has a numerical value (for example, estimated scale, progress rate) indicating the degree of perfection of the asset entity indicated by it. , Shows that a procedure for calculating the progress rate for all assets under a node in a specified hierarchy can be executed.

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the configuration management using the logical name hierarchy of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

First, the schema (metadata) shown in FIG.
Is designed, and a configuration management database and access metadata have been created.

It is assumed that the asset registrant 7 in FIG. 1 is a tool having the ability to create, change, and delete the asset entity that is the object of configuration management. It is assumed that this tool has an interface to the asset configuration information access means 2 of FIG. 1 in advance. The asset registrant 7 adds, updates, and deletes the “logical asset” information (FIG. 2) of the asset to be created, changed, or deleted by the asset configuration information access means 2 of FIG. 1 to the configuration management database 4, respectively. try to.

According to the logic design of FIG. 2, NOT NUL
"Parent project name", "Parent project version", "Subproject name" without L constraint
It is not always necessary to set a value for "and subproject version". That is, it is possible to register "logical assets" that do not belong to any "subproject". On the contrary, the primary key item and NOT NULL
Values must be set for items for which restrictions are enforced. The asset structure information access means 2 inspects such restrictions.

The configuration schema display maintenance means 3 of FIG. 1 reads from the configuration management database through the asset configuration information access means 2 for the integrated confirmation of the configuration information, and realizes the realized value for each hierarchy as shown in FIG. indicate.

In the configuration schema display maintenance means 3 of FIG. 1, after performing integrated confirmation, a node with a certain hierarchy as shown in FIG. 5, for example, "Deduction amount determination V1.6" is designated and subordinate to it. Archive an asset and copy it to a medium. This is because the logical assets "tax amount calculation V3.0" and "insurance calculation V2.
"1", each asset entity is obtained from the value of the asset entity storage location item recorded in the logical asset table, and a command to archive and copy it to a floppy disk etc. To issue.

In the same manner, after performing integrated confirmation, a node with a certain hierarchy as shown in FIG. 5, for example, "Deduction amount determination V1.6" is designated, and the assets under it are designated on another site. Can be transferred to.

Next, when it is assumed that the data item of "logical asset" in the lowest layer has a numerical value (for example, estimated scale, progress rate) representing the degree of perfection of the asset entity indicated by it,
The method of calculating the progress rate for all assets under a node with a specified hierarchy is described.

First, an integrated check is performed by the configuration information display maintenance means 3, and then all logical asset information under a node with a specified hierarchy is arranged in a table format, and two columns having numerical attributes, that is, “Estimated scale” and “Progress rate” for each row, compared to “Estimated scale” and “Progress rate”
The ratio of the sum of the product of all the rows to the sum of the “estimated scale” over all the rows is calculated as the “progress rate” of the layer.

Another embodiment of the configuration management using the logical name hierarchy of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the configuration management method designed by the configuration schema registration means 1 of FIG. 1 and an example of browsing the realized values by the configuration information display maintenance means 3 of FIG. 1 based on the method. In this design example, "logical assets" are shared by multiple "projects",
Of course, the “project” can have a plurality of “logical assets” as subordinates as in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 6, a "project logical asset relation table" is provided and "project" is set here.
This is because it manages the relationship between and "logical assets." In other words, the "project logical asset relationship table" is
By defining a subset of the Cartesian set of the "project" set and the "logical asset" set, it enables other-to-other correspondence between the "project" set and the "logical asset" set. is there.

Such a management method makes it possible to share asset entities, as can be seen from an example of browsing by the configuration information display maintenance means 3. That is, the logical asset name “common processing” can be shared by “project X” and “project Y”.

[0040]

As described above, the present invention provides means for automatically customizing the means provided to resource registrants according to the metadata (schema) in the database (dictionary) for configuration management. By providing it, the configuration management method of the information system can be easily constructed. Further, it becomes possible to easily change the configuration management target and method. Therefore, the cost of building and changing the information system is reduced, and the management accuracy is improved.
It has an effect of contributing to the improvement of reliability.

Further, an alias is given to the asset entity that is the object of configuration management, the objects identified by these aliases are hierarchically grouped, and the alias and group name are used to integrate the components of the information system. By providing a means for visually confirming and maintaining the resources, it becomes possible to easily maintain the resources that are components of the system. Therefore,
It has the effect of contributing to the improvement of maintainability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing contents registered in a configuration management database by a configuration schema registration unit shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing customization of access metadata by the asset configuration information access means of FIG. 1.

4 is an explanatory diagram showing contents displayed by a configuration information display maintenance means of FIG. 1. FIG.

5 is an explanatory diagram showing a maintenance function by the configuration information display maintenance means of FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing contents registered in a configuration management database different from FIG.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional configuration management method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 configuration schema registration means 2 asset configuration information access means 3 configuration information display maintenance means 4 configuration management database 5 asset entity 6 access metadata 7 asset information registrant 1a text file 2a text file maintenance means 3a resource management means 4a delivery management Means 5a File management means 6a Library 7a Library maintenance means 8a Dictionary 9a Dictionary maintenance means

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A configuration management mechanism using a hierarchy of logical names for managing the configuration of software, which is a resource of an information system, comprising (a) entity information, location information, and belonging group information of resources constituting the information system. Logical assets,
A configuration management database that records hierarchically assembled group information; (b) access metadata used as customization metadata when accessing the configuration management database; and (c) the configuration management database. Configuration metadata registration means for creating, changing and deleting metadata and simultaneously creating, changing and deleting the access metadata, and (d) integrating the information system based on the specific contents of the configuration management database. And maintenance means for displaying configuration information for automatic confirmation,
(E) An interface with customized access metadata for reading, adding, updating, and deleting data having the type of metadata created by the configuration metadata registration means with respect to the configuration management database. Asset configuration information access means provided to the asset information registrant of data and the configuration information display maintenance means,
A software configuration management mechanism that uses a hierarchy of logical names with. 2. The logical asset and the group information,
By assigning a unique name that means the character of each resource and group, performing integrated confirmation of the software configuration with the above name, and specifying the upper layer, it is located in the lower layer and the lower layer below The software configuration management using a hierarchy of logical names according to claim 1, further comprising configuration information display maintenance means for simultaneously maintaining the logical asset and the entity of the asset uniquely associated with the logical asset. mechanism.