Unified application management method and device for cross-heterogeneous system

Abstract

The invention provides a unified application management method and device for a cross-heterogeneous system, and belongs to the technical field of computers, and the architecture of the device comprises the following steps: 1) an operation and maintenance management platform: issuing an application management task; 2) managed equipment which is a physical machine, a virtual machine or a container running a specific operating system; 3) network communication: respectively communicating with the operation and maintenance management platform and the managed equipment to serve as a communication link of the operation and maintenance management platform and the managed equipment; 4) a client agent which is deployed on a managed device and is responsible for communicating with the operation and maintenance management platform; and 5) a unified application management tool which is deployed on the managed equipment, is connected with the client agent, and serves as an abstraction layer and an adapter between the application management instruction issued by the operation and maintenance management platform and the local specific execution environment of the managed equipment. According to the invention, the problems of high coupling degree between the platform and the client, redundancy of the client, difficulty in maintenance, poor expansibility and the like when the operation and maintenance management platform manages different forms of applications in a heterogeneous system environment in the prior art are solved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of computer technology, and in particular to a method and device for unified management of applications across heterogeneous systems. Background Art

[0002] With the rapid development of cloud computing, edge computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT), the number of devices that enterprises and service providers need to manage has exploded, and the hardware platforms, operating systems, and deployment environments of these devices are becoming increasingly diverse. Operations and maintenance management platforms have emerged to centrally monitor, configure, deploy, and manage these distributed devices and the applications running on them.

[0003] However, in practice, managed devices often run different operating systems, such as Ubuntu (using DEB package management), CentOS (using RPM package management), other Linux distributions, or even non-Linux systems. Applications are also packaged and deployed in a variety of formats, including DEB packages, RPM packages, Docker container images, Snap packages, and Flatpak packages.

[0004] Currently, operations management platforms face a dilemma when attempting to uniformly manage applications in these heterogeneous environments: they must either be aware of the specific environment of the target device (operating system type, available package managers, container runtimes, etc.) or rely on client agents deployed on the managed devices to handle these differences. If handled directly by the platform, the platform logic becomes complex and difficult to scale. If handled by a client agent, different versions of the agent must be developed for different operating systems or application formats, or the agent must contain extensive conditional logic. This leads to high development, testing, and maintenance costs for the client agent itself, making it difficult to adapt to the rapidly changing technology ecosystem and new application formats. Supporting a new operating system or application packaging format often requires extensive modification or even rewriting of the existing client agent, significantly reducing the flexibility and scalability of the operations management platform.

[0005] The shortcomings of the prior art are further summarized as follows: Tight coupling and platform complexity: Existing solutions often lead to over-coupling between the operation and maintenance management platform and the specific implementation details of the managed devices (such as operating system type and package manager commands). The platform needs to maintain a large amount of logic related to specific environments, which increases the complexity and maintenance difficulty of the platform.

[0006] Client redundancy and maintenance difficulties: To adapt to different target environments, it is necessary to deploy client agents with similar functionality but different implementation details on managed devices, or a bloated agent containing a large amount of conditional branching code for different environments. This leads to code redundancy, complex testing, high maintenance costs, and the introduction of errors.

[0007] Poor scalability: Whenever support for a new operating system, new package management tool (such as apt vs. yum / dnf), or new application form (such as introducing Docker, Snap, or Flatpak support) is required, a lot of development and testing work is required for the platform or client agent, resulting in slow response and poor scalability.

[0008] Lack of unified abstraction: The lack of a unified application operation abstraction layer that is independent of specific implementations makes it difficult to standardize the operation instructions issued by the platform, and operation and maintenance personnel need to be concerned with underlying differences.

[0009] Complex deployment and upgrade: Managing and upgrading different versions of client agents deployed on a large number of heterogeneous devices is a huge challenge. Summary of the Invention

[0010] In response to the above problems, the present invention provides a unified application management method and device across heterogeneous systems to overcome the problems of high platform-client coupling and client redundancy in the existing operation and maintenance management platform when managing different forms of applications in a heterogeneous system environment.

[0011] To achieve the above objectives, the technical solution of the present invention is: a device for unified application management across heterogeneous systems, the architecture of which includes the following: 1) Operation and maintenance management platform: serves as the central node, responsible for issuing application management tasks; 2) Managed devices: physical machines, virtual machines, or containers running specific operating systems; 3) Network communication: Communicates with the operation and maintenance management platform and managed devices separately, serving as the communication link between the operation and maintenance management platform and the managed devices; 4) Client Agent: Deployed on managed devices, it is responsible for communicating with the operation and maintenance management platform, receiving instructions from the operation and maintenance management platform, passing the instructions to the unified application management tool, and returning the UAMT results to the operation and maintenance management platform; 5) Unified application management tool: Also deployed on the managed device and connected to the client agent, it serves as an abstraction layer and adapter between the application management instructions issued by the operation and maintenance management platform and the local specific execution environment of the managed device.

[0012] Furthermore, the specific operating system run by the managed device includes Ubuntu 20.04 or CentOS 7.

[0013] Furthermore, the communication link type specifically applied in the network communication includes HTTPS or MQTT.

[0014] Furthermore, the unified application management tool includes the following modules: a. Instruction receiving and parsing module: Receives standardized instructions from the client agent through a predefined interface and parses out the operation type, application name, version, and source fields; b. Environment and format detection module: connected to the instruction and parsing module, used to detect the type of the operating system of the managed device and determine the format type of the application based on the content parsed by the instruction and parsing module; c. Processing module distributor: connects to the environment and format detection module, selects and loads the corresponding processing module according to the detected application format type; d. A collection of processing modules: connected to the processing module distributor, converting standardized application management instructions into one or more specific execution commands applicable to the local environment of the managed device according to the processing modules selected by the processing module distributor; eExecution Engine: Connects to the collection of processing modules and is responsible for executing specific commands generated by the processing modules with appropriate permissions, capturing standard output, standard error, and exit codes; fResult encapsulation and reporting module: connects to the execution engine and client agent respectively, constructs the execution engine's results into a standardized JSON or other format response, and returns it to the client agent.

[0015] Furthermore, the format of the standardized instruction includes JSON.

[0016] Furthermore, the types of processing modules included in the set of processing modules are as follows: DebHandler, RpmHandler, DockerHandler, SnapHandler, and FlatpakHandler.

[0017] Furthermore, the results of the execution engine include success / failure, logs, and error messages.

[0018] The method for unified management of applications across heterogeneous systems using the above-mentioned device is applied to the managed device side and includes the following steps: a. The client agent deployed on the managed device receives standardized application management instructions from the operation and maintenance management platform and transmits the application management instructions to the unified application management tool through network communication; b. Unified application management tool parses the application management instructions to obtain the operation type and application-related parameters; c. The unified application management tool determines the target application format type that should be used by the application on the current managed device based on the operating environment information of the managed device and / or the information in the application management instruction; d. The unified application management tool selects the processing module corresponding to the target application format type determined in step c; e. The processing module converts the standardized application management instructions into one or more specific execution commands applicable to the local environment of the managed device; f. Unified application management tool executes the specific execution command to complete the application management operation; g. The unified application management tool formats the execution results into a standardized response and feeds it back to the operation and maintenance management platform.

[0019] Furthermore, the application management operations in step f include installation, uninstallation, and update of the application.

[0020] The beneficial effects of the method and device for unified management of applications across heterogeneous systems of the present invention are: The present invention introduces a unified management tool (UAMT) as an abstraction layer on the managed device side, which brings significant technical effects: 1. Complete decoupling of the platform and device ends is achieved: the operation and maintenance management platform only needs to focus on business logic and issue standardized instructions, without having to perceive the differences in the underlying operating system and the diversity of application forms.

[0021] 2. Greatly simplifies the development and maintenance of client agents: The core adaptation logic is concentrated in UAMT, making the client agent lightweight and mainly responsible for communication; the modular design of UAMT makes maintenance and upgrades easier.

[0022] 3. Significantly improved system scalability: When supporting new operating systems or application forms, the main work is to develop and add new processing modules to UAMT, which has minimal impact on the platform and existing client agents, improving the flexibility and speed of technology evolution.

[0023] 4. Provides a unified application management view: Regardless of the underlying technology, the platform can be managed using the same instructions, reducing the learning cost and operational complexity of operation and maintenance personnel.

[0024] 5. Enhanced reliability and consistency of operation and maintenance operations: Standardized instructions and automated conversion execution reduce human configuration errors caused by environmental differences and ensure consistency of operations on different devices. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025] The present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

[0026] Figure 1 This is a workflow diagram of the unified application management tool across heterogeneous systems of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0027] The following is a clear and complete description of the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. In the following description, many specific details are set forth to facilitate a full understanding of the present invention. However, the present invention can also be implemented in other ways different from those described herein, and those skilled in the art can make similar generalizations without violating the connotation of the present invention. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed below.

[0028] Related English meanings: APT: APT is a package management tool in Debian and its derivatives, such as Ubuntu. It handles operations such as installing, updating, upgrading, and removing software packages. APT automatically determines the required operations for installing and uninstalling software packages by resolving dependencies.

[0029] YUM: YUM is a package manager used in Red Hat Linux and its derivatives (such as CentOS). It provides a command-line interface and an automatic update system that handles package dependencies, making the package installation and update process simpler.

[0030] Docker: Docker is an open-source application container engine that allows developers to package their applications and their dependencies into portable containers and then deploy them to any popular Linux or Windows server. Containers are fully sandboxed, with no interfaces between them.

[0031] Flatpak: Flatpak is a framework for building, distributing, and running applications. It allows application developers to package their applications so that they can run on multiple Linux distributions without having to consider distribution-specific dependencies.

[0032] Snap: Snap is a software packaging and deployment system developed by Canonical for packaging software and its dependencies together to run on multiple Linux distributions.

[0033] This invention proposes a method and apparatus for unified application management across heterogeneous systems, including a universal application management tool (hereinafter referred to as "UAMT") deployed on managed devices. This tool serves as an abstraction layer and adapter between application management instructions issued by the operation and maintenance management platform and the local execution environment of the managed devices. The structural components of this unified application management apparatus across heterogeneous systems and the operating methods utilizing it are detailed below.

[0034] Example 1 A device for unified application management across heterogeneous systems, the system architecture includes the following: 1) Operation and maintenance management platform: It is the central node responsible for issuing application management tasks.

[0035] 2) Managed devices: physical machines, virtual machines, or containers running a specific operating system (such as Ubuntu 20.04 or CentOS 7).

[0036] 3) Network communication: Communicates with the operation and maintenance management platform and managed devices separately, serving as the communication link between the operation and maintenance management platform and managed devices (such as HTTPS, MQTT).

[0037] 4) Client Agent: Deployed on the managed device, responsible for communicating with the operation and maintenance management platform, receiving instructions issued by the operation and maintenance management platform, passing the instructions to the Unified Application Management Tool (UAMT), and returning the results of UAMT to the operation and maintenance management platform.

[0038] 5) Unified Application Management Tool (UAMT): Also deployed on the managed device (either as part of the client agent or as an independent process / library) and connected to the client agent, it serves as an abstraction layer and adapter between the application management instructions issued by the operation and maintenance management platform and the local specific execution environment of the managed device.

[0039] Example 2 This embodiment further refines the module composition of the unified application management tool (UAMT) in Example 1 as follows: a. Instruction receiving and parsing module: Receive standardized instructions in JSON or other formats from the client agent through predefined interfaces (such as local APIs, command line parameters, and configuration files), and parse out fields such as operation type, application name, version, and source. The following is an example: Example directive (JSON): { "operation": "install", "app_name": "my-web-app", "version": "1.2.0", "source_type": "docker_image", / / or "deb_package", "rpm_repo", "snap_store" "source_location": "registry.example.com / my-web-app:1.2.0", / / or " / path / to / app.deb", "my-repo-name", "stable" "config_params": { / / Optional application-specific configuration "port": 8080, "env_vars": { "DB_HOST": "db.example.com"} } } bEnvironment and format detection module: Connected to the command and parsing module, it is used to detect the type of the managed device's operating system and determine the application format type based on the content parsed by the command and parsing module. The above function is implemented through the following operations: ⅰ Detect the operating system: Read / etc / os-release or use commands such as uname to determine the OS type (Ubuntu, CentOS).

[0040] ⅱ Determine the application format, including the following methods: Based on the source_type field (if explicitly provided in the directive).

[0041] Based on the format of source_location (such as .deb, .rpm suffixes; URI schema such as docker: / / , snap: / / ; or whether it is a legal Docker image name).

[0042] Based on predefined rules or querying locally installed related tools (such as whether dpkg --version, rpm --version, docker --version are successful).

[0043] ⅲ Decision logic example: If the OS is Ubuntu and source_type is package_manager or is not specified but source_location is a package name in a configured apt repository, then it is determined to be in DEB format; if source_type is docker_image, then it is determined to be in Docker format.

[0044] c Processing module dispatcher: Connect with the environment and format detection module, select and load the corresponding processing module according to the detected application format type.

[0045] d A collection of processing modules: Connected to the processing module distributor, the module converts standardized application management instructions into one or more specific execution commands applicable to the local environment of the managed device based on the processing module selected by the processing module distributor. Specific types of processing modules include the following: DebHandler: Encapsulates apt-get and dpkg commands. Implements operations such as install, uninstall, update, and query_status. For example, the install operation will generate sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y<package_name> = <version>or sudo dpkg -i<deb_file_path> .

[0046] RpmHandler: Encapsulates yum, dnf, and rpm commands to implement similar operations.

[0047] DockerHandler: Encapsulates Docker CLI commands or calls the Docker Engine API. Implements operations such as pull, run, stop, rm, and inspect. Install may correspond to docker pull + docker run. It handles config_params such as port mapping, volume mounts, and environment variables.

[0048] SnapHandler: Encapsulates the snap command.

[0049] FlatpakHandler: Encapsulates the flatpak command.

[0050] eExecution Engine: Connects to the processing module and is responsible for executing the specific command generated by the processing module with appropriate permissions (may require sudo), capturing standard output, standard error and exit code.

[0051] fResult packaging and reporting module: Connect to the execution engine and client agent respectively, construct the execution engine's results (success / failure, logs, error information) into a standardized JSON or other format response, and return it to the client agent. The following is an example: Example response (JSON): { "request_id": "...", / / corresponds to the original request "status": "success", / / or "failure" "message": "Application 'my-web-app' installed successfully viaDocker.", "details": { / / Optional, contains more detailed logs or output "stdout": "...", "stderr": "...", "exit_code": 0 } }.

[0052] Example 3 The method for unified management of applications across heterogeneous systems using the device described in the above embodiment is specifically applied to the managed device side, combined with Figure 1 As shown, the specific steps include: a. The client agent deployed on the managed device receives standardized application management instructions from the operation and maintenance management platform and transmits the application management instructions to the unified application management tool via network communication. The instructions contain the operation type and application information, but do not preset the specific deployment form of the target application; b. Unified application management tool instructions and parsing module to parse the application management instructions, obtain the operation type and application-related parameters; c. The environment and format detection module in the unified application management tool determines the target application format type / form (e.g., DEB package, RPM package, Docker container, Snap package, Flatpak package, etc.) that the application should adopt on the current managed device based on the operating environment information of the managed device and / or the information in the application management instruction; d. The processing module distributor in the unified application management tool selects the processing module corresponding to the target application format type / form determined in step c from a set of processing modules corresponding to different application forms; e. The processing module in the unified application management tool uses the selected processing module to convert the standardized application management instructions into one or more specific execution commands applicable to the local environment of the managed device; f. The execution engine in the unified application management tool executes the specific execution command to complete the application management operation (such as installation, uninstallation, update, etc.); g. The result packaging and reporting module in the unified application management tool formats the execution results into standardized responses and feeds them back to the operation and maintenance management platform.

[0053] Example 4 Based on the method described in Example 3, installing a Docker application includes the following steps: 1) The operation and maintenance management platform sends an instruction to install the my-web-app Docker image to an Ubuntu device.

[0054] 2) The client agent on the device receives the instruction, calls the local UAMT interface, and passes the JSON instruction.

[0055] 3) The UAMT instruction receiving and parsing module parses the instruction and obtains the operation as install, the format as docker_image, and the image name as registry.example.com / my-web-app:1.2.0.

[0056] 4) The environment and format detection module confirms that the application format is Docker.

[0057] 5) Select DockerHandler as the processing module distributor.

[0058] 6)DockerHandler generates Docker commands based on the instructions and config_params, for example: docker pull registry.example.com / my-web-app:1.2.0 and docker run -d -p 8080:80 --namemy-web-app-instance -e DB_HOST=db.example.com registry.example.com / my-web-app:1.2.0.

[0059] 7) The execution engine executes these Docker commands.

[0060] 8) The result packaging and reporting module collects the output and status of the Docker command and generates a successful response JSON.

[0061] 9) UAMT returns the response to the client agent.

[0062] 10) The client agent sends the response back to the operation and maintenance management platform.

[0063] Example 5 Based on the method described in Example 3, expanding a new application format, such as supporting a new application format in the future, such as AppImage, includes the following steps: 1) Develop a new AppImageHandler module to implement the encapsulation of AppImage file downloading, execution, management and other operations.

[0064] 2) Register this new Handler in the processing module collection of UAMT.

[0065] 3) Update the logic of the environment and format detection module to enable it to recognize the AppImage format (for example, through the file suffix or source_type instruction field).

[0066] 4) Deploy the updated UAMT to the managed devices.

[0067] After completing these steps, the operation and maintenance management platform can manage AppImage applications by issuing instructions such as { "operation": "install", ..., "source_type": "appimage", "source_location": " / path / to / app.AppImage"} without any changes.

[0068] In summary, the method and apparatus for unified management of applications across heterogeneous systems of the present invention have the following features and advantages: Standardized command reception: The unified management tool receives standardized, abstracted application management commands from the operations management platform. These commands define the type of operation to be performed (such as install, uninstall, update, query status, start, stop, etc.), the target application identifier, version, source information (such as repository address, image name, package file path), and other optional parameters, but do not specify whether to use apt, yum, Docker, or other tools.

[0069] Environment awareness and format judgment: The unified management tool has environment awareness capabilities and can identify the type of the currently running operating system. It can also determine the specific format of the target application (DEB, RPM, Docker Image, Snap, Flatpak, etc.) based on information in the instruction (such as application source, file type suffix) or pre-configured policies.

[0070] Modular processing and distribution: The tool contains multiple processing modules (handlers / plugins) for different application types. For example, it includes DebHandler, RpmHandler, DockerHandler, SnapHandler, FlatpakHandler, etc. Based on the application type determined in the previous step, the tool dynamically selects and calls the corresponding processing module.

[0071] Specific operation execution: The selected processing module is responsible for converting abstract instructions into specific commands suitable for the local environment (such as apt-get install <package>, docker run , snap install<snap_name> ), and calls the corresponding tools provided by the operating system (package manager, container engine command line or API, etc.) to execute these commands.

[0072] Standardized result feedback: The unified management tool captures the execution results of local commands (success / failure status, output logs, error messages), formats them into standardized response data, and returns them to the client agent of the operation and maintenance management platform, and finally transmits them back to the platform.

[0073] Through the above method, the operation and maintenance management platform does not need to care about the specific differences of the target devices, but only needs to interact with the client agent deployed with the unified management tool through standardized instructions; all adaptation logic related to specific operating systems and application forms is encapsulated in the unified management tool and its modules on the managed device side, achieving a high degree of decoupling and good scalability.

[0074] Obviously, the embodiments described are only some of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of them. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making creative efforts are within the scope of protection of the present invention.< / package> < / version>

Claims

1. A device for unified application management across heterogeneous systems, characterized in that: The architecture of the device includes the following: 1) Operation and maintenance management platform: serves as the central node, responsible for issuing application management tasks; 2) Managed devices: physical machines, virtual machines, or containers running specific operating systems; 3) Network communication: Communicates with the operation and maintenance management platform and managed devices separately, serving as the communication link between the operation and maintenance management platform and the managed devices; 4) Client Agent: Deployed on managed devices, it is responsible for communicating with the operation and maintenance management platform, receiving instructions from the operation and maintenance management platform, passing the instructions to the unified application management tool, and returning the UAMT results to the operation and maintenance management platform; 5) Unified application management tool: Also deployed on the managed device and connected to the client agent, it serves as an abstraction layer and adapter between the application management instructions issued by the operation and maintenance management platform and the local specific execution environment of the managed device.

2. The device for unified application management across heterogeneous systems according to claim 1, characterized in that: The managed devices run specific operating systems including Ubuntu 20.04 or CentOS 7.

3. The device for unified application management across heterogeneous systems according to claim 1, characterized in that: The communication link type specifically applied in the network communication includes HTTPS or MQTT.

4. The device for unified application management across heterogeneous systems according to claim 1, characterized in that: The unified application management tool includes the following modules: a. Instruction receiving and parsing module: Receives standardized instructions from the client agent through a predefined interface and parses out the operation type, application name, version, and source fields; b. Environment and format detection module: connected to the instruction and parsing module, used to detect the type of the operating system of the managed device and determine the format type of the application based on the content parsed by the instruction and parsing module; c. Processing module distributor: connects to the environment and format detection module, selects and loads the corresponding processing module according to the detected application format type; d. A collection of processing modules: connected to the processing module distributor, converting standardized application management instructions into one or more specific execution commands applicable to the local environment of the managed device according to the processing modules selected by the processing module distributor; eExecution Engine: Connects to the collection of processing modules and is responsible for executing specific commands generated by the processing modules with appropriate permissions, capturing standard output, standard error, and exit codes; fResult encapsulation and reporting module: connects to the execution engine and client agent respectively, constructs the execution engine's results into a standardized JSON or other format response, and returns it to the client agent.

5. The device for unified application management across heterogeneous systems according to claim 4, characterized in that: The format of the standardized instructions includes JSON.

6. The device for unified application management across heterogeneous systems according to claim 4, characterized in that: The types of processing modules included in the set of processing modules are as follows: DebHandler, RpmHandler, DockerHandler, SnapHandler, and FlatpakHandler.

7. The device for unified application management across heterogeneous systems according to claim 4, characterized in that: The results of the execution engine include success / failure, logs, and error messages.

8. A method for unified management of applications across heterogeneous systems using the device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that: Applied to the managed device, it includes the following steps: a. The client agent deployed on the managed device receives standardized application management instructions from the operation and maintenance management platform and transmits the application management instructions to the unified application management tool through network communication; b. Unified application management tool parses the application management instructions to obtain the operation type and application-related parameters; c. The unified application management tool determines the target application format type that should be used by the application on the current managed device based on the operating environment information of the managed device and / or the information in the application management instruction; d. The unified application management tool selects the processing module corresponding to the target application format type determined in step c; e. The processing module converts the standardized application management instructions into one or more specific execution commands applicable to the local environment of the managed device; f. Unified application management tool executes the specific execution command to complete the application management operation; g. The unified application management tool formats the execution results into a standardized response and feeds it back to the operation and maintenance management platform.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that The application management operations in step f include installation, uninstallation and update of the application.

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