Centralized Configuration Data Management for Network Services
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Solution Overview
Problem
As networks deploy more complex and numerous services, configuration data management becomes increasingly challenging due to the complexity of individual computing devices, applications, and services, leading to potential misconfigurations that can prevent applications from operating correctly or at all.
Innovation Solution
A centralized configuration data management software tool that ingests configuration data from multiple sources, represents it in an application-independent fashion, applies policies for validation, and stores and exports it efficiently using a new form of database table, facilitating proper configuration and versioning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If configuration data is managed in a decentralized manner across multiple services, then each service can operate independently, but the complexity of managing and validating configuration data increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a centralized configuration management system that acts as an intermediary between multiple services and their configuration data. This mediator ingests configuration data from various sources, validates it against policies, and stores it in a standardized format, thereby reducing the complexity of decentralized configuration management while preserving service independence.
Solution Approach 2:
The configuration management system performs multiple functions including data ingestion from various sources, policy-based validation, version control, and export to different formats. This multi-functional approach consolidates what would otherwise be separate management tasks across multiple services into a single universal system.
2Adaptability or versatility
If more configuration parameters are added to services, then service functionality is enhanced, but the likelihood of misconfiguration increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary validation of configuration data against predefined policies before the configuration is applied to services. This advance checking ensures that configuration parameters are correctly set and consistent with requirements, preventing misconfigurations before they can affect service reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The configuration management system provides feedback mechanisms including validation results, error messages, and compliance reports. This feedback allows operators to identify and correct configuration issues, ensuring that enhanced service functionality does not compromise configuration correctness.
3Adaptability or versatility
If configuration data from multiple sources is integrated, then comprehensive service support is achieved, but data consistency and validation become more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system transforms configuration data from multiple heterogeneous sources into a homogeneous standardized format. By normalizing the data structure and applying consistent validation rules, the system achieves comprehensive service support while simplifying the detection and measurement of data consistency across different configuration sources.
Data Source
AI summary
Persistent storage may be arranged to store sets of configuration data respectively corresponding to applications. One or more processors of a computational instance may be configured to: receive, from a data source, a set of configuration data corresponding to an application deployable on a network related to the computational instance, wherein the set of configuration data defines components, packages, and environments, wherein the packages include one or more of the components, and wherein the environments include one or more of the packages; write, to the persistent storage, a representation of the set of configuration data; look up one or more policies applicable to the set of configuration data; and validate, by a policy engine, the set of configuration data by applying the one or more policies to the set of configuration data.