Patch Impact Analyzer for Software Update Downtime
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Solution Overview
Problem
Software updates often require lengthy downtimes for customer systems due to uncertainty about the impact on files, components, and features, leading to inefficient scheduling and increased costs, as customers must allocate extensive time to ensure complete system stability post-update.
Innovation Solution
An impact analysis engine compares metadata associated with the software update to the customer system's data structures, determining direct and indirect impacts to optimize downtime scheduling by identifying affected files, components, and features, thereby allowing for more precise and efficient downtime allocation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If customers schedule long downtime to ensure complete system stability after software update, then system reliability is improved, but productivity deteriorates due to excessive downtime
Solution Approach 1:
The impact analysis engine performs preliminary analysis before software update installation to identify which files, components, and features will be affected. This advance knowledge allows customers to schedule downtime more accurately, performing only necessary recompilation and testing activities rather than assuming all system components require verification, thus reducing downtime while maintaining system reliability
2Measurement precision
If customers manually estimate downtime by studying software update and matching files, then measurement precision is improved, but loss of time increases due to manual effort
Solution Approach 1:
The impact analysis engine automatically performs the file matching and impact assessment that would otherwise require manual customer analysis. The engine compares software update metadata against the customer system instance to self-determine affected components, eliminating the time-consuming manual study process while maintaining accurate downtime estimation
3Reliability
If customers allocate extensive downtime to test all system components after update, then reliability is improved, but loss of time increases due to unnecessary testing
Solution Approach 1:
The impact analysis engine extracts and identifies only the specific files, components, and features that will be affected by the software update. This selective identification allows customers to limit testing activities to only those extracted components rather than testing the entire system, reducing testing duration while maintaining reliability through targeted verification of affected areas
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and apparatus for efficiently scheduling downtimes associated with installing updates to software applications are described. According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for accessing an impact of a portion of code, e.g., and update, on an application, includes obtaining metadata associated with the portion of code and comparing the metadata against a plurality of data structures associated with the application. Comparing the metadata against the data structures includes determining whether a first data structure is identified in the metadata. The method also includes creating a first list when the first data structure is identified in the metadata. The first list identifies the first data structure as being arranged to be substantially directly affected by the portion of code.