Rules-Engine Orphan Container Management for Unknown Ownership

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Solution Overview

Problem

In containerized environments, orphan containers lacking a valid owner assignment lead to wasted storage space and computing bandwidth due to factors like human error and organizational changes, complicating security and resource management.

Innovation Solution

An automated orphan container management system using a rules engine and detector to assign ownership based on predefined rules, analyze metadata, and integrate with external systems to identify and remediate orphan containers.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If containers are deployed dynamically in containerized environments, then productivity and adaptability improve, but the risk of orphan containers increases leading to wasted resources

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontainer deployment efficiencyVSAvoidwasted storage space and computing bandwidth

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by automatically assigning owners to containers at the time of deployment through the rules engine, preventing orphan containers from forming in the first place. This proactive approach ensures that every container has a designated owner before it starts running, eliminating the need for later manual intervention and resource waste.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The detector continuously monitors the containerized environment and provides feedback about orphan containers to the rules engine. This feedback loop enables the system to identify and remediate orphan containers dynamically, ensuring that resources are reallocated efficiently and no valuable computing bandwidth or storage space is wasted on unowned containers.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

2Reliability

If manual owner assignment is used for containers, then ownership clarity is maintained, but operational complexity and time consumption increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveownership assignment accuracyVSAvoidtime for owner assignment

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The rules engine performs self-service by automatically determining and assigning owners to containers based on predefined rules and metadata analysis. This eliminates the need for manual owner assignment operations, reducing both time consumption and operational complexity while maintaining high accuracy through systematic rule-based decision making.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces the mechanical manual assignment process with an automated electronic system that uses rules engines and metadata parsing. This substitution transforms the manual operation into an automated computational process, significantly reducing time requirements while maintaining or improving assignment accuracy through consistent algorithmic decision making.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

3Measurement precision

If comprehensive monitoring of container ownership is implemented, then orphan container detection improves, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveorphan container detection accuracyVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The rules engine serves multiple functions: it assigns owners to containers, detects orphan containers, and manages remediation processes. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate dedicated systems, thereby limiting the increase in overall device complexity while maintaining high detection accuracy through integrated processing.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces an intermediary layer consisting of the rules engine and detector that mediates between the container runtime environment and the management system. This intermediary layer simplifies the overall system architecture by centralizing the complexity in a dedicated component that handles ownership determination and orphan detection, making the rest of the system simpler to manage.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentUS20250315287A1Orphan container management in containerized environments

Publication Date: 2025.10.09 SAP SE

AI summary

Briefly, embodiments of a system, method, and article for scanning a database for a containerized environment to acquire information for a set of containers for applications. The information may include at least namespace associations and metadata for individual containers of the set of containers. One or more orphan containers may be detected within the set of containers for applications, where the one or more orphan containers may be associated with unknown owner information. Defined rules may be applied to determine owner information for at least one of the one or more orphan containers based at least in part on the namespace associations and metadata for the at least one of the one or more orphan containers. The determined owner information for the at least one of the one or more orphan containers may be stored in a storage device. A time may be initialized in response to detecting at least one remaining orphan container of the one or more orphan containers for which the owner information remains unknown in response to the applying of the defined rules to determine the owner information. The at least one remaining orphan container for which owner information remains unknown may be deleted in response to expiration of the timer.