Shared Binary Storage for Enterprise Software Deployment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Deploying and managing enterprise-class software systems with numerous components and large data sizes leads to complex and time-consuming processes, including redundancy and conflict issues, making it difficult to instantiate and replicate system instances efficiently.
Innovation Solution
Implementing shared binary storage in a central database to store and manage deployment units, which includes executable binaries, configuration data, and metadata, allowing for efficient deployment, reduction of redundancies, and consistent system instantiation across multiple servers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If software systems are deployed with many different combinations of components and modules, then system functionality and adaptability are improved, but component redundancies and conflicts increase, making deployment more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges all software components, binaries, and configuration files into a single unified database storage structure. Instead of distributing components across multiple separate files and directories, the system consolidates them into one centralized database, eliminating redundancy and simplifying deployment while maintaining full system functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The database serves multiple functions simultaneously: it stores transaction data, master data, and all software components (binaries, configuration files, metadata). This multi-functional approach eliminates the need for separate storage systems for each component type, reducing deployment complexity while supporting diverse system configurations.
2Quantity of substance
If large data sizes are used for component binaries and configuration files, then system capability is improved, but deployment time and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-processing and consolidating all large binary files and configuration data into the database before deployment. The database is prepared in advance with all necessary components organized and optimized, so that deployment becomes a simple data retrieval operation rather than a complex file copying process, significantly reducing deployment time.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the traditional mechanical file copying and distribution system with a database-based retrieval system. Instead of physically copying large binary files across multiple servers during deployment, the system uses database queries to efficiently retrieve and instantiate components, transforming a mechanically intensive process into an optimized data access operation.
3Reliability
If multiple system instances are instantiated to provide scalability and failover redundancy, then system reliability is improved, but managing and replicating instances becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses database copying and replication mechanisms to instantiate multiple system instances. Instead of manually replicating complex file structures and configurations across servers, the database management system automatically handles the copying and synchronization of all software components, making instance replication straightforward while maintaining full system reliability and redundancy.
Solution Approach 2:
The database system performs self-service by automatically managing the instantiation, replication, and synchronization of software components across multiple instances. The system autonomously handles the complex tasks of maintaining consistency across instances, managing updates, and ensuring redundancy without requiring manual intervention, thereby improving ease of operation while maintaining high reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
Various embodiments include systems, methods, and software that leverage shared binary storage for several purposes. Such purposes, in some embodiments, include reduced deployment overhead in terms of data to transport, time to instantiate, and reduction, if not elimination, of redundancies and conflicts of and between software system components and configurations, such as by sharing single instances of binary files persisted in deployment units and avoiding duplicates thereof. In some such embodiments, deployment units of a software system, such as an ERP or other enterprise-class software system, are stored in a system database or other central data storage entity. In response to a request to instantiate a system based on the deployment units, the deployment units are staged in memory, metadata to facilitate deployment on a server is written, the deployment units and metadata are transmitted to each server to which deployment is requested, and the deployed system is started.