Methods and apparatus for dependency-based impact simulation and ...

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US007334222B2

(12) United States Patent

Keller

(io) Patent No.: (45) Date of Patent:

US 7,334,222 B2 Feb. 19, 2008

(54) METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR
DEPENDENCY-BASED IMPACT
SIMULATION AND VULNERABILITY
ANALYSIS

(75) Inventor: Alexander Keller, New York, NY (US)

(73) Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US)

( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 789 days.

(21) Appl. No.: 10/241,397

(22) Filed: Sep. 11, 2002

(65) Prior Publication Data

US 2004/0049372 Al Mar. 11, 2004

(51) Int. CI.

G06F 9/45 (2006.01)

(52) U.S. CI 717/135

(58) Field of Classification Search 717/135;

709/223

See application file for complete search history. (56) References Cited

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FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS

JP 2001-125854 5/2001

(Continued)

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Bushnell et al., Simulating the Impact of Changes . . ., 1980, IEEE, p. 53-59 *

(Continued) Primary Examiner—John Chavis

(7'4) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—David R. Irvin; Ryan, Mason & Lewis, LLP

A technique for determining a potential impact of a simulated condition of at least one subject component associated with a computing environment comprises the following steps/operations. First, one or more components in the computing environment which depend on the at least one subject component are identified and a potential condition status associated with each of the one or more identified components is determined. Then, information is presented to a user with respect to at least a portion of the one or more identified components based on the corresponding condition status. By way of example, the inventive techniques may be applied to a distributed computing environment. The computing environment may also be an autonomic computing environment.

30 Claims, 14 Drawing Sheets

FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS

JP 2001-222424 8/2001

WO WO 01/75677 10/2001

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