Compliance testing engine for integrated computing system

摘要

A technique tests whether an integrated computing system having server, network and storage components complies with a configuration benchmark expressed as rules in first markup-language statements such as XML. The rules are parsed to obtain test definition identifiers identifying test definitions in a second set of markup-language statements, each test definition including a test value and an attribute identifier of system component attribute. A management database is organized as an integrated object model of all system components. An interpreter invoked with the test definition identifier from each rule process each test definition to (a) access the management database using the attribute identifier obtain the actual value for the corresponding attribute, and (b) compare the actual value to the test value of the test definition to generate a comparison result value that can be stored or communicated as a compliance indicator to a human or machine user.

主权项

1. A method of testing whether an integrated computing system complies with a predetermined configuration benchmark expressed as a collection of rules in a first set of markup-language statements, the integrated computing subsystem including interconnected components of different types selected from two or more of a server type, a network switch type, and a storage subsystem type, comprising:
parsing the rules in the first set of markup-language statements to obtain test definition identifiers identifying respective test definitions in a second set of markup-language statements, each test definition identifier including in at least one of the first set of markup-language statements a test value and an attribute identifier of an attribute of a component, the attribute having an actual value to be tested against the test value, the attribute identifier being an object identifier in an object model for system management information for the components, the object model expressing physical and functional relationships among the components of the integrated computing system; invoking an interpreter for the second set of markup-language statements, the interpreter being invoked with the test definition identifier from each rule to process the corresponding test definition to (a) access the object model using the attribute identifier of the test definition to obtain the actual value for the corresponding attribute, and (b) compare the obtained actual value to the test value of the test definition to generate a comparison result value indicating whether the attribute is in compliance with the rule containing the test definition identifier; and storing the comparison result value as a compliance indicator, wherein the attribute identifier is a resource locator value defined in a representational state transfer interface for the components and their respective attributes, the resource locator value being used in a request message of the representational state transfer interface and the attribute value being returned in a corresponding response message of the representational state transfer interface.