# US 11,310,276 B2 · Adjusting resiliency policies for cloud services based on a resiliency score > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,310,276 B2 - Document ID: US11310276B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/132,767 - Filed: 2018-09-17 - Published: 2020-03-19 - Granted: 2022-04-19 - Earliest claimed: 2018-09-17 - Assignees: International Business Machines Corporation - Applicants: International Business Machines Corporation - Inventors: Daniel L. Hiebert; Sneha M. Varghese; Raymond S. Perry - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11310276B2 ## CPC - G06F 8/60: Software deployment - G06F 9/45558: {Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects} - G06F 11/1461: {Backup scheduling policy} - G06F 11/1484: {involving virtual machines} - G06F 11/3006: {where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems (multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50)} - G06F 11/3055: {Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available (error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16)} - G06F 11/3419: {by assessing time} - H04L 41/0813: characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings - H04L 41/0816: the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events - H04L 41/0894: Policy-based network configuration management - H04L 41/0897: by horizontal or vertical scaling of resources, or by migrating entities, e.g. virtual resources or entities - H04L 41/40: using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities - H04L 41/5009: Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF] - H04L 43/0805: by checking availability - H04L 43/20: the monitoring system or the monitored elements being virtualised, abstracted or software-defined entities, e.g. SDN or NFV - H04L 63/1433: {Vulnerability analysis} - H04L 63/20: {for managing network security; network security policies in general (filtering policies H04L63/0227)} - G06F 2009/45587: {Isolation or security of virtual machine instances} - H04L 43/0888: Throughput - H04L 43/16: Threshold monitoring - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) - H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M) ## Abstract Evaluating a plurality of computers hosting a cloud platform for effectiveness at operating through operational failures with minimal or no degradation to operations by identifying vulnerabilities in hardware, firmware, software and operational policy/plan aspects of the plurality of computers and managing the identified vulnerabilities by modifying hardware, firmware, software, and operational policy/plan aspects of the plurality of computers and the hosted cloud platform to improve effectiveness at operating through operational failures with minimal or no degradation to operations. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving a time-date data set including information indicative of the time and date at which certain computer operations were performed in a set of server computer(s) and when computer components were installed in the set of server computer(s); receiving a machine logic based rules data set including a plurality of machine logic based rules, where the machine logic based rules include rules for assigning scores to the certain computer operations and computer components based on their corresponding time and dates; determining a resiliency value of the set of server computer(s) based upon an application of the plurality of machine logic based rules to the time-date data set, with the resiliency value corresponding to an indication of future performance of the set of server computer(s) when some of the hardware, firmware and/or software of at least some server computers of the set of server computer(s) fails, where the resiliency value results from aggregating assigned scores from the certain computer operations and computer components; determining a recommended change to the hardware, firmware and/or software of the set of server computers based, at least in part, upon the resiliency value; and making the recommended change to the set of server computer(s). ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein the time date data set includes at least one of the following types of time-date information: (i) time and date when a virtual machine, running on the set of server computer(s), was instantiated from a virtual machine image; (ii) time and date when a hypervisor was installed on a server computer of the set of computer server(s); (iii) time and date when a basic input/output system was installed on a server computer of the set of the set of server computer(s); (iv) time and date when an operating system was installed on a server computer of the set of server computer(s); (v) time and date when a firmware upgrade was made on a server computer of the set of server computer(s); and (vi) time and date when a physical driver was installed on a server computer of the set of server computer(s). ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein the recommended change is installation, on at least one server computer of the set of server computer(s), one of the following types of software: operating system, kernel, basic input/output system (BIOS), application that interacts with human users, application that manages use of computer resource(s), hypervisor, emulation software, virtual machine, and changes to a plurality of software configurations for the at least one server computer. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein the recommended change is addition, to the set of server computer(s), one of the following types of hardware: a server, a storage device, a cooling device, a processor, a memory, and network communications related hardware. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein the recommended change is installation, on at least one server computer of the set of server computer(s), one of the following types of firmware: operating system, kernel, basic input/output system (BIOS), application that interacts with human users, application that manages use of computer resource(s), hypervisor, emulation software, virtual machine, firmware for a component of the at least one server computer, and changes to a plurality of firmware configurations for the at least one server computer. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein the determination of the resiliency value is based, at least in part, upon the existence and/or details of a high availability policy. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein the determination of the resiliency value is based, at least in part, upon the existence and/or details of a disaster recovery plan. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the machine logic based rules include assigning weighted values to a plurality of data elements of the time-date data set. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein: the recommended change is determined from a plurality of recommended changes with corresponding resiliency value thresholds, where each recommended change corresponds to a resiliency value threshold; and determining the recommended change is based on comparing the resiliency value of the set of server computer(s) to the plurality of thresholds to determine which recommended change corresponds to the greatest resiliency value threshold exceeded by the resiliency value of the set of server computer(s). ### Claim 10 A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving a time-date data set including information indicative of the time and date at which certain computer operations were performed in a set of server computer(s); receiving a machine logic based rules data set including a plurality of machine logic based rules, where the machine logic based rules include rules for assigning scores to the certain computer operations and computer components based on their corresponding time and dates; determining a resiliency value of the set of server computer(s) based upon an application of the plurality of machine logic based rules to the time-date data set, with the resiliency value corresponding to an indication of future performance of the set of server computer(s) when some of the hardware, firmware and/or software of at least some server computers of the set of server computer(s) fails, where the resiliency value results from aggregating assigned scores from the certain computer operations and computer components; determining a recommended change to a disaster recovery plan for the set of server computer(s) based, at least in part, upon the resiliency value; and making the recommended disaster recovery plan change to the set of server computer(s). ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The method of claim 10 wherein the change to the disaster recovery plan includes at least one of the following types of changes: (i) increasing a frequency of complete backups for the set of server computer(s), (ii) increasing the number of remote geos where remote backup server computer(s) are located, and (iii) increasing the percentage of normal operations capability of the remote backup server computer(s). ### Claim 12 (depends on 10) The method of claim 10, wherein the machine logic based rules include assigning weighted values to a plurality of data elements of the time-date data set. ### Claim 13 (depends on 10) The method of claim 10, wherein: the recommended change is determined from a plurality of recommended changes with corresponding resiliency value thresholds, where each recommended change corresponds to a resiliency value threshold; and determining the recommended change is based on comparing the resiliency value of the set of server computer(s) to the plurality of thresholds to determine which recommended change corresponds to the greatest resiliency value threshold exceeded by the resiliency value of the set of server computer(s). ### Claim 14 (depends on 10) The method of claim 10 wherein making the recommended change occurs without substantial human intervention. ### Claim 15 A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving a time-date data set including information indicative of the time and date at which certain computer operations were performed in a set of server computer(s); receiving a machine logic based rules data set including a plurality of machine logic based rules, where the machine logic based rules include rules for assigning scores to the certain computer operations and computer components based on their corresponding time and dates; determining a resiliency value of the set of server computer(s) based upon an application of the plurality of machine logic based rules to the time-date data set, with the resiliency value corresponding to an indication of future performance of the set of server computer(s) when some of the hardware, firmware and/or software of at least some server computers of the set of server computer(s) fails, where the resiliency value results from aggregating assigned scores from the certain computer operations and computer components; determining a recommended change to a high availability policy (HAP) for the set of server computer(s) based, at least in part, upon the resiliency value; and making the recommended HAP change to the set of server computer(s). ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The method of claim 15 wherein the change to the high availability policy includes at least one of the following types of changes: (i) increasing active monitoring frequency, (ii) lowering active monitoring thresholds, (iii) increasing the redundancy of hardware components, and (iv) increasing the throughput capability of the server computer such that a partial loss of throughput capability has minimal or no impact on the required throughput for normal operations. ### Claim 17 (depends on 15) The method of claim 15, wherein the machine logic based rules include assigning weighted values to a plurality of data elements of the time-date data set. ### Claim 18 (depends on 15) The method of claim 15, wherein: the recommended change is determined from a plurality of recommended changes with corresponding resiliency value thresholds, where each recommended change corresponds to a resiliency value threshold; and determining the recommended change is based on comparing the resiliency value of the set of server computer(s) to the plurality of thresholds to determine which recommended change corresponds to the greatest resiliency value threshold exceeded by the resiliency value of the set of server computer(s). ### Claim 19 (depends on 15) The method of claim 15 wherein making the recommended change occurs without substantial human intervention.