US-12627559-B2 - Approval automation for change in network virtualization environment

US12627559B2US 12627559 B2US12627559 B2US 12627559B2US-12627559-B2

Abstract

A processor acquires a current change request of a network virtualization environment, and automatically rejects the current change request if a determination criterion that satisfies a value of a comparison item in the current change request is not detected in a determination criterion management database. If the determination criterion that satisfies the value of the comparison item is detected, the processor searches for a past change record that satisfies the determination criterion (execution result of the past change of the same type). If the execution result of the past change is not detected, the processor automatically rejects the current change request. If the execution result of the past change is detected, the processor automatically approves the current change request when a predetermined condition related to the execution result of the past change is satisfied, but automatically rejects the current change request when the predetermined condition is not satisfied.

Inventors

Masaaki Kosugi
Yuichi Koike

Assignees

Rakuten Mobile, Inc.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20240627
Priority Date: 20240314

Claims (9)

1 . A network management apparatus comprising at least one processor configured to: acquire a current change request from a change request management database that stores change requests for a virtualization environment of a network; extract a value of a comparison item included in the current change request; search for a determination criterion that coincides with the value of the comparison item in a determination criterion management database that stores determination criteria; automatically reject the current change request if a determination criterion that coincides with the value of the comparison item is not detected in the determination criterion management database; if a determination criterion that coincides with the value of the comparison item is detected in the determination criterion management database, search for an execution result of a past change executed according to a past change request of the same type as the current change request, the execution result being a record of a past change that coincides with the determination criterion, in a change history management database that stores records of changes executed according to past change requests; automatically reject the current change request if an execution result of a past change is not detected in the change history management database; if an execution result of a past change is detected in the change history management database, determine whether or not a predetermined condition related to the execution result of the past change is satisfied; automatically approve the current change request if the predetermined condition is satisfied; and automatically reject the current change request if the predetermined condition is not satisfied.
2 . The network management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to: automatically reject the current change request if a success count of executed past changes is less than a threshold value, referring to execution results of past changes; and automatically approve the current change request if the success count of executed past changes is equal to or greater than the threshold value and if executed past changes have not failed.
3 . The network management apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the processor is configured to: determine whether or not problems assumed in the current change request include all problems that occurred in failed past changes if the success count of the executed past changes is equal to or greater than the threshold value and if an executed past change has failed; and automatically reject the current change request if problems assumed in the current change request do not include all the problems that occurred in the failed past changes.
4 . The network management apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the processor is configured to: determine whether or not a past failure was caused by an artificial error on the basis of a change procedure description and an execution result description related to a failed past change if the success count of the executed past changes is equal to or greater than the threshold value and if an executed past change has failed; and automatically reject the current change request if it is determined that the past failure was caused by an artificial error.
5 . The network management apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the processor is configured to: determine whether or not a past failure was caused by a defect of a change procedure description or a defect of an execution program used to execute a failed past change if the success count of the executed past change is equal to or greater than the threshold value and if an executed past change has failed; automatically reject the current change request if it is determined that the past failure was not caused by a defect of the change procedure description or a defect of the execution program; determine whether or not the defect has been revised if it is determined that the past failure was caused by a defect of the change procedure description or a defect of the execution program; automatically approve the current change request if the defect has been revised; and automatically reject the current change request if the defect has not revised.
6 . The network management apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the processor is configured to: cause a learning model to learn determination patterns with respect to determinations as to whether or not the past failures were caused by artificial errors on the basis of change procedure descriptions and execution result descriptions related to failed past changes; cause the learning model to generate a determination policy based on the determination patterns; and determine whether or not the past failure was caused by an artificial error, in accordance with the determination policy.
7 . The network management apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the processor is configured to: cause a learning model to learn detection patterns with respect to detection of defects of the change procedure description or defects of the execution program; cause the learning model to generate a detection policy based on the detection patterns; and determine whether or not the past failure was caused by a defect of the change procedure description or a defect of the execution program used to execute the failed past change, in accordance with the detection policy.
8 . A network management system comprising: the network management apparatus according to claim 1 ; and a communication device that communicates with the network management apparatus, wherein the communication device transmits an approval notification to a device of a change executor when the processor automatically approves the change request, and transmits an approval request to a device of a change approver when the processor automatically rejects the change request.
9 . A network management method comprising: acquiring, by at least one processor, a current change request from a change request management database that stores change requests for a virtualization environment of a network; extracting a value of a comparison item included in the current change request; searching for a determination criterion that coincides with the value of the comparison item in a determination criterion management database that stores determination criteria; based on a determination criterion that coincides with the value of the comparison item being detected in the determination criterion management database, searching for an execution result of a past change executed according to a past change request of the same type as the current change request, the execution result being a record of a past change that coincides with the determination criterion, in a change history management database that stores records of changes executed according to past change requests; based on an execution result of a past change is being detected in the change history management database, determining whether or not a predetermined condition related to the execution result of the past change is satisfied; automatically approving the current change request if based on the predetermined condition being satisfied.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) This application claims priority to Japanese patent application No. 2024-039948, filed on Mar. 14, 2024; the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to approval automation for change in a network virtualization environment. BACKGROUND The information disclosed in this background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the disclosure and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art. Cloud computing (referred to as a “cloud” below) in which computing resources virtualized on physical resources such as servers are used on demand has become widely spread against the background of improvement in performance of general-purpose servers and enrichment of network infrastructure. In addition, network function virtualization (NFV) in which network functions are virtualized and provided on a cloud is known. NFV is a technology in which a virtualization technology and a cloud technology are used to separate hardware and software of various network services that have been running on dedicated hardware until now and to run the software on a virtualized infrastructure. With NFV, it is expected to enhance operation and reduce costs. In recent years, virtualization has also been promoted in mobile networks. In European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) NFV, an architecture of NFV is defined (see WO 2016/121830 A, for example). SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In a case in which any change is made in the operation of a network virtualization environment, an approval process for determining whether or not to execute the change is generally conducted for prevention of troubles or the like. Purposes of the change in the operation of the network virtualization environment are roughly divided into the following two: 1. Change executed for the purposes of planned maintenance such as patching, software upgrades, and hardware replacement.2. Change for recovery after an occurrence of a problem. It is common that a change that should be applied to a commercial network virtualization environment is verified (tested) in advance in a verification environment and requested after it is confirmed that there is no problem. However, since a virtualization environment used in a mobile network is on a large scale, it is very difficult to construct a verification environment equivalent to the commercial environment in terms of cost. Therefore, a case in which, even though it is confirmed that there is no problem in the verification environment, a problem occurs in the commercial environment is assumed. Therefore, in a case in which a change request is approved, a person who has a high technical level, abundant experience, and excellent judgment ability is required as a change approver. In a case in which a change is performed for reason 1 above, at least one of the type and the number of change targets is large, and thus it may take enormous labor and time to approve the change. In addition, the same type of change request is repeated many times, and thus a lot of time is also spent to approve the changes. In a case in which a change is performed for reason 2 above, the type and number of change targets are usually small, but it tends to be required to immediately determine whether or not to execute the change in order to quickly solve the problem. That is, approval is required quickly in a limited time. Accordingly, the present disclosure provides a technique capable of quickly and accurately approving a change in a network virtualization environment. According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a network management apparatus. The network management apparatus includes at least one processor. The processor is configured to acquire a current change request from a change request management database that stores change requests for a virtualization environment of a network; extract a value of a comparison item included in the current change request; search for a determination criterion that coincides with the value of the comparison item in a determination criterion management database that stores determination criteria; automatically reject the current change request if a determination criterion that coincides with the value of the comparison item is not detected in the determination criterion management database; if a determination criterion that coincides with the value of the comparison item is detected in the determination criterion management database, search for an execution result of a past change executed according to a past change request of the same type as the current change request, the execution result being a record of a past change that coincides with the determination criterion, in a change history management database that stores records of changes exe