Control of activities executed by endpoints based on conditions involving aggregated parameters

• US 10,666,515 B2
• Filed: 01/17/2017
• Issued: 05/26/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Imperia, Marco, Pichetti, Luigi, Secchi, Marco, Sidoti, Stefano
• Primary Examiner(s): Jakovac, Ryan J
• Application Number:
  US15/407,712
• Publication Number:
  US 20180205610A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,225 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/30 Monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3072 where the reporting involves data filtering, e.g. pattern matching, time or event triggered, adaptive or policy-based reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/566 Grouping or aggregating service requests, e.g. for unified processing

Abstract

A method and system. One or more policies is stored. Each policy includes activities for execution on corresponding endpoints. At least one of the activities of the policies is conditioned by a condition based on one or more aggregated parameters. Each aggregated parameter depends on one or more local parameters of a corresponding group of endpoints. The local parameters are collected from the corresponding endpoints. The local parameters are aggregated into the aggregated parameters. Each aggregated parameter is distributed at least to the corresponding endpoints of each policy including any activity conditioned on the aggregated parameter. At least the corresponding policies are sent to the endpoints to cause each endpoint to apply each corresponding policy by collecting any aggregated parameters of the policy on the endpoint and executing the activities of the policy according to the corresponding aggregated parameters.

Claims

1. A method, said method comprising:

storing, by one or more processors of a computer system, one or more policies, each policy comprising an indication of one or more activities for execution on one or more corresponding endpoints, at least one of the activities of the policies being conditioned by a condition based on one or more aggregated parameters, each aggregated parameter depending on one or more local parameters of a corresponding group of a plurality of the endpoints;

collecting, by the one or more processors, the local parameters from the corresponding endpoints;

aggregating, by the one or more processors, the local parameters into the aggregated parameters;

distributing, by the one or more processors, each aggregated parameter at least to the corresponding endpoints of each policy comprising any activity conditioned on the aggregated parameter; and

sending, by the one or more processors, at least the corresponding policies to the endpoints to cause each endpoint to apply each corresponding policy by collecting any aggregated parameters of the policy on the endpoint and executing the activities of the policy according to the corresponding aggregated parameters.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the activities of the policies is conditioned by a further condition based on one or more further local parameters of a current endpoint of the corresponding endpoints wherein the policy is applied, said deploying at least the corresponding policies causing each endpoint to apply each corresponding policy by collecting any further local parameters of the policy on the endpoint and executing the activities of the policy according to the corresponding further local parameters.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said distributing each aggregated parameter comprises:

uploading each aggregated parameter to a local storage of at least the corresponding endpoints, said deploying at least the corresponding policies causing each endpoint to apply each corresponding policy by reading any aggregated parameters of the policy from the local storage of the endpoint.

4. The method of claim 1, said method comprising:

storing, by the one or more processors, a mapping of the aggregated parameters to the corresponding endpoints;

said distributing each aggregated parameter comprising;

identifying the corresponding endpoints of each aggregated parameter according to said mapping; and

distributing each aggregated parameter to the corresponding endpoints being identified.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said distributing each aggregated parameter comprises:

distributing each aggregated parameter in response to a significant change thereof affecting the corresponding condition.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said aggregating the local parameters comprises:

calculating the aggregated parameters according to a current value of the corresponding local parameters and/or to a distribution of the corresponding local parameters over time.

7. The method of claim 1, said method comprising:

determining, by the one or more processors, the corresponding group of the endpoints of at least one of the aggregated parameters according to one or more still further local parameters of the endpoints.

8. The method claim 1, wherein each local parameter measures performance, workload, resource usage, location and user behavior of the corresponding endpoint.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said storing one or more policies, said distributing each aggregated parameter and said deploying at least the corresponding policies are performed by one or more control servers of the data processing environment.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said collecting the local parameters and said aggregating the local parameters are performed by one or more aggregation servers of the data processing environment, said method comprising:

providing, by the one or more processors, the aggregated parameters from the aggregation servers to the control servers.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said providing the aggregated parameters comprises:

providing the aggregated parameters from each aggregation server to a plurality of the control servers and/or to a plurality of tenants of each control server.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of the aggregation servers is implemented by a cloud service.

13. A computer program product, comprising one or more computer readable hardware storage devices having computer readable program code stored therein, said program code containing instructions executable by one or more processors of a computer system to implement a method, said method comprising

storing, by the one or more processors, one or more policies, each policy comprising an indication of one or more activities for execution on one or more corresponding endpoints, at least one of the activities of the policies being conditioned by a condition based on one or more aggregated parameters, each aggregated parameter depending on one or more local parameters of a corresponding group of a plurality of the endpoints;

collecting, by the one or more processors, the local parameters from the corresponding endpoints;

aggregating, by the one or more processors, the local parameters into the aggregated parameters;

distributing, by the one or more processors, each aggregated parameter at least to the corresponding endpoints of each policy comprising any activity conditioned on the aggregated parameter; and

sending, by the one or more processors, at least the corresponding policies to the endpoints to cause each endpoint to apply each corresponding policy by collecting any aggregated parameters of the policy on the endpoint and executing the activities of the policy according to the corresponding aggregated parameters.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein at least one of the activities of the policies is conditioned by a further condition based on one or more further local parameters of a current endpoint of the corresponding endpoints wherein the policy is applied, said deploying at least the corresponding policies causing each endpoint to apply each corresponding policy by collecting any further local parameters of the policy on the endpoint and executing the activities of the policy according to the corresponding further local parameters.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein said distributing each aggregated parameter comprises:

uploading each aggregated parameter to a local storage of at least the corresponding endpoints, said deploying at least the corresponding policies causing each endpoint to apply each corresponding policy by reading any aggregated parameters of the policy from the local storage of the endpoint.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, said method comprising:

storing, by the one or more processors, a mapping of the aggregated parameters to the corresponding endpoints;

said distributing each aggregated parameter comprising;

identifying the corresponding endpoints of each aggregated parameter according to said mapping; and

distributing each aggregated parameter to the corresponding endpoints being identified.

17. A computer system, comprising one or more processors, one or more memories, and one or more computer readable hardware storage devices, said one or more hardware storage device containing program code executable by the one or more processors via the one or more memories to implement a method, said method comprising:

storing, by the one or more processors, one or more policies, each policy comprising an indication of one or more activities for execution on one or more corresponding endpoints, at least one of the activities of the policies being conditioned by a condition based on one or more aggregated parameters, each aggregated parameter depending on one or more local parameters of a corresponding group of a plurality of the endpoints;

collecting, by the one or more processors, the local parameters from the corresponding endpoints;

aggregating, by the one or more processors, the local parameters into the aggregated parameters;

distributing, by the one or more processors, each aggregated parameter at least to the corresponding endpoints of each policy comprising any activity conditioned on the aggregated parameter; and

sending, by the one or more processors, at least the corresponding policies to the endpoints to cause each endpoint to apply each corresponding policy by collecting any aggregated parameters of the policy on the endpoint and executing the activities of the policy according to the corresponding aggregated parameters.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein at least one of the activities of the policies is conditioned by a further condition based on one or more further local parameters of a current endpoint of the corresponding endpoints wherein the policy is applied, said deploying at least the corresponding policies causing each endpoint to apply each corresponding policy by collecting any further local parameters of the policy on the endpoint and executing the activities of the policy according to the corresponding further local parameters.

19. The computer system of claim 17, wherein said distributing each aggregated parameter comprises:

uploading each aggregated parameter to a local storage of at least the corresponding endpoints, said deploying at least the corresponding policies causing each endpoint to apply each corresponding policy by reading any aggregated parameters of the policy from the local storage of the endpoint.

20. The computer system of claim 17, said method comprising:

storing, by the one or more processors, a mapping of the aggregated parameters to the corresponding endpoints;

said distributing each aggregated parameter comprising;

identifying the corresponding endpoints of each aggregated parameter according to said mapping; and

distributing each aggregated parameter to the corresponding endpoints being identified.