DYNAMIC MODELING OF COMPLEX NETWORKS AND PREDICTION OF IMPACTS OF FAULTS THEREIN

• US 20020022952A1
• Filed: 03/26/1998
• Published: 02/21/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Visual Networks Operations, Inc. (Danaher Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Visual Networks Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: ZAGER, DAVID, KOSTES, ROBERT
• Granted Patent: US 6,393,386 B1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/328 Computer systems status display G06F11/327 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3447 Performance evaluation by modeling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0233 Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

A method and system are provided for use in administering a complex system, such as a distributed computing ensemble. A model of the system being administered is prepared, preferably during runtime of the invention, by a combination of autodiscovery processes and manual input of information as needed. The model represents not only the resources found in the administered system, but also the service-relationships among those resources. The system administrator also can define elements in the model corresponding to arbitrary groupings of already-existing parts of the model. Software agents, which can be reconfigured, started and terminated as desired during runtime, report changes in state of the managed resources to the model, which updates itself and explores portions of the model adjacent (in terms of the service relationships) to the affected resource(s). Clusters of neighboring state-changes that have a logical relation to each other are grouped together as an alarm, and are preferably represented in a graphical display. Any root-cause event of this type is marked as such, and any portions of the modeled system being (or logically likely to be) affected by the changes are also identified and displayed.

Claims

1. A modeling system for modeling an external system that has plural components at least some of which are providing services to others of the components, the modeling system comprising a software model of the external system, and a server for the model;

the model comprising software objects instantiated based on respective portions of the system, wherein each software object includes information defining any services that a corresponding component of the system is providing or receiving, and information identifying the software object(s) corresponding to the component(s) of the system to/from which that component is providing/receiving the services, and

wherein, responsive to occurrence of a predefined condition relating to a first and a second of the software objects one of which is providing at least one service to the other, the model server determines at least one path between the first and second objects along which that service can be provided.

2. A modeling system according to claim 1, wherein the model contains no information identifying such paths other than as a result of determination of such paths responsive to occurence(s) of such predefined condition.

3. A modeling system according to claim 1, wherein the predefined condition is occurrence of at least a degradation in performance of a component of the external system.

4. A modeling system according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the software objects is a group of others of the software objects.

5. A modeling system according to claim 4, wherein such group of software objects can be defined as a software object constituting part of the model, by a user of the modeling system.

6. A modeling system according to claim 5, further comprising displays of occurrences in the model are provided, and wherein the administrator can for each display, define a subset of such group of occurrences that are to be included in that display.

7. A modeling system according to claim 6, wherein at least some of the displays correspond to respective groups defined by the user.

8. A software model of an external system that has plural components at least some of which are providing services to others of the components, the model comprising software objects instantiated based on respective portions of the system, wherein at least one of the software objects is a group of others of the software objects.

9. A software model according to claim 8, wherein such group of software objects can be defined as a software object constituting part of the model, by an administrator.

10. A modeling system for modeling an external system that has plural components at least some of which are providing services to others of the components, the modeling system comprising a software model of the external system, a server for the model, and a data-gathering infrastructure;

the model comprising software objects instantiated by the model server based on respective portions of the system, wherein each software object includes information defining any services that a corresponding component of the system is providing or receiving, and information identifying the software object(s) corresponding to the component(s) of the system to/from which that component is providing/receiving the services,

wherein the data-gathering infrastructure includes at least one agent manager for instantiating and managing one or more software agents, at least one software agent obtaining information regarding the make-up of the external system and providing that information to the model server for use in constructing and updating the model, and at least one software agent obtaining information relating to operation and condition of the external system, winnowing that informaiton and, where that information indicates an occurrence that meets a predetermined criterion, instantitating an event as a software object for forwarding to the model.

11. A modeling system according to claim 10, wherein the event is a first-class object.

13. A method according to claim 12, wherein the components of the system that are modeled in the model are all logical components.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein the model includes first software objects corresponding to respective ones of the components of the system, and also includes second software objects corresponding to respective groups of the first software objects.

15. A method according to claim 12, wherein the information indicated by the attribute is acquired from a proprietary MIB of the first component.

16. A method according to claim 12, wherein the information indicated by the attribute includes an identification of manufacturer'"'"'s model or type.

17. A method according to claim 12, wherein said identifying and using steps are performed for at least a second component of the system, wherein said identifying step includes acquiring from each of the first and second components sufficient information to determine what services (if any) the first component is providing to the second component and what services (if any) the second component is providing to the first component, and wherein, if the first component is providing at least one service to the second component, said using step includes providing information to that effect in at least one of the model software objects that represent and correspond to the first and the second components, respectively.

18. A method according to claim 12, wherein the model software object corresponding to the first component includes no information identifying what type of component the first component is.

19. A method according to claim 12, wherein said identifying step includes acquiring information relating to the first component, and wherein the model software object corresponding to the first component includes only a predetermined portion of the information acquired that relates to the first component.

20. A method according to claim 12, wherein said identifying step includes performing a protozoan discovery process, to identify which addresses in a predefined range of addresses are occupied by components of the system, and a generic discovery process, to identify which of plural generic types a given component belongs to.

12. A method of constructing a software model of a system that includes plural components, said method comprising the steps of:

identifying at least a first component of the system and instantiating a software object of a class that indicates a generic type to which the first component belongs, the software object including at least one attribute that indicates more-specific information as to a particular type the first component is; and

using the information included in the software object to instantiate a model software object accordingly.

21. A software model of an external system that has plural components at least some of which are providing services to others of the components, the model comprising software objects instantiated based on respective portions of the system, wherein each software object includes information defining any services that a corresponding component of the system is providing or receiving, and information identifying the software object(s) corresponding to the component(s) of the system to/from which that component is providing/receiving the services,

wherein the services are not represented in the model as managed objects.

22. A method, implementable by means of a software program, of constructing and running a software model of a system that includes plural components, said method comprising the steps of:

installing and commencing running of the program;

the program identifying components of the system to be represented in the model and, for each component so identified, instantiating a respective software object;

once at least one software object representing one of the components has been instantiated, the program collecting information relating to the operation of such components as have thus far been identified and for which corresponding software objects have thus far been instantiated; and

the program repeating said identifying and instantiating step asynchronously as needed to continue constructing and updating the model, while the program continues performing said collecting step.

24. A method according to claim 23, further comprising the step of constructing a second model of the system, including repeating said instructing, acquiring and instantiating steps, wherein the at least one software agent is instructed to obtain different information for use in constructing the second model than the information acquired for use in constructing the first model.

25. A method according to claim 24, wherein the first model is service-based and the second model is not.

27. A method according to claim 26, wherein said receiving and generating step further comprises evaluating the received information and generating the indicator only responsive to a determination that the information meets a predetermined criterion.

28. A method according to claim 26, wherein the nodes of the graph are softward objects.

29. A method according to claim 28, wherein the information received by the model is provided by execution of a program, and wherein the graph is one that has been generated by means of the program, and wherein the program performs the steps of:

identifying components of the system to be represented in the model and, for each component so identified, instantiating a respective software object that thus becomes a node of the graph;

once at least one software object representing one of the components has been instantiated, collecting information relating to the operation of such components as have thus far been identified and for which corresponding software objects have thus far been instantiated, and providing at least some of that information to the model; and

the program repeating said identifying and instantiating step asynchronously as needed to continue constructing and updating the model, while the program continues performing said collecting step.

30. A method according to claim 27, wherein said leafward-traversing step is performed only after said rootward traversing step is performed and has reached an object for which a root-cause event has already been declared, and in which said leafward-traversing step is then performed commencing not at the given component but at the object for which the root-cause event has been declared.

31. A method according to claim 30, further comprising the step of displaying a representation of each object for which an indicator of degraded state has been declared.

32. A method according to claim 31, wherein the indicator of degraded state for any object with respect to which the model has received information indicating occurrence of a root-cause event in the component corresponding to that object, is displayed with a special indication that a root-cause event has occurred at the corresponding component.

33. A method according to claim 32, further comprising the step of maintaining records that include the occurrence of the degraded state and other degraded states (if any) encountered in the traversal of the graph in said performing step.

34. A method according to claim 31, wherein the nodes of the graph are softward objects, and wherein the model also includes nodes that are softward objects that comprise groups of other nodes, and wherein, if the given node in which the degraded state has occurred is such a group, the record relating to the occurrence a given degraded state includes only those other degraded states (if any) which have occurred in nodes which are immediate neighbors in the graph of the given node.

36. A method according to claim 35, wherein the instruction set portion defines information concerning the external system to be obtained by the dynamic agent.

37. A method according to claim 36, wherein the instruction set portion also contains instructions as to how to obtain the information.

38. A method according to claim 36, wherein the information specified by the instruction set portion relates to location and identification of components of the external system.

39. A method according to claim 38, wherein the instruction set portion also contains instructions as to how to obtain the information, and provides for obtaining information on location of a component, on the generic type of a component whoose location has been ascertained, and, optionally, on a more-specific type of a component whose generic type has been determined.

40. A method according to claim 39, wherein the information obtained by the dynamic agent is used to construct and update a software model of the external system.

41. A method according to claim 36, wherein the information specified by the instruction set portion relates to operation and condition of components of the external system.

42. A method according to claim 41, wherein the information obtained by the dynamic agent is provided to a software model of the external system.

43. A method according to claim 35, further comprising the steps of:

receiving an ad hoc request for collection of specified information; and

performing said instantiating and providing steps to provide and commence operation of a new dynamic agent, to collect the specified information.

23. A method of constructing a software model of a system that includes plural hardware and software components, said method comprising the steps of:

providing at least one software agent for use in acquiring information from the components of the system;

instructing the at least one software agent as to what information it is to acquire from the components of the system;

the software agent acquiring the information, as instructed in said instructing step; and

instantiating software objects that correspond to and represent respective components of the system, each of the objects including information concerning the corresponding component based on the information acquired by the software agents.

26. A method of generating an interaction history of a portion of a system, by using a software model of the system that is a mathematical directed graph having nodes corresponding to respective components of the system and edges corresponding to services that are currently being provided by one component to another;

said method comprising the steps of;

the model receiving information relating to an event occurring in a given component of the portion of the system and generating an indicator of degraded state in a software object corresponding to that component; and

performing graph-traversal, said graph-traversal further comprising at least one of;

traversing the graph rootward, along at least one graph edge from that component in a direction from edge-head to edge-tail until an edge of the graph is reached or until an object is reached for which a root-cause event has already been declared, and

traversing the graph leafward, along at least one graph edge in a direction from edge-tail to edge-head until an edge of the graph is reached or until the traversal reaches a node already traversed.

35. A method for effecting collection of information concerning operation of a system having plural hardware and software components, comprising the steps of:

instantiating at least one dynamic agent having a sensory monitor portion, an instruction set portion, and an analyzer portion; and

providing the dynamic agent with respective sets of parameters for each of said three portions.

44. A data structure, said data structure comprising an executable module, at least one parameter list, and a set of any corequisite services needed for execution of the module.

46. A method according to claim 45, wherein said executing step includes passing the bundle to a software agent, and the software agent executes the module.

47. A method according to claim 45, wherein said overriding step comprises replacing all parameter lists of the bundle with a different predefined parameter list.

48. A method according to claim 45, wherein said overriding step comprises defining new parameters on the fly for use by the bundle.

50. A method according to claim 49, further comprising thte step of using a set of cross-thread available queues and semaphores to serialize access to shared information, to coordinate task-sharing.

51. A method according to claim 49, wherein the mission includes the gathering and reporting of information defined by the instructions for the mission, said method further comprising the step of passing information obtained by the at least one software agent to a recipient identified in the instructions.

45. A method of providing a service in a distributed application, comprising the steps of:

providing at least one bundle having an executable module, at least one parameter list, and a set of any corequisite services needed for execution of the module;

where the bundle has plural parameter lists, selecting from among those parameter lists;

optionally overriding at least one parameter list of the bundle, providing a different set of parameters and associating those parameters with the module; and

executing the module.

49. A software-agent managing method, comprising the steps of:

continuously running at least one thread;

receiving instructions defining a mission to be performed by one or more software agents;

selecting, from a predetermined collection, a set of parameters to be used in performing the mission;

the at least one thread instantiating and running at least one software agent based on the instructions;

responsive to receipt of any termination command relating to the at lest one software agent, terminating running of that agent under control of the at least one thread.

52. A tangible memory medium storing executable code, the code including portions defining:

a configuration handler for receiving instructions defining a mission to be performed by one or more software agents;

a thread handler for continuously running at least one thread, and for selecting, from a predetermined collection, a set of parameters to be used in performing the mission;

the at least one thread initiating running of at least one software agent responsive to the instructions; and

a communication handler for controlling receipt of incoming information and transmission of outgoing information.