Method and system for network management with backup status gathering

• US 20020112039A1
• Filed: 12/15/2000
• Published: 08/15/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ullman, Lorin Evan
• Granted Patent: US 7,305,461 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning

Abstract

A method, system, apparatus, and computer program product are presented for management of a distributed data processing system. Resources within the distributed data processing system are dynamically discovered, and the discovered resources are adaptively monitored using the network management framework. A network or system administrator configures some mission critical endpoints with multiple network interface cards (NICs) and specifies mission critical endpoints, non-mission critical actions, etc. During status collection activities associated with network or system management activities, the categorization of an endpoint as a mission-critical or non-mission critical endpoint affects the manner in which the status collection activity is performed. Applications can request the performance of actions at endpoints without regard to the categorization of the endpoint or without regard to the categorization of the requested action, and the network management system routes the action based on whether or not the specified endpoint is a mission critical endpoint. A non-mission-critical endpoint is associated with a mission-critical endpoint based on the non-mission-critical endpoint'"'"'s communication history with the mission critical endpoint. The management system may use the status of a non-mission-critical endpoint as a reflection of the status of a mission-critical endpoint.

Claims

1. A method for managing a distributed data processing system, the method comprising:

dynamically discovering endpoints within the distributed data processing system;

determining that a first discovered endpoint communicates with a second discovered endpoint;

monitoring a status of the first discovered endpoint;

updating a status indicator for the first discovered endpoint; and

updating a status indicator for the second discovered endpoint based on a communication history between the first discovered endpoint and the second discovered endpoint.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

retrieving an SNMP table from the first discovered endpoint;

searching the SNMP table for an address associated with the second discovered endpoint; and

associating the first discovered endpoint with the second discovered endpoint in response to finding the address associated with the second discovered endpoint in the SNMP table.

3. A method for managing a distributed data processing system, the method comprising:

configuring monitoring parameters for network interface cards within the distributed data processing system using a network management framework;

dynamically discovering a set of discovered endpoints within the distributed data processing system;

designating a plurality of discovered endpoints as mission critical endpoints; and

associating a mission critical twin endpoint with each mission critical endpoint, wherein a mission critical twin endpoint is a discovered endpoint that has a communication history with a mission critical endpoint with which the mission critical twin endpoint is being associated.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

retrieving an SNMP table from a discovered endpoint;

searching the SNMP table for an address associated with a mission critical endpoint; and

associating the discovered endpoint with the mission critical endpoint in response to finding the address associated with the mission critical endpoint in the SNMP table.

5. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

choosing mission critical twin endpoints from a subset of discovered endpoints which have not been previously specified as twin endpoints.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

selecting an endpoint in the subset of discovered endpoints that has a most significant communication history with a particular mission critical endpoint; and

creating a mission critical twin association between the selected endpoint and the particular mission critical endpoint in response to a determination of the most significant communication history.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

retrieving an SNMP table from a discovered endpoint in the subset of discovered endpoints;

searching the SNMP table for an address associated with the particular mission critical endpoint;

in response to finding the address associated with the particular mission critical endpoint in the SNMP table, obtaining a value from the SNMP table to be compared with values obtained from other retrieved SNMP tables; and

determining the most significant communication history based on a comparison of the values obtained from the retrieved SNMP tables.

8. An apparatus for managing a distributed data processing system, the apparatus comprising:

discovering means for dynamically discovering endpoints within the distributed data processing system;

determining means for determining that a first discovered endpoint communicates with a second discovered endpoint;

monitoring means for monitoring a status of the first discovered endpoint;

first updating means for updating a status indicator for the first discovered endpoint; and

second updating means for updating a status indicator for the second discovered endpoint based on a communication history between the first discovered endpoint and the second discovered endpoint.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 further comprising:

retrieving means for retrieving an SNMP table from the first discovered endpoint;

searching means for searching the SNMP table for an address associated with the second discovered endpoint; and

associating means for associating the first discovered endpoint with the second discovered endpoint in response to finding the address associated with the second discovered endpoint in the SNMP table.

10. A apparatus for managing a distributed data processing system, the apparatus comprising:

configuring means for configuring monitoring parameters for network interface cards within the distributed data processing system using a network management framework;

discovering means for dynamically discovering a set of discovered endpoints within the distributed data processing system;

designating means for designating a plurality of discovered endpoints as mission critical endpoints; and

first associating means for associating a mission critical twin endpoint with each mission critical endpoint, wherein a mission critical twin endpoint is a discovered endpoint that has a communication history with a mission critical endpoint with which the mission critical twin endpoint is being associated.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising:

first retrieving means for retrieving an SNMP table from a discovered endpoint;

first searching means for searching the SNMP table for an address associated with a mission critical endpoint; and

second associating means for associating the discovered endpoint with the mission critical endpoint in response to finding the address associated with the mission critical endpoint in the SNMP table.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising:

first choosing means for choosing mission critical twin endpoints from a subset of discovered endpoints which have not been previously specified as twin endpoints.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 further comprising:

first selecting means for selecting an endpoint in the subset of discovered endpoints that has a most significant communication history with a particular mission critical endpoint; and

first creating means for creating a mission critical twin association between the selected endpoint and the particular mission critical endpoint in response to a determination of the most significant communication history.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 further comprising:

second retrieving means for retrieving an SNMP table from a discovered endpoint in the subset of discovered endpoints;

second searching means for searching the SNMP table for an address associated with the particular mission critical endpoint;

first obtaining means for obtaining, in response to finding the address associated with the particular mission critical endpoint in the SNMP table, a value from the SNMP table to be compared with values obtained from other retrieved SNMP tables; and

determining means for determining the most significant communication history based on a comparison of the values obtained from the retrieved SNMP tables.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 further comprising:

instructions for retrieving an SNMP table from the first discovered endpoint;

instructions for searching the SNMP table for an address associated with the second discovered endpoint; and

instructions for associating the first discovered endpoint with the second discovered endpoint in response to finding the address associated with the second discovered endpoint in the SNMP table.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 further comprising:

instructions for retrieving an SNMP table from a discovered endpoint;

instructions for searching the SNMP table for an address associated with a mission critical endpoint; and

instructions for associating the discovered endpoint with the mission critical endpoint in response to finding the address associated with the mission critical endpoint in the SNMP table.

19. The computer pro(ram product of claim 17 further comprising:

instructions for choosing mission critical twin endpoints from a subset of discovered endpoints which have not been previously specified as twin endpoints.

20. The computer program product of claim 19 further comprising:

instructions for selecting an endpoint in the subset of discovered endpoints that has a most significant communication history with a particular mission critical endpoint; and

instructions for creating a mission critical twin association between the selected endpoint and the particular mission critical endpoint in response to a determination of the most significant communication history.

21. The computer program product of claim 20 further comprising:

instructions for retrieving an SNMP table from a discovered endpoint in the subset of discovered endpoints;

instructions for searching the SNMP table for an address associated with the particular mission critical endpoint;

instructions for obtaining, in response to finding the address associated with the particular mission critical endpoint in the SNMP table, a value from the SNMP table to be compared with values obtained from other retrieved SNMP tables; and

instructions for determining the most significant communication history based on a comparison of the values obtained from the retrieved SNMP tables.

15. A computer program product in a computer readable medium for use in a distributed data processing system for managing the distributed data processing system, the computer program product comprising:

instructions for dynamically discovering endpoints within the distributed data processing system;

instructions for determining that a first discovered endpoint communicates with a second discovered endpoint;

instructions for monitoring a status of the first discovered endpoint;

instructions for updating a status indicator for the first discovered endpoint; and

instructions for updating a status indicator for the second discovered endpoint based on a communication history between the first discovered endpoint and the second discovered endpoint.

17. A computer program product in a computer readable medium for use in a distributed data processing system for managing the distributed data processing system, the computer program product comprising:

instructions for configuring monitoring parameters for network interface cards within the distributed data processing system using a network management framework;

instructions for dynamically discovering a set of discovered endpoints within the distributed data processing system;

instructions for designating a plurality of discovered endpoints as mission critical endpoints; and

instructions for associating a mission critical twin endpoint with each mission critical endpoint, wherein a mission critical twin endpoint is a discovered endpoint that has a communication history with a mission critical endpoint with which the mission critical twin endpoint is being associated.