Method and apparatus for efficient Reactive monitoring

• US 20020138599A1
• Filed: 03/21/2001
• Published: 09/26/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Dilman, Mark, Raz, Danny
• Granted Patent: US 8,402,129 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/103 with adaptive polling, i.e. dynamically adapting the polling rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10015 Access to distributed or replicated servers, e.g. using brokers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer

Abstract

A technique for managing network elements significantly reduces the amount of monitoring related traffic by using a combination of aperiodic polling and asynchronous event reporting. A global resource (e.g., a network of interconnected nodes or resources) is partitioned into a plurality of separate nodes, giving a fixed resource budget to each of the nodes. When any of the nodes exceeds its budget, based upon local monitoring at that node, the node triggers a report, typically sending a message to a central manager. In response, the central manager then and only then issues a global poll of all (or substantially all) of the nodes in the network. A rate based technique can also be used to monitor resource usage at the nodes, and send a message to a central monitoring location only when the rate at which the value of a local variable changes is too high.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring usage of resources in a plurality of elements each capable of communicating with a centralized management station, comprising the steps of:

computing in each of the elements, a localized value indicative of the usage, in said element, of said resources, and, responsive to said localized value, communicating a message to said central station, and

responsive to receipt or absence of receipt of said message in said centralized management station, obtaining information from at least another one of said elements indicative of the usage of said resources in said other element.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said message includes said localized value.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said method further includes the step of using the information from at least another one of said elements as well as said localized value to estimate the global usage of said resources in all of said elements.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said localized value is indicative of the present usage of resources by said elements and said computing step includes comparing said localized value to a fixed threshold value.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said localized value is indicative of the rate of change of usage of resources by said elements and said computing step includes comparing said localized value to a fixed threshold value.

6. The method of claim 1, further including the step of responsive to the results of said polling, adjusting the use of resources at one or more of said elements.

7. A method for monitoring usage of resources in elements in a network, comprising the steps of:

in each of the elements, (a) monitoring the usage of resources in said element to determine if resource usage exceeds a predetermined threshold, and (b) if the usage exceeds said threshold, sending a message to a central monitoring element; and

in said central monitoring element, responsive to receipt of said message from any of said elements, polling remaining ones of said elements to determine the actual use of resources in said elements.

8. A method for monitoring usage of resources in a plurality of elements each capable of communicating with a centralized management station, comprising the steps of:

asynchronous reporting of events when the resource usage in any of said elements deviates from a prescribed norm, and

a periodic polling of said network elements in response to an event generated in said asynchronous reporting step.

11. The method defined in claim 8 wherein said network elements are routers switches and bridges and firewall devices.

12. The method defined in claim 8 wherein said network elements are application level elements such as servers, hosts, and layer 4-7 switches.

9. A technique for managing network elements in order to reduce the amount of monitoring related traffic, comprising the steps of

partitioning a global resource into a plurality of separate nodes,

assigning a fixed resource budget to each of the nodes,

when any of the nodes exceeds its budget, based upon local monitoring at that node, triggering a report in the node by sending a message to a central manager, and

responsive to receipt of said message in said central manager, issuing a global poll of all of the nodes in said network.

10. A technique for managing network elements in order to reduce the amount of monitoring related traffic, comprising the steps of

partitioning a global resource into a plurality of separate nodes,

assigning a budget to each of the nodes indicative of the maximum rate at which the usage of resources is permitted to change,

when the rate of change at which any of the nodes uses its resources exceeds its budget, based upon local monitoring at that node, triggering a report in the node by sending a message to a central manager, and

responsive to receipt of said message in said central manager, issuing a global poll of all of the nodes in said network.