Method and apparatus for composite analysis using hierarchically organized directives

• US 20020169739A1
• Filed: 05/21/2002
• Published: 11/14/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Holland, Paul Edward, McDowell, Mark William, Carr, Adam Michael
• Application Number:
  US10/151,803
• Publication Number:
  US 20020169739A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/60
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 706/922 Computer program preparation

Abstract

A method and apparatus is provided for auditing the configuration of an enterprise using low-level analyzers that include a program and a descriptor of the type of collector data the program can accept, and high-level analyzers that are descriptors which call upon, or incorporate by reference, other analyzer descriptors. A framework, guided by one or more analyzer descriptors and by any descriptors those descriptors may call upon or incorporate by reference, repeatedly executes the set of programs associated with some of the analyzer descriptors against a different node or nodes of an enterprise during each such execution. When executing a program, the framework provides the program with the collector data of the type designated by the descriptor associated with the program.

Claims

1. In a system that analyzes data gathered by collectors monitoring nodes, a hierarchical method of defining and organizing the analysis tasks to be performed comprising the steps of:

performing, for each low-level analysis task, analysis steps that comprise accepting data from one or more collector types, analyzing the data, and generating reports, guided by an analyzer descriptor written in XML or a comparable format identifying the collector types whose data the analyzer steps are to process;

for each higher-level analysis task, of which there is at least one, performing one or more sets of analysis steps for either low-level or high-level analysis tasks, guided by an analyzer descriptor written in XML or a comparable format that calls upon or that incorporates by reference other analyzer descriptors; and

guided by one or more analyzer descriptors and, in the case of higher level analyzer descriptors, by the analyzer descriptors they call upon or incorporate by reference directly or indirectly, repeatedly performing the set of analysis steps corresponding to one or more analyzer descriptors one or more times against collector data gathered from a different node or set of nodes during each such exercise of the set of analysis steps, and during this process, presenting for acceptance and analysis during the performance of each data acceptance step data gathered from collectors of the type indicated by the guiding analyzer descriptors.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the step of obtaining an analyzer descriptor includes obtaining one or more such descriptors that contain an analyzer name, description, and in the case of at least one higher-level analyzer descriptor a list of the other analyzer names whose descriptors it calls upon or incorporates by reference.

3. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the step of obtaining an analyzer descriptor for each higher-level task includes obtaining at least one analyzer descriptor for a higher-level task that calls upon or that incorporates by reference at least one other analyzer descriptor for another higher-level task.

4. A method in accordance with claim 3 wherein the step of obtaining an analyzer descriptor includes obtaining one or more such descriptors that contain an analyzer name, description, and in the case of at least one higher-level analyzer descriptor a list of other analyzer names whose descriptors it calls upon or incorporates by reference.

5. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the step of obtaining an analyzer descriptor for each higher-level task includes obtaining at least one analyzer descriptor for a higher-level task that calls upon or that incorporates by reference at least one other analyzer descriptor for another higher-level task which in turn calls upon or which incorporates by reference at least one other analyzer descriptor for another higher-level task.

6. A method in accordance with claim 5 wherein the step of obtaining an analyzer descriptor includes obtaining one or more such descriptors that contain an analyzer name, description, and in the case of at least one higher-level analyzer descriptor, a list of other analyzer names whose descriptors it calls upon or incorporate by reference.

7. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the step of obtaining an analyzer descriptor for each higher-level task includes obtaining at least one analyzer descriptor for a higher-level task that calls upon or that incorporates by reference at least one other analyzer descriptor for another higher-level task which in turn calls upon or which incorporates by reference at least one other analyzer descriptor for another higher-level task that calls upon or that incorporates by reference at least one other analyzer descriptor for another higher-level task.

8. A method in accordance with claim 7 wherein the step of obtaining an analyzer descriptor includes obtaining one or more such descriptors that contain an analyzer name, description, and in the case of at least one higher-level analyzer descriptor, a list of other analyzer names whose descriptors it calls upon or incorporate by reference.

9. A system that analyzes data gathered by one or more collectors monitoring one or more nodes, said system comprising:

for each low-level analysis task that the system performs, an analyzer program and an analyzer descriptor, the program containing instructions that accept data from one or more collector types, analyze the data, and generates reports, and the analyzer descriptor written in XML or a comparable format and identifying the collector types whose data the program'"'"'s instructions can accept;

for hierarchically higher-level analysis tasks, of which there is at least one, at least one analyzer program, and an analyzer descriptor for each of the higher-level tasks written in XML or a comparable format that calls upon, or that incorporates by reference, other analyzer descriptors; and

a framework that is guided by a set of one or more analyzer descriptors and, in the case of hierarchically higher-level analyzer descriptors, by the analyzer descriptors they call upon or incorporate by reference directly or indirectly, to execute repeatedly one or more times the set of analyzer programs corresponding to some of these analyzer descriptors against collector data gathered from a different node or set of nodes during each such execution of the set of programs, and during each execution of each program, to present the program with only the type of collector data the instructions of the executing program are designed to accept, as indicated by the analyzer descriptor corresponding to the executing program.

10. A system in accordance with claim 9 wherein each analyzer descriptor contains an analyzer name, an analyzer description, and in the case of analyzer descriptors for higher-level analyzer tasks, a list of other analyzer names whose descriptors it calls upon or incorporates by reference.

11. A system in accordance with claim 9 including at least one or more higher-level analyzer descriptor that calls upon, or that incorporates by reference, another high-level analyzer descriptor.

12. A system in accordance with claim 9 wherein each analyzer descriptor contains an analyzer name, an analyzer description, and in the case of analyzer descriptors for higher-level analyzer tasks, a list of other analyzer names whose descriptors it calls upon or incorporates by reference.

13. A system in accordance with claim 9 including at least one or more higher-level analyzer descriptor that calls upon, or that incorporates by reference, another high-level analyzer descriptor which, in turn, also calls upon, or that incorporates by reference, yet another high-level analyzer descriptor.

14. A system in accordance with claim 9 wherein each analyzer descriptor contains an analyzer name, an analyzer description, and in the case of analyzer descriptors for higher-level analyzer tasks, a list of other analyzer names whose descriptors it calls upon or incorporates by reference.

15. A system in accordance with claim 9 including at least one or more higher-level analyzer descriptor that calls upon, or that incorporates by reference, another high-level analyzer descriptor which, in turn, also calls upon, or that incorporates by reference, yet another high-level analyzer descriptor that, in turn, also calls upon, or that incorporates by reference, another high-level analyzer descriptor.

16. A system in accordance with claim 9 wherein each analyzer descriptor contains an analyzer name, an analyzer description, and in the case of analyzer descriptors for higher-level analyzer tasks, a list of other analyzer names whose descriptors it calls upon or incorporates by reference.

17. A system that analyzes data gathered by one or more collector means for monitoring one or more nodes, said system comprising:

for each low-level analysis task that the system performs, an analyzer means for accepting data from one or more collector means, analyzing the data, and generating reports, and an analyzer descriptor written in XML or a comparable format and identifying the types of collector means whose data the program'"'"'s instructions can accept;

for hierarchically higher-level analysis tasks, of which there is at least one, at least one analyzer means, and an analyzer descriptor written in XML or a comparable format for each of the higher-level analysis task that calls upon, or that incorporates by reference, other analyzer descriptors; and

framework means guided by a set of one or more analyzer descriptors and, in the case of hierarchically higher-level analyzer descriptors, by the analyzer descriptors they call upon or incorporate by reference directly or indirectly, for executing repeatedly one or more times the set of analyzer means corresponding to some of these analyzer descriptors against collector means data gathered from a different node or set of nodes during each such execution of the set of analyzer means, and during each execution of each analyzer means, for presenting the analyzer means with only the type of collector means data the analyzer means are designed to accept, as indicated by the analyzer descriptor corresponding to the executing analyzer means.