Coalescing information from multiple sources based on priority rules

• US 20030009550A1
• Filed: 06/26/2001
• Published: 01/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Matheny, Dave L., Taylor, Dale T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,376,694 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/174 Redundancy elimination performed by the file system management of the data involved in backup or backup restore using de-duplication of the data G06F11/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1844 Management specifically adapted to replicated file systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

An arrangement is provided for coalescing information from a plurality of agents according to priority rules. Each of the agents is associated with a device group that has at least one device and sends information about the at least one device to a priority rules-based coalescing mechanism. Upon receiving information from an agent, the priority rules-based coalescing mechanism retrieves relevant priority rules and coalesces the information according to those retrieved priority rules.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a plurality of agents for receiving and sending formatted information via a network; and

a priority rule-based coalescing mechanism connecting to the plurality of agents via the network for coalescing the formatted information, received from the plurality of agents, within a coalseced file according to corresponding priority rules defined with respect to each of the plurality of agents to generate an updated coalesced file.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein each of the agent is associatd with a device group that comprises at least one device and collects information from the at least one device in the device group.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein each of the plurality of agents comprises:

a device interface for interacting with the at least one device in the device group to collect information;

an information formatting mechanism for organizing the information, collected by the device interface from the at least one device, according to a pre-defined syntax to generate formatted information; and

a network communication mechanism for communicating with the priority rule-based coalescing mechanism, sending the formatted information to the priority rule-based coalescing mechanism via the network.

4. A priority rule-based coalescing mechanism, comprising:

a network communication mechanism for receiving formatted information from an agent;

a priority rule database for storing priority rules defined with respect to the agent; and

a coalescing mechanism for coalescing the formatted information in a coalesced file according to the priority rules, retrieved from the priority rule database, to generate an updated coalesced file.

5. The mechanism according to claim 4, further comprising:

a priority rule set-up mechanism for setting up the priority rules for the agent, the priority rules defining the priority of the agent;

a priority rule accessing mechanism for retrieving the priority rules, from the priority rule database after the formatted information is received from the agent, to provide associated priority rules to the coalescing mechanism to coalesce the formatted information.

6. The mechanism according to claim 5, further comprising:

a coalesced file initialization mechanism for initializing the coalesced file to which the agent appends formatted information;

a parsing mechanism for parsing the priority rules, retrieved by the priority rule access mechanism from the priority rule database, before the coalsecing mechanism coalesces the formatted information;

a transformation mechanism for transforming the formatted information, before the formatted information is coalesced by the coalescing mechanism, according to the priority rules; and

a coalesced file database for storing the updated coalesced file, generated by the coalsecing mechanism.

7. A method, comprising:

sending, by a priority rule-based coalescing mechanism, an inquiry to an agent to gather information from a device group associated with the agent;

collecting, by the agent, the information from the device group according to the inquiry;

constructing formatted information based on the information obtained from the device group according to a pre-defined syntax;

sending the formatted information to the priority rule-based coalescing mechanism;

retrieving, by the priority rule-based coalescing mechanism, priority rules associated with the agent from a priority rule database; and

coalescing the formatted information based on the priority rules to generate an updated coalseced file.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the sending an inquiry includes sending the inquiry with a coalesced file.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the sending the formatted information comprises:

appending the formatted information, generated by the constructing, to the coalesced file; and

sending the coalseced file, appended with the formatted information, to the priority rule-based coalsecing mechanism.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein the constructing according to a pre-defined syntax includes constructing according to XML.

11. A method for a priority rule-based coalsecing mechanism, comprising:

sending an inquiry to an agent to gather information from a device group associated with the agent;

receiving formatted information from the agent, formatted information being constructed according to a pre-defined syntax;

retrieving priority rules associated with the agent from a priority rule database; and

coalescing the formatted information based on the priority rules to generate an updated coalseced file.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the sending an inquiry includes sending the inquiry with a coalesced file.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the receiving the formatted information includes receiving the formatted information with the coalesced file wherein the formatted information is appended.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the coalescing the formatted information comprises:

coalescing the formatted information with respect to a coalesced file according to the priority rules; and

generating the updated coalesced file based on the result from the coalescing.

16. The method according to claim 14, further comprising:

setting up the priority rules associated with the agent prior to the retrieving; and

transforming the formatted information prior to the coalescing formatted information according to the priority rules.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the coalescing the formatted information comprises:

coalescing the formatted information with respect to a coalesced file according to the priority rules; and

generating the updated coalesced file based on the result from the coalescing.

19. The method according to claim 17, further comprising:

setting up the priority rules associated with the agent prior to the retrieving; and

transforming the formatted information prior to the coalescing according to the priority rules assocaited with the agent.

14. A method, comprising:

receiving, by an agent associating with a device group that comprises at least one device, information from a device of the at least one device;

constructing formatted information based on the information received from the device according to a pre-defined syntax;

sending the formatted information to a priority rule-based coalescing mechanism;

retrieving, by the priority rule-based coalescing mechanism, priority rules associated with the agent from a priority rule database; and

coalescing the formatted information based on the priority rules to generate an update coalesced file.

17. A method for a priority rule-based coalsecing mechanism, comprising:

receiving formatted information from an agent associated with a device group comprising at least one device, formatted information being constructed based on the information, obtained from a device of the at least one device, according to a pre-defined syntax;

retrieving priority rules associated with the agent from a priority rule database; and

coalescing the formatted information based on the priority rules to generate an updated coalseced file.

20. A computer-readable medium encoded with a program, the program, when executed causing:

sending, by a priority rule-based coalescing mechanism, an inquiry to an agent to gather information from a device group associated with the agent;

collecting, by the agent, the information from the device group according to the inquiry;

constructing formatted information based on the information obtained from the device group according to a pre-defined syntax;

sending the formatted information to the priority rule-based coalescing mechanism;

retrieving, by the priority rule-based coalescing mechanism, priority rules associated with the agent from a priority rule database; and

coalescing the formatted information based on the priority rules to generate an updated coalseced file.

21. The medium according to claim 20, wherein the sending of the formatted information comprises:

appending the formatted information, generated by the constructing, to a coalesced file that is received together with the inquiry; and

sending the coalseced file, appended with the formatted information, to the priority rule-based coalsecing mechanism.

22. A computer-readable medium encoded with a program for a priority rule-based coalsecing mechanism, the program, when executed causing:

sending an inquiry to an agent to gather information from a device group associated with the agent;

receiving formatted information from the agent, formatted information being constructed according to a pre-defined syntax;

retrieving priority rules associated with the agent from a priority rule database; and

coalescing the formatted information based on the priority rules to generate an updated coalseced file.

23. The medium according to claim 22, wherein

the sending an inquiry includes sending the inquiry with a coalesced file;

the receiving the formatted information includes receiving the formatted information with the coalesced file wherein the formatted information is appended.

25. The medium according to claim 24, further comprising code, which when excuted causes:

setting up the priority rules associated with the agent prior to the retrieving; and

transforming the formatted information prior to the coalescing formatted information according to the priority rules.

27. The medium according to claim 26, further comprising code, which when exeucted causes:

setting up the priority rules associated with the agent prior to the retrieving; and

transforming the formatted information prior to the coalescing according to the priority rules assocaited with the agent.

24. A computer-readable medium encoded with a program, the program, when executed, causing:

receiving, by an agent associating with a device group that comprises at least one device, information from a device of the at least one device;

constructing formatted information based on the information received from the device according to a pre-defined syntax;

sending the formatted information to a priority rule-based coalescing mechanism;

retrieving, by the priority rule-based coalescing mechanism, priority rules associated with the agent from a priority rule database; and

coalescing the formatted information based on the priority rules to generate an updated coalesced file.

26. A computer-readable medium encoded with a program for a priority rule-based coalsecing mechanism, the program, when executed, causing:

receiving formatted information from an agent associated with a device group comprising at least one device, formatted information being constructed based on the information, obtained from a device of the at least one device, according to a pre-defined syntax;

retrieving priority rules associated with the agent from a priority rule database; and

coalescing the formatted information based on the priority rules to generate an updated coalseced file.