System and method for managing object based clusters

• US 20030214525A1
• Filed: 07/08/2002
• Published: 11/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Esfahany, Kouros H.
• Granted Patent: US 7,603,327 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/700
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/505 Clust
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• 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 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/16 using machine learning or artificial intelligence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

A method, system, API, GUI, and computer readable media for managing object-based clusters is provided. The method provides a computer executable methodology for discovering, monitoring, and managing object-based clusters. The system provides a computer-based system for facilitating interactions with heterogeneous cluster solutions. The system includes computer components for detecting clusters and supervising detected clusters and/or components.

Claims

1. A method for managing object based clusters, comprising:

discovering one or more clusters; and

storing one or more values associated with the one or more clusters in one or more objects that model a cluster.

2. The method of claim 1, where discovering a cluster comprises receiving and analyzing data from one or more agents.

3. The method of claim 2, where the agents are neural network agents.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising:

discovering one or more resources associated with a cluster; and

storing one or more values associated with the one or more resources in one or more objects that model a resource.

5. The method of claim 4, where discovering a resource comprises receiving and analyzing data from one or more agents.

6. The method of claim 5, where the agents are neural network agents.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising:

monitoring the one or more clusters; and

updating one or more values associated with the one or more objects that model a cluster.

8. The method of claim 7, where updating the one or more values comprises invoking one or more methods of one or more objects that model a cluster.

9. The method of claim 7, where monitoring the one or more clusters comprises receiving and analyzing data from one or more agents.

10. The method of claim 9, where the agents are neural network agents.

11. The method of claim 7, comprising:

monitoring one or more resources associated with the one or more clusters; and

updating one or more values associated with one or more objects that model a resource.

12. The method of claim 11, where updating the one or more values comprises invoking one or more methods of one or more objects that model a resource.

13. The method of claim 11, where monitoring the one or more resources comprises receiving and analyzing data from one or more agents.

14. The method of claim 13, where the agents are neural network agents.

15. The method of claim 7, comprising:

managing one or more clusters, where managing a cluster comprises performing at least one of, defining a cluster, viewing a cluster, calling a system function on a cluster, calling a user function a cluster, sending a command to a cluster, confirming an action to be performed on a cluster, starting a cluster, halting a cluster, registering a trap destination, listing a trap destination, listing an agent process, listing a cluster process, and launching a local application.

16. The method of claim 7, comprising managing one or more clusters, where managing a cluster comprises performing at least one of, failover processing for a cluster, load balancing within a cluster, and maintenance processing for a cluster.

17. The method of claim 15, comprising managing one or more resources, where managing a resource comprises performing at least one of, defining a resource, viewing a resource, starting a resource, halting a resource, and calling a function on a resource.

18. A system for facilitating interaction with heterogeneous cluster solutions, comprising:

a cluster detector that detects one or more clusters; and

a cluster supervisor that collects data from the one or more clusters.

19. The system of claim 18, where the cluster supervisor presents at least one of data and control to the one or more clusters.

20. The system of claim 19, where at least one of the cluster detector and the cluster supervisor store data in one or more objects that abstract at least one of a cluster and a cluster component.

21. The system of claim 20, where the one or more objects are arranged in an object hierarchy.

22. The system of claim 20, where at least one of the cluster detector and the cluster supervisor communicate with the one or more objects through a standardized, normalized command set.

23. The system of claim 22, where the command set comprises commands to perform at least one of, defining a cluster, defining a cluster component, viewing a cluster, viewing a cluster component, calling a function on a cluster, calling a function on a cluster component, invoking a process on a cluster, invoking a process on a cluster component, sending a command to a cluster, sending a command to a cluster component, starting a cluster, starting a cluster component, halting a cluster, halting a cluster component, starting a failover process, stopping a failover process, starting a maintenance process, stopping a maintenance process, starting a load balancing process, and stopping a load balancing process.

24. The system of claim 18, where at least one of the cluster detector and the cluster supervisor receive data from one or more intelligent, automated data gatherers.

25. A set of objects that facilitates object-based cluster management, comprising:

a parent object that models a managed object;

a cluster object that inherits from the parent object and models a cluster; and

one or more vendor cluster objects that inherit from the cluster object and model one or more vendor specific cluster solutions.

26. The set of objects of claim 25, comprising:

an agent object that inherits from the parent object and models an agent; and

one or more vendor agent objects that inherit from the agent object and model one or more vendor specific agents.

27. The set of objects of claim 25, comprising:

a task space object that inherits from the parent object and models a task space;

a task object that inherits from the parent object and models a task; and

one or more vendor task objects that inherit from the task object and model one or more vendor specific tasks.

28. The set of objects of claim 25, comprising:

a resource space object that inherits from the parent object and models a resource space;

a resource object that inherits from the parent object and models a resource; and

one or more implemented resource objects that inherit from the resource object and model at least one of, a service, a process, a subnet, an address, a file system, an application, and a disk volume.

29. The set of objects of claim 25, comprising:

a folder object that inherits from the parent object and models a folder that facilitates a hierarchical display of objects in a graphical user interface;

a resource folder object that inherits from the folder object and models a resource that facilitates a hierarchical display of objects in a graphical user interface; and

one or more implemented folder objects that inherit from the resource folder object and model at least one of, a service folder, an address folder, a process folder, a subnet folder, a file system folder, an application folder, and a disk volume folder.

30. A computer readable medium storing computer executable components of a set of objects, comprising:

a parent object that models a managed object;

a cluster object that inherits from the parent object and models a cluster;

one or more vendor cluster objects that inherit from the cluster object and model one or more vendor specific cluster solutions;

an agent object that inherits from the parent object and models an agent;

one or more vendor agent objects that inherit from the agent object and model one or more vendor specific agents;

a task space object that inherits from the parent object and models a task space;

a task object that inherits from the parent object and models a task;

one or more vendor task objects that inherit from the task object and model one or more vendor specific tasks;

a resource space object that inherits from the parent object and models a resource space;

a resource object that inherits from the parent object and models a resource;

one or more implemented resource objects that inherit from the resource object and model at least one of, a service, a process, a subnet, an address, a file system, an application, and a disk volume;

a folder object that inherits from the parent object and models a folder that facilitates a hierarchical display of objects in a graphical user interface;

a resource folder object that inherits from the folder object and models a folder that facilitates a hierarchical display in a graphical user interface; and

one or more implemented folder objects that inherit from the resource folder object and model at least one of, a service folder, an address folder, a process folder, a subnet folder, a file system folder, an application folder, and a disk volume folder.

31. In a computer system having a graphical user interface comprising a display and a selection device, a method of providing and selecting from a set of data entries on the display, the method comprising:

retrieving a set of data entries, each of the data entries representing a cluster management option;

displaying the set of data entries on the display;

receiving a data entry selection signal indicative of the selection device selecting a selected data entry; and

in response to the signal, initiating a cluster management operation associated with the selected data entry.

32. The method of claim 31, where the cluster management operation is at least one of defining a cluster, defining a cluster component, viewing a cluster, viewing a cluster component, calling a function on a cluster, calling a function on a cluster component, invoking a process on a cluster, invoking a process on a cluster component, sending a command to a cluster, sending a command to a cluster component, starting a cluster, starting a cluster component, halting a cluster, halting a cluster component, starting a failover process, stopping a failover process, starting a maintenance process, stopping a maintenance process, starting a load balancing process, and stopping a load balancing process.

33. A set of application program interfaces embodied on a computer readable medium for execution by a computer component in conjunction with an application program that facilitates object based cluster management, comprising:

a first interface that receives and returns at least one of an application data and a control data associated with discovering a cluster;

a second interface that receives and returns at least one of an application data and a control data associated with monitoring a cluster; and

a third interface that receives and returns at least one of an application data and a control data associated with managing a cluster.

34. A system for controlling heterogeneous clusters, comprising:

means for identifying one or more heterogeneous clusters;

means for surveying one or more heterogeneous clusters;

means for abstracting a cluster; and

means for controlling the one or more heterogeneous clusters through a standardized command set.

35. A computer readable medium storing computer executable components of a system for facilitating interaction with heterogeneous cluster solutions, the system comprising:

a cluster detecting component that detects one or more clusters;

a cluster supervising component that collects data from one or more clusters; and

one or more objects that model a cluster.

36. A computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions for a method for managing object-based clusters, the method comprising:

discovering one or more clusters;

storing a cluster data associated with the one or more clusters in one or more cluster modeling objects;

updating the one or more cluster modeling objects based, at least in part, on monitoring the one or more discovered clusters; and

managing the one or more clusters.