Monitoring storage resources used by computer applications distributed across a network

• US 20040078461A1
• Filed: 10/18/2002
• Published: 04/22/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: McCrickard, Edward M., Corrigan, Steven M., Donovan, Stephen C., McCullough, W. Scott, Bendich, Justin
• Granted Patent: US 7,167,915 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2003/0697 device management, e.g. handlers, drivers, I/O schedulers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0601 Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

Computing devices storing and executing applications across a network each include agent software to communicate with the application at the computing device to retrieve storage utilization information. At a server on the network, data representative of storage utilization by the applications executing at the several computing devices across the network is collected from the agents for processing.

Claims

1. At a server on a data network, a method of collecting data representative of storage utilizations by applications executing at several computing devices across said data network, the method comprising:

(a) dispatching query requests from said server, to each of said several computing devices, at least one query request indicative of storage utilization information requested from an application at said each of said several computing devices;

(b) receiving responses from said computing devices, at least one of said responses including requested storage utilization information provided by an application at said each of said several computing devices;

(c) storing said requested utilization data at said server for processing.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said query requests include information to be received by agent applications at said several computing devices, said agent applications adapting an associated one of said several computing device to query said application at said each of said several computing devices to obtain said requested utilization information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of said applications comprises a database engine.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said at least one query request to said database engine comprises an identifier of tables stored by said database engine at a server executing said database engine, to obtain an indicator of usage by said tables.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein said responses from said database engine provide a mapping of storage resources used by a database managed by said database engine, and files stored in a files system at a computing hosting said database engine.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein said at least one query requests to said database engine comprises an identifier of a database user to obtain an indicator of usage by said user at a server executing said database engine.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising dispatching an alert in response to detecting a defined condition at one of said computing devices, based on requested utilization information from said computing device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said defined condition comprises a storage quota.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said storage quota defines a maximum storage space used by one of a user, a table or a computing device.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a report detailing storage utilization by said applications, based said requested utilization data stored at said server.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein said defined condition comprises a measure of database disorganization.

17. Computer readable medium storing processor executable instructions that when loaded at a computing device comprising a processor adapts said computing device to perform the method of claim 1.

12. A method of collecting data representative of storage utilization by an application at a computing device, comprising:

a. receiving from a message indicative of a query and specific storage utilization data to be collected from a server in communication with said computing by way of a data network;

b. querying said application to obtain said specific storage utilization data;

c. providing said storage utilization data to said server.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said application comprises a database engine, and wherein said querying comprises executing a query command using said database engine to obtain said specific storage utilization data.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprises using an application programmer interface to obtain said specific storage utilization data.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein said application comprises a database engine, and wherein said message is indicative of a table stored within a table maintained by said database engine.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein said application comprises a database engine, and wherein said message is indicative of a request for data providing an oversight of resources used by said application by said database engine.

18. Computer readable medium storing processor executable instructions that when loaded at a computing device comprising a processor adapts said computing device to perform the method of claim 12.

19. A server on a data network, said server comprising a network interface, a processor in communication with computer readable memory storing processor executable instruction adapting said server to:

a. dispatch query requests from said network interface, to each of several computing devices on said network, at least one query request indicative of storage utilization information requested from an application at said each of said several computing devices;

b. receive responses from said computing devices, including requested storage utilization information from applications at said each of said computing devices;

c. store said requested utilization information at said server for processing.