Resource management method and system with rule based consistency check

• US 20040111497A1
• Filed: 08/13/2003
• Published: 06/10/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/13/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Donatelli, Alessandro, Marinelli, Claudio, Balsamo, Arcangelo Di, DʼAloʼ, Salvatore
• Granted Patent: US 7,340,513 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality

Abstract

A resource management method (400c) and a corresponding system implementing an adaptive model are proposed. The method allows an authority to define a desired target state of several kinds of resources, which are directly controlled by different subjects. The authority publishes (460) a series of rules in a shared repository; each rule indicates the target state of a resource for a corresponding logic or physic category of the subjects. Each subject retrieves (444-456;462-468) the rules corresponding to its logic category from the shared repository. The rules are then applied (458;469) by the subject; as a result, the physic category of the subject is updated. The subject now retrieves and applies the rules corresponding to its physic category. In this way, different dependency schemes may be implemented without any explicit definition in the rules.

Claims

1. In a data processing structure with a distributed architecture (100) including a plurality of subject entities (110a) and at last one authority entity (105), a resource management method (300,400a) for consistently self-configuring the subject entities, each subject entity controlling an instance of at least one resource and belonging to at least one of a plurality of logic categories and to at least one of a plurality of physic categories, the at least one authority entity defining a target state of the resources, wherein the method includes the steps of:

publishing (305-335) a plurality of rules by the at least one authority entity, at least one of the rules including an indication of the target state of a resource for a logic category of the subject entities and at least a further one of the rules including an indication of the target state of a resource for a physic category of the subject entities, and for each subject entity;

retrieving (403-418) the rules corresponding to the at least one logic category of the subject entity,

applying (420-432) each retrieved rule to configure the subject entity according to the target state thereby updating the at least one physic category of the subject entity,

retrieving (403-418) the rules corresponding to the at least one physic category of the subject entity, and

applying (420-432) each retrieved rule to configure the subject entity according to the target state.

2. The method (300,400a) according to claim 1, wherein the step of publishing (305-335) the rules includes inserting (320) the rules into a shared memory space accessible by the subject entities.

3. The method (300,400a) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein each category includes a dynamic component, the method further including the step of detecting (404-408) the dynamic component of the at least one logic category of the subject entity by retrieving the dynamic component associated with an identifier of the subject entity from a further shared memory space accessible by the subject entities.

4. The method (300,400a) according to any claim from 1 to 3, further including the step of detecting (410) the at least one physic category of the subject entity by performing (410) a scan of hardware and/or software characteristics of the subject entity.

5. The method (300,400a) according to claim 4, wherein at least one of the resources consists of a scanner module (230a) for detecting the hardware and/or software characteristics of the subject entity, and wherein at least one of the rules defines the hardware and/or software characteristics to be detected by the scanner module.

6. A computer program application (203,209,215;

227a-236a,251a) directly loadable into a working memory of a data processing structure (100) with a distributed architecture for performing the resource management method (300,400a) of any claim from 1 to 5 when the program is run on the structure.

7. A program product (180) comprising a computer readable medium on which the program application (203,209,215;

227a-236a,251a) of claim 6 is stored.

8. In a data processing structure with a distributed architecture (100) including a plurality of subject entities and at last one authority entity (105), a computer program (227a-236a,251a) directly loadable into a working memory of a computer of a subject entity (110a) for performing a resource management method (300,400a) for consistently self-configuring the subject entity when the program is run on the computer, wherein each subject entity controls an instance of at least one resource and belongs to at least one of a plurality of logic categories and to at least one of a plurality of physic categories, the at least one authority entity defining a target state of the resources by publishing a plurality of rules, at least one of the rules including an indication of the target state of a resource for a logic category of the subject entities and at least a further one of the rules including an indication of the target state of a resource for a physic category of the subject entities, and wherein the method includes the steps of:

retrieving (403-418) the rules corresponding to the at least one logic category of the subject entity,

applying (420-432) each retrieved rule to configure the subject entity according to the target state thereby updating the at least one physic category of the subject entity,

retrieving (403-418) the rules corresponding to the at least one physic category of the subject entity, and

applying (420-432) each retrieved rule to configure the subject entity according to the target state.

9. In a data processing structure with a distributed architecture including a plurality of subject entities (110a) and at last one authority entity (105), a resource management system (100) for consistently self-configuring the subject entities, each subject entity controlling an instance of at least one resource and belonging to at least one of a plurality of logic categories and to at least one of a plurality of physic categories, the at least one authority entity including means (203,209,215) for defining a target state of the resources by publishing a plurality of rules, at least one of the rules including an indication of the target state of a resource for a logic category of the subject entities and at least a further one of the rules including an indication of the target state of a resource for a physic category of the subject entities, and each subject entity including means (227a-236a,251a) for retrieving the rules corresponding to the at least one logic category of the subject entity and the rules corresponding to the at least one physic category of the subject entity, and means (251a) for applying each retrieved rule to configure the subject entity according to the target state.

10. In a data processing structure with a distributed architecture including a plurality of subject entities and at last one authority entity (105), a computer (110a) of a subject entity suitable to be used in a resource management method for consistently self-configuring the subject entity, each subject entity controlling an instance of at least one resource and belonging to at least one of a plurality of logic categories and to at least one of a plurality of physic categories, the at least one authority entity defining a target state of the resources by publishing a plurality of rules, at least one of the rules including an indication of the target state of a resource for a logic category of the subject entities and at least a further one of the rules including an indication of the target state of a resource for a physic category of the subject entities, and wherein the computer includes means (227a-236a,251a) for retrieving the rules corresponding to the at least one logic category of the subject entity and the rules corresponding to the at least one physic category of the subject entity, and means (251a) for applying each retrieved rule to configure the subject entity according to the target state.