Automated infrastructure audit system

• US 20040249828A1
• Filed: 06/05/2003
• Published: 12/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lamm, Brent Watson, Newton, Thomas Lane, Rajan, Ravirajan, Childress, Rhonda L., Samn, Jonathan, Weinberger, Steven M., Oliver, Michael Bruce
• Application Number:
  US10/455,184
• Publication Number:
  US 20040249828A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/100
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0873 Checking configuration conflicts between network elements

Abstract

The present invention provides an automated method and system for auditing infrastructures in a managed region of a resource management system. A resource management region queries the endpoints in the system, retrieves reference infrastructure configuration data, and stores the data in a database. At a later time, the resource management region again queries the endpoints and the resource management region itself, and retrieves current infrastructure configuration data. Changes in the state of the system infrastructure from the time the reference infrastructure data is generated to the time the current infrastructure data is generated is found by comparing the reference infrastructure data to the current infrastructure data. The resource management region transmits a notification to the system administrator if unauthorized changes are found. The present invention reduces the large amount of administrative and maintenance labor costs that can occur when settings in the infrastructure are inconsistent with what they are thought to be.

Claims

1. A method of auditing an infrastructure in a data processing system, the method comprising:

identifying a reference infrastructure state in a resource management system;

identifying a current infrastructure state in the resource management system;

determining differences between the reference infrastructure state and the current infrastructure state; and

transmitting a notification to a designated recipient if differences between the reference infrastructure state and the current infrastructure state are identified.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the reference infrastructure state in a database.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

manually updating the reference infrastructure state in the database with the current infrastructure state.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the resource management system is a Tivoli Management Region (TMR).

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the notification is sent to a system administrator.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the notification includes a report date.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the notification includes at least one customer ID.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the notification includes at least one endpoint name.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying a current infrastructure state in the resource management system includes gathering infrastructure data from the resource management system itself.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying a current infrastructure state in the resource management system includes gathering infrastructure data from an endpoint connected to the resource management system.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying a current infrastructure state in the resource management system is performed using CLI commands.

12. A data processing system for auditing an infrastructure, comprising:

means for identifying a reference infrastructure state in a resource management system;

means for identifying a current infrastructure state in the resource management system;

means for determining differences between the reference infrastructure state and the current infrastructure state; and

means for transmitting a notification to a designated recipient if differences between the reference infrastructure state and the current infrastructure state are identified.

13. The data processing system of claim 12, further comprising:

means for storing the reference infrastructure state in a database.

14. The data processing system of claim 12, further comprising:

means for updating the reference infrastructure state in the database with the current infrastructure state.

15. The data processing system of claim 12 wherein the resource management system is a Tivoli Management Region (TMR).

16. The data processing system of claim 12 wherein the notification includes a report date.

17. The data processing system of claim 12 wherein the notification includes at least one customer ID.

18. The data processing system of claim 12 wherein the notification includes at least one endpoint name.

19. The data processing system of claim 12 wherein identifying a current infrastructure state in the resource management system includes gathering infrastructure data from the resource management system itself.

20. The data processing system of claim 12 wherein identifying a current infrastructure state in the resource management system includes gathering infrastructure data from at least one endpoint connected to the resource management system.

21. A data processing system for performing a infrastructure audit, comprising:

a data extraction program for gathering a reference infrastructure state;

a data extraction program for gathering a current infrastructure state;

a comparison engine for comparing the reference infrastructure state to the current infrastructure state;

a notification engine for reporting any discrepancies between the reference infrastructure state and the current infrastructure state.

22. The data processing system of claim 21, further comprising:

a database for storing the reference infrastructure state.

23. A computer program product in a computer readable medium for auditing an infrastructure, comprising:

instructions for identifying a reference infrastructure state in a resource management system;

instructions for identifying a current infrastructure state in the resource management system;

instructions for determining differences between the reference infrastructure state and the current infrastructure state; and

instructions for transmitting a notification to a designated recipient if differences between the reference infrastructure state and the current infrastructure state are identified.

24. The computer program product in claim 23, further comprising:

instructions for storing the reference infrastructure state in a database.

25. A system for auditing an infrastructure, the system comprising:

a database;

a plurality of audit modules, wherein each of the plurality of audit modules identifies changes that occur to the infrastructure over time and audits a different segment of the system infrastructure; and

a main audit device, wherein the main audit device requests at least one of the plurality of audit modules to identify changes that occur to the infrastructure over time, gathers audit data, and stores the audit data in the database.