Object manager for common information model

• US 20050193109A1
• Filed: 03/01/2005
• Published: 09/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: McCollum, Raymond W., Hudis, Irena
• Granted Patent: US 7,380,249 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2471 Distributed queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems

Abstract

A common information model (CIM) enables management application programs to receive uniformly rendered results regardless of the source of the information. A CIM object manager isolates the applications from internal components which retrieve the information from various sources and through various other components, and provides refinements to that model that improve the exchange of information. In addition to providing uniform rendering of management information to a client applications, the CIM object manager dynamically adapts to complement the capabilities of the information providers, whereby the information providers may do so in a highly flexible manner. The CIMOM also decomposes a client query to determine the appropriate source or sources of information necessary to resolve that query, and further handles client queries having inherited object classes to render appropriate results in a uniform manner.

Claims

1. In a computer network having a management application that manages network devices, a system comprising,

a database having information therein that relates network devices to information providers;

a set of information providers including at least one information provider connected to a managed network device; and

an object manager configured to receive a request from the management application requesting management information that corresponds to dynamic data of the managed network device, and in response to the request, the object manager further configured to;

1) query the database and receive data therefrom indicative of which information provider or providers correspond to the managed device;

2) communicate with each corresponding provider for the managed device to request the dynamic data therefrom, at least one of the corresponding providers connected to the managed network device to obtain dynamic data therefrom;

3) receive from at least one corresponding provider the dynamic data obtained from the selected device; and

4) return the management information including the dynamic data in response to the request from the management application.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the object manager is further configured to determine a capability of at least one corresponding provider connected to the managed device, and to adjust the request for the dynamic data based on the capability.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the object manager returns the management information in an data structure corresponding to an instance of an object that represents the managed device.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the data structure is configured as a uniformly rendered object.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the management information requested by the management application further corresponds to static data, and wherein the object manager returns the management information including the static data to the management application.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the database maintains at least some of the static data requested by the management application.

7. The system of claim 5 further comprising a static provider, wherein the object manager communicates with the static provider to obtain at least some of the static data requested by the management application.

15. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 5.

8. In a computer network having a management application that manages network objects, a method, comprising,

receiving a request from the management application seeking information including dynamic property data of a selected network object;

querying a database to determine a dynamic information provider that corresponds to the selected network object;

communicating with the dynamic information provider to request the dynamic property data of the selected network object, the dynamic information provider obtaining and returning the dynamic property data of the selected network object; and

returning the dynamic property data of the selected network object to the management application.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the database further returns static property data of the selected network object, and further comprising aggregating the dynamic property data with the static property data into an aggregated result, and wherein the dynamic property data is returned to the management application via the aggregated result.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein aggregating the data includes writing property values into a data structure.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising, filtering selected data received from at least one of the sources of system information.

12. The method of claim 8 further comprising, separating the request from the management application into a plurality of separate requests, each separate request of the plurality communicated to a different provider corresponding thereto.

13. The method of claim 8 further comprising, separating the request from the management application into a plurality of separate requests, each separate request of the plurality communicated to a different provider corresponding thereto.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising, receiving a result for each separate request and aggregating each result received into an aggregated result.

16. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure that represents a managed device, comprising:

a first data field including data representative of static information corresponding to the managed device;

a second data field including data representative of dynamic data information to the managed device; and

wherein the first and second data fields are filled in with data in response to a single request from a management application to an object manager seeking management information about the managed device, the object manager filling in the data in the first field by communicating with a source of the static data, and filling in the data in the second field by communicating with a dynamic data provider that is associated with the managed device.