Method and/or system for identifying information appliances

• US 20060064619A1
• Filed: 08/19/2005
• Published: 03/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BDNA Corporation (Flexera Software LLC)
• Original Assignee: BDNA Corporation (Flexera Software LLC)
• Inventors: Thorpe, John, Marker, Charles, Wen, Chih-Po
• Granted Patent: US 7,493,388 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/734
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies

Abstract

Methods and/or systems for identifying and/or representing information appliances on a communication system retrieve data sets and store signature data for later identification of individual information systems.

Claims

1. A method of managing one or more information resources on a communications medium comprising:

fetching a plurality of characteristics of an information resource over a network at a manager information system;

creating a signature data set for said information resource;

storing said signature data set at said manager information system; and

subsequently using said signature data set to uniquely identify said information resource.

2. The method of claim 1 further wherein:

said subsequently using comprises;

fetching a second plurality of characteristics of a to be identified information resource over a network; and

matching said second plurality of characteristics to one or more stored signature data sets.

3. The method of claim 2 further wherein said matching can comprise partial matching or identical matching.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

if said matching is a partial matching, updating said signature data using newly acquired characteristic data.

5. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

assigning weighing factors to one or more of said plurality of characteristics;

using said weighing factors in said matching.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein an identified resource is linked to stored network characteristics, such as associated IP addresses, hostnames, networks, data centers, etc.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein an identified resource is linked to stored financial information associated with the resource, such as fixed asset entries, invoices, purchase orders, contracts, licenses, etc.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein an identified resource is linked to stored other information for the resource, such as regions, divisions, managers, service contracts, etc.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein links associated with an identified resource are maintained over multiple discovery instances.

10. The method of claim 2 wherein a history of signatures for a resource and associations of that system with related information is maintained in a database for querying and viewing.

11. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

detecting when said second plurality of characteristics varies from characteristics indicated by said signature data set;

adjusting said signature data set by updating the signature data store.

12. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

periodically fetching and comparing said second plurality of characteristics to said signature data set;

updating said signature data set when said comparing indicates a difference.

13. The method of claim 2 wherein said periodically fetching and comparing is done at a regular interval.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein regular interval comprises one of:

hourly;

daily;

weekly;

monthly;

bimonthly;

quarterly;

semi-annually;

or

annually.

15. The method of claim 1 further wherein said plurality of characteristics comprise two or more of:

a network adaptor card serial number;

an Ethernet address;

a CPU serial number;

an operating system identification/registration number;

a CPU clock speed;

installed memory identifications; and

installed hard disk drive identifications.

16. The method of claim 2 further wherein:

said comparing comprises comparing separable portions of said signature such that a match on a majority of said signature data set indicates an identification of an individual information system.

17. The method of claim 2 further wherein:

said signature data comprises as standardized set of integer values derived from said characteristics.

18. The method of claim 2 further wherein:

said signature data comprises as multi-part stored data element representative of said resource and collected external characteristics.

19. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

using fingerprint logic to determine a type or nature of an external resource; and

using said type or nature to perform said fetching and said matching.

20. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

assigning a unique device id to an external resource, said id being a value determined by the system to not match any other id known to the system;

storing said unique id on the external resource where allowed by said external resource; and

using said unique id when available in said matching.

24. A computer readable medium containing computer interpretable instructions that when loaded into an appropriately configuration information processing device will cause the device to operate in accordance with the method of claim 1.

21. A system able to uniquely identify multiple information appliances comprising:

a communication interface to a communication network;

a query process able to request and receive data from multiple information appliances on said network;

a signature data set generation process able to generate unique signature data sets for storage; and

a comparison process able to compare received data with stored signature data sets.

22. The system of claim 21 further comprising:

a partial matching process that uses matching rules.

23. A computer readable medium containing computer interpretable instructions describing a circuit layout for an integrated circuit that, when constructed according to said descriptions, will configure a circuit to embody the apparatus described in claim 21.