Remote discovery and system architecture

• US 20060179124A1
• Filed: 03/19/2004
• Published: 08/10/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Original Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Inventors: Stefaniak, Joseph Peter, Moore, Jeffrey Allen, Ziebell, Jonathan Virgil, Vazehgoo, Mahmood Mac, Steel, Charles Eugene, Harrison, Robert Mathews, Mutschler, Eugene Otto III
• Granted Patent: US 7,613,797 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5015 Service provider selection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5055 considering software capabilities, i.e. software resources associated or available to the machine
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

Sending a discovery agent to a computing device determines the services provided by that first computing device. As a result, a first set of information is received from the agent that provides information indicative of the services provided by the computing device. That information can then be compared to other information, either from the same computing device at a different point in time, or from a second computing device. The other information is indicative of services performed by that computing device at a different point in time or the second computing device. From that, services provided by the computing device that were previously different on the first computing device or that are not available on the second computing device can be determined.

Claims

1. A method for consolidating computing devices, comprising:

sending a discovery agent over a network connection to at least one computing device;

receiving a first data set from said discovery agent indicative of characteristics of the at least one computing device; and

displaying at least one differences between the first data set and a second data set.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the second data set is from a computing device other than the computing device that was the source of the first data set.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the second data set is from the same computing device that was the source of the first data set but from a different time.

4. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein the at least one computing device is a server computer among a plurality of server computers.

5. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein the data set comprises information indicative of at least one application resident on the at least one computing device.

6. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein the data set comprises information indicative of at least one process executing on the at least one computing device.

7. The method as recited in claim 5 wherein the act of displaying at least one difference between the first and second data set comprises displaying an indication of a difference in the at least one application program in both the first data set and the second data set.

8. The method as recited in claim 5 comprising installing a version of the at least one application on a second computing device.

9. The method as recited in claim 8 comprising removing the at least one application from the at least one computing device.

10. The method of claim 6 comprising installing a version of the at least one process on a second computer.

11. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the data set comprises information indicative of at least one database.

12. The method as recited in claim 11 wherein the information indicative of the at least one database comprises column table information for tables in the at least one database.

13. The method as recited in claim 12 comprising populating a database on a second computer with at least a portion of the table information from the at least one database.

14. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the act of sending the discovery agent to the at least one computing device comprises sending a remote procedure to the at least one computing device and remotely executing the remote procedure.

15. The method as recited in claim 14 comprising receiving the at least one data set via named pipes.

16. A method of consolidating services performed on a first and second computing device to a second computing device, comprising:

sending a discovery agent to the first computing device to determine a plurality of services provided by the first computing device;

receiving a first set of information indicative of the plurality of services provided by the first computing devices; and

comparing the first set of information to a second set of information indicative of a plurality of services performed by a second computing device to determine at least one service provided by the first computing device that is not available on the second computing device.

17. The method as recited in claim 16 comprising changing the services performed by the second computing device to include the at least one service.

18. The method as recited in claim 16 wherein the discovery agent comprises computer executable instructions for determining the system characteristics on the first computing device.

19. The method as recited in claim 18 wherein the system characteristics comprise at least one of:

the number of processors, available processors, processor level, devices, disk drive characteristics, disk drive capacity, system name, page size, operating system version, operating system build, and network connectivity.

20. The method as recited in claim 16 wherein the discovery agent comprises computer executable instructions for determining the executable process characteristics on the first computing device.

21. The method as recited in claim 20 wherein the process characteristics comprise at least one of:

CPU utilization, memory utilization, active processes, active process dependencies, processor usage, memory usage, process creation time, process ID, process owner, process handles, process version, dependency version, process timestamp, process description, and dependency description.

22. The method as recited in claim 16 where the agent is executed by way of a remote procedure call.

23. The method as recited in claim 16 wherein the agent communicates the data set by way of named pipes.

24. The method as recited in claim 17 wherein the services comprise an application service provided by the first computing device.

25. The method as recited in claim 17 wherein the service is a database service.

26. The method as recited in claim 16 wherein the discovery agent comprises computer executable instructions for determining the database characteristics on the first computing device.

27. The method as recited in claim 26 wherein the database characteristics comprise at least one of:

roles, users, aliases, defaults, rules, functions, user defined datatypes, user messages, tables, views, indexes, extended procedures, stored procedures, and triggers.