Template based management system

• US 20070093916A1
• Filed: 09/30/2005
• Published: 04/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Voloshin, Vitaly, Wright, Travis, Lakshminarayanan, Anand, Rizzi, Lorenzo, Bandari, Chandika, Sanghvi, Ashvinkumar, Wilson, Stephen, Filimonov, Vitaly
• Granted Patent: US 7,899,903 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/17
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/30 Monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/302 where the computing system component is a software system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3051 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247

Abstract

One embodiment of the invention uses templates that define certain features of a given service type, wherein the features are common to all services of that service type. The template can be configured by a user to obtain a service definition for the given service. The service definition is passed to a programmability layer and provides enough information that the programmability layer can construct the various monitors, rules, classes and tasks required to monitor the given service without further customization by the user. In one embodiment, the user can also customize the service definition, a desired, in order to obtain additional monitoring.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of configuring a computer-implemented monitor for monitoring a computer controlled service, comprising:

accessing a selected one of a plurality of monitoring templates based on a template selection input;

displaying a set of user interface configuration displays from a user interface assembly corresponding to the selected template;

receiving a configuration input indicative of user configuration of the selected template, through the set of user interface configuration displays; and

outputting a service definition, indicative of a configuration of desired monitoring to be performed on the service, based on the selected template and the configuration input.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 and further comprising:

configuring monitoring logic based on the configuration of desired monitoring defined by the service definition.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 and further comprising:

deploying the configured monitoring logic to monitor the service.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the computer-implemented method is deployed in a user environment, and further comprising:

prior to deploying the configured monitoring logic, identifying locations where the service is deployed in the user environment.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 wherein the user environment comprises a plurality of computing systems each of which has a corresponding monitoring system and wherein identifying locations comprises:

sending a discovery rule to each of the computing systems, the discovery rule being executed by the monitoring systems to determine whether the corresponding computing systems has deployed the service.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 and further comprising:

identifying individual instances of the service deployed in the user environment.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 and further comprising:

deploying the configuration of desired monitoring, indicated by the service definition, to monitor the individual instances of the service at the identified locations.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 and further comprising:

receiving the template selection input as being indicative of a service type to be monitored.

9. A method of managing service monitoring templates, comprising:

generating a template definition that defines a service monitoring template corresponding to a set of monitoring for a service type;

generating a set of user interface displays corresponding to the service monitoring template;

placing the service monitoring template and corresponding user interface displays in a distribution mechanism; and

distributing the service monitoring template, and the corresponding set of user interface displays, to computing systems in a user environment that employ a service monitoring system.

10. The method of claim 9 and further comprising:

exposing the service monitoring template and the corresponding set of user interface displays to the service monitoring systems in the user environment.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the user interface displays comprise configuration screens and wherein placing the service monitoring template and the user interface displays in a distribution mechanism comprises:

grouping the configuration screens with a set of static user interface display screens.

12. The method of claim 11 and further comprising:

displaying, at the service monitoring system, an indication of all service monitoring templates deployed in the service monitoring system; and

receiving a user selection of one of the service monitoring template.

13. The method of claim 12 and further comprising:

displaying the configuration screens corresponding to the selected one of the user monitoring template.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein placing the service monitoring template and the corresponding user interface displays in a distribution mechanism comprises:

placing the service monitoring template and a reference to the user interface displays in a management pack having a predefined schema.

15. A service monitoring system, comprising:

a plurality of monitoring configuration templates, each monitoring configuration template representing a set of monitoring characteristics common to a group of services of a common service type;

a plurality of sets of user interface displays, each set corresponding to one of the plurality of monitoring configuration templates; and

a monitoring configuration component configured to receive a user selection of one of the plurality of monitoring configuration templates and to display the set of user interface displays corresponding to the selected monitoring configuration template.

16. The service monitoring system of claim 15 wherein the monitoring configuration component is configured to receive configuration information as user inputs to the user interface displays and to generate a service definition, based on the selected monitoring configuration template and the configuration information, indicative of desired monitoring to be performed on a given service.

17. The service monitoring system of claim 16 wherein the monitoring configuration component is configured to receive new monitoring configuration templates and corresponding sets of user interface displays and to display the new monitoring configuration templates for selection by the user.

18. The service monitoring system of claim 16 and further comprising:

a monitoring programmability layer configured to receive the service definition and configure monitoring logic for the given service based on the service definition.

19. The service monitoring system of claim 18 wherein the monitoring programmability layer is configured to deploy the configured monitoring logic to monitor the given service.

20. The service monitoring system of claim 19 wherein the monitoring programmability layer is configured to identify individual instances of the given service employed in a user environment and to deploy the configured monitoring logic to monitor the each instance of the given service.