DYNAMIC STATUS TREE FACILITY

• US 20080016096A1
• Filed: 07/24/2007
• Published: 01/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: WILDING, Mark, ABRASHKEVICH, Alexander
• Granted Patent: US 8,024,365 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

A dynamic status tree facility for providing status information about one or more systems. The facility includes a tree data structure and methods for manipulating the data structure. The facility is accessible to provider processes using a set of provider interface methods. The facility is accessible to consumer processes using a set of consumer interface methods. The tree data structure is defined by nodes stored in shared memory and attached to by way of a defined data structure made available to the provider and consumer interface methods. The nodes in the tree data structure are defined to have a control block and a variable set of export data. The export data for any one node is specified by a variable in the control block. Certain of the exported data in the tree is representable in a format selected to have one of four defined properties.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium encoded with a computer program for a computing environment comprising provider processes for generating status information relating to one or more systems and consumer processes for obtaining selected information from said status information, the computer program comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable code means embodied in said medium for implementing a status facility, the computer program comprising computer-executable instructions including:

a computer readable program code means for defining and maintaining a tree data structure comprising nodes,

a computer readable program code means for defining and making accessible to the provider processes a set of provider methods, the provider methods comprising methods for the provider processes to create and define the content of nodes in the tree data structure, and

a computer readable program code means for defining and making accessible to the consumer processes a set of consumer methods, the consumer methods comprising methods for the consumer processes to access the content of nodes in the tree data structure.

2. The computer readable medium claim 1 in which the content of each node in the tree data structure represents information and comprises a control block and a set of export information data,

the control block comprising data defining characteristics of the node and comprising an export variable,

the set of export information data comprising:

a variable number of defining elements and

for each defining element in the set of defining elements, an associated list of export data items, each defining element and associated list of items having a corresponding export information type specified by the export variable in the control block and selected from a defined set of export information types.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 2 in which each defining element specifies a starting position for, and the space occupied by, the list of items in the node associated with the defining element.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 2, in which the defined set of export information types comprises:

an identifier type for identifying a node,

a set of local property types for specifying status information,

a set of base property types for specifying status information,

a dependent node type for identifying dependent nodes in the tree data structure,

a parent node type for identifying the parent node in the tree data structure,

a provider type for specifying a provider process associated with a node, and a node control service type for specifying a service accessible by a consumer process for carrying out processing related to the node.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 1 in which the provider methods and the consumer methods comprise methods for attaching to and detaching from the root node of the tree, adding dependent nodes, activating and deactivating nodes, and creating, adding, deleting, getting and setting content of the nodes in the tree data structure.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 1 in which the provider methods further comprise methods for adding nodes to the tree data structure to replace one or more existing nodes in the tree data structure and for marking the replaced nodes as abandoned.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 1 in which selected content of the nodes in the tree data structure is storable in a register sized value in the computing environment.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 2 further comprising computer readable program code means for defining and making available a set of property tags for identifying nodes and export information data.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8 in which selected information represented in the nodes is definable by one of a set of representing data properties, the set of representing data properties comprising,

a register property, representable in the computing environment by a register sized value and uniquely identifiable by the defined property tag,

a variable property, representable in the computing environment by a data having a length longer than the register size and uniquely identifiable by the defined property tag,

an identifier register property, representable in the computing environment by a register sized value and identifiable by the defined property tag in association with an identifier value, and

an identifier variable property, representable in the computing environment by a data having a length longer than the register size and identifiable by the defined property tag in association with an identifier value.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 8, in which the node control block further comprises a node tag identifier having a value selectably defined from the set of property tags.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10 in which the nodes in the tree data structure are storable in shared memory and in which the consumer methods and the provider methods provide an interface to information stored in nodes in the tree data structure using the shared memory.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising computer readable program code means of defining a node access data structure permitting a process to attach to a node in the tree data structure, the node access data structure comprising information to specify the location of the node in the shared memory, the node tag identifier for the node, an identifier for the node, and control information for the node.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 2, comprising computer readable program code means for implementing a node control facility comprising node control services and a set of methods selectably accessible by the consumer processes for the consumer processes to start, stop, interrogate status of, and pass requests to, the node control services.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13, in which the node control services comprise computer readable program code means for expanding an identified node in the tree data structure into a sub-tree of the tree data structure.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 2 in which the nodes in the tree data structure are stored in shared memory and in which the consumer methods and the provider methods provide an interface to information stored in nodes in the tree data structure using the shared memory.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 2 in which the defined set of export information types is variable to permit provider processes to add one or more types to the defined set whereby provider processes may add export information data of the added types to the nodes of the tree data structure.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 2 in which the export variable comprises a series of ordered bits, each bit in the export variable corresponding to a unique export information type.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17 in which the defined set of export information types is variable to permit provider processes to add one or more types to the defined set whereby provider processes may add export information data of the added types to the nodes of the tree data structure and in which the export variable for each node comprises bits defined to correspond to the added types.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 1 in which the computer readable program code means for defining and making accessible a set of consumer processes comprises means for defining and making accessible a node search consumer process for traversing the tree data structure to locate the node in the tree data structure having content matching a search parameter provided to the node search consumer process.

20. A method for storing in a computer system, and for providing access to status information relating to one or more monitored systems, the method comprising:

a) accepting status information from a set of provider processes,

b) creating and defining one or more nodes in a tree data structure and defining content for selected nodes in the tree data structure based on the status information accepted,

c) accepting requests from a set of consumer processes for obtaining selected information from the nodes in the tree data structure, and

d) providing the selected information to the consumer processes by accessing the content of specified nodes in the tree data structure.

21. The method of claim 20 in which defining content for selected nodes in the tree data structure comprises defining information in a control block and in a set of export information data for each node in the selected nodes,

the control block comprising data defining characteristics of the node and comprising an export variable,

the set of export information data comprising:

a variable number of defining elements and

for each defining element in the set of defining elements, an associated list of export data items, each defining element and associated list of items having a corresponding export information type specified by the export variable in the control block and selected from a defined set of export information types.

22. The method of claim 21 in which defining information in a set of export information data comprises defining each defining element to specify a starting position for, and the space occupied by, the list of items in the node associated with the defining element.

23. The method of claim 21, in which defining information in a set of export information data comprises defining data to conform to types in the defined set of export information types, comprising:

an identifier type for identifying a node,

a set of local property types for specifying status information,

a set of base property types for specifying status information,

a dependent node type for identifying dependent nodes in the tree data structure,

a parent node type for identifying the parent node in the tree data structure,

a provider type for specifying a provider process associated with a node, and

a node control service type for specifying a service accessible by a consumer process for carrying out processing related to the node.

24. The method of claim 21 further comprising defining and making available a set of property tags for identifying nodes and export information data.

25. The method of claim 24 in which defining content for selected nodes comprises defining data to conform to one of a set of representing data properties, the set of representing data properties comprising:

a register property, representable in the computer system by a register sized value and uniquely identifiable by the defined property tag,

a variable property, representable in the computer system by a data having a length longer than the register size and uniquely identifiable by the defined property tag,

an identifier register property, representable in the computer system by a register sized value and identifiable by the defined property tag in association with an identifier value, and

an identifier variable property, representable in the computer system by a data having a length longer than the register size and identifiable by the defined property tag in association with an identifier value.

26. The method of claim 24, in which defining content for selected nodes comprises defining the node control block to comprise a node tag identifier having a value selectably defined from the set of property tags.

27. The method of claim 20 in which creating nodes in the tree data structure comprises storing the nodes in shared memory to permit the provider processes and consumer processes to have an interface to information stored in the nodes in the tree data structure using the shared memory.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising defining a node access data structure permitting a process to attach to a node in the tree data structure, the node access data structure comprising information to specify the location of the node in the shared memory, the node tag identifier for the node, an identifier for the node, and control information for the node.

29. The method of claim 21, comprising implementing a node control facility comprising node control services and a set of methods selectably accessible by the consumer processes for the consumer processes to start, stop, interrogate status of, and pass requests to, the node control services.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising invoking a defined node control service for expanding an identified node in the tree data structure into a sub-tree of the tree data structure, in response to a request passes from one of the set of consumer processes.

31. The method of claim 21 comprising adding one or more types to the defined set of export information types whereby provider processes may add export information data of the added types to the nodes of the tree data structure.

32. The method of claim 20 further comprising traversing the tree data structure to locate a target node in the tree data structure having content matching a search parameter specified by a consumer process.

33. A computer readable medium usable by provider processes for generating status information relating to one or more monitored systems and by consumer processes for obtaining selected information from the said status information, the computer readable medium comprising:

means for defining and maintaining a tree data structure comprising nodes,

means for defining and making accessible to the provider processes a set of provider methods, the provider methods comprising methods for the provider processes to create and define the content of nodes in the tree data structure, and

means for defining and making accessible to the consumer processes a set of consumer methods, the consumer methods comprising methods for the consumer processes to access the content of nodes in the tree data structure.

34. The computer readable medium of claim 33 in which the content of each node in the tree data structure represents information and comprises a control block and a set of export information data,

the control block comprising data defining characteristics of the node and comprising an export variable,

the set of export information data comprising:

a variable number of defining elements and

for each defining element in the set of defining elements, an associated list of export data items, each defining element and associated list of items having a corresponding export information type specified by the export variable in the control block and selected from a defined set of export information types.

35. The computer readable medium of claim 34 in which each defining element specifies a starting position for, and the space occupied by, the list of items in the node associated with the defining element.

36. The computer readable medium of claim 34, in which the defined set of export information types comprises:

an identifier type for identifying a node,

a set of local property types for specifying status information,

a set of base property types for specifying status information,

a dependent node type for identifying dependent nodes in the tree data structure,

a parent node type for identifying the parent node in the tree data structure,

a provider type for specifying a provider process associated with a node, and

a node control service type for specifying a service accessible by a consumer process for carrying out processing related to the node.

37. The computer readable medium of claim 33 in which the provider methods and the consumer methods comprise methods for attaching to and detaching from the root node of the tree, adding dependent nodes, activating and deactivating nodes, and creating, adding, deleting, getting and setting content of the nodes in the tree data structure.

38. The computer readable medium of claim 33 in which the provider methods further comprise methods for adding nodes to the tree data structure to replace one or more existing nodes in the tree data structure and for marking the replaced nodes as abandoned.

39. The computer readable medium of claim 33 in which selected content of the nodes in the tree data structure is storable in a register sized value in the computing environment.

40. The computer readable medium of claim 34 further comprising means for defining and making available a set of property tags for identifying nodes and export information data.

41. The computer readable medium of claim 40 in which selected information represented in the nodes is definable by one of a set of representing data properties, the set of representing data properties comprising:

a register property, representable in the computer system by a register sized value and uniquely identifiable by the defined property tag,

a variable property, representable in the computer system by a data having a length longer than the register size and uniquely identifiable by the defined property tag,

an identifier register property, representable in the computer system by a register sized value and identifiable by the defined property tag in association with an identifier value, and

an identifier variable property, representable in the computer system by a data having a length longer than the register size and identifiable by the defined property tag in association with an identifier value.

42. The computer readable medium of claim 40, in which the node control block further comprises a node tag identifier having a value selectably defined from the set of property tags.

43. The computer readable medium of claim 42 in which the nodes in the tree data structure are storable in shared memory and in which the consumer methods and the provider methods provide an interface to information stored in nodes in the tree data structure using the shared memory.

44. The computer readable medium of claim 43, further comprising means of defining a node access data structure permitting a process to attach to a node in the tree data structure, the node access data structure comprising information to specify the location of the node in the shared memory, the node tag identifier for the node, an identifier for the node, and control information for the node.

45. The computer readable medium of claim 34, comprising means for implementing a node control facility comprising node control services and a set of methods selectably accessible by the consumer processes for the consumer processes to start, stop, interrogate status of, and pass requests to, the node control services.

46. The computer readable medium of claim 45, in which the node control services comprise means for expanding an identified node in the tree data structure into a sub-tree of the tree data structure.

47. The computer readable medium of claim 34 in which the nodes in the tree data structure are stored in shared memory and in which the consumer methods and the provider methods provide an interface to information stored in nodes in the tree data structure using the shared memory.

48. The computer readable medium system of claim 34 in which the defined set of export information types is variable to permit provider processes to add one or more types to the defined set whereby provider processes may add export information data of the added types to the nodes of the tree data structure.

49. The computer readable medium of claim 34 in which the export variable comprises a series of ordered bits, each bit in the export variable corresponding to a unique export information type.

50. The computer readable medium of claim 49 in which the defined set of export information types is variable to permit provider processes to add one or more types to the defined set whereby provider processes may add export information data of the added types to the nodes of the tree data structure and in which the export variable for each node comprises bits defined to correspond to the added types.

51. The computer readable medium of claim 33 in which the means for defining and making accessible a set of consumer processes comprises means for defining and making accessible a node search consumer process for traversing the tree data structure to locate the node in the tree data structure having content matching a search parameter provided to the node search consumer process.

64. The computer readable medium of claim 51 further comprising traversing the tree data structure to locate a target node in the tree data structure having content matching a search parameter specified by a consumer process.

52. A computer readable medium containing program instructions for storing in a computer system, and for providing access to status information relating to one or more monitored systems, the program instructions for:

a) accepting status information from a set of provider processes,

b) creating and defining one or more nodes in a tree data structure and defining content for selected nodes in the tree data structure based on the status information accepted,

c) accepting requests from a set of consumer processes for obtaining selected information from the nodes in the tree data structure and

d) providing the selected information to the consumer processes by accessing the content of specified nodes in the tree data structure.

53. The computer readable medium of claim 52 in which defining content for selected nodes in the tree data structure comprises defining information in a control block and in a set of export information data for each node in the selected nodes,

the control block comprising data defining characteristics of the node and comprising an export variable,

the set of export information data comprising:

a variable number of defining elements and

for each defining element in the set of defining elements, an associated list of export data items, each defining element and associated list of items having a corresponding export information type specified by the export variable in the control block and selected from a defined set of export information types.

54. The computer readable medium of claim 52 in which defining information in a set of export information data comprises defining each defining element to specify a starting position for, and the space occupied by, the list of items in the node associated with the defining element.

55. The computer readable medium of claim 52, in which defining information in a set of export information data comprises defining data to conform to types in the defined set of export information types, comprising:

an identifier type for identifying a node,

a set of local property types for specifying status information,

a set of base property types for specifying status information,

a dependent node type for identifying dependent nodes in the tree data structure,

a parent node type for identifying the parent node in the tree data structure,

a provider type for specifying a provider process associated with a node; and

a node control service type for specifying a service accessible by a consumer process for carrying out processing related to the node.

56. The computer readable medium of claim 52 further comprising defining and making available a set of property tags for identifying nodes and export information data.

57. The computer readable medium of claim 56 in which defining content for selected nodes comprises defining data to conform to one of a set of representing data properties, the set of representing data properties comprising,

a register property, representable in the computer system by a register sized value and uniquely identifiable by the defined property tag,

a variable property, representable in the computer system by a data having a length longer than the register size and uniquely identifiable by the defined property tag,

an identifier register property, representable in the computer system by a register sized value and identifiable by the defined property tag in association with an identifier value, and

an identifier variable property, representable in the computer system by a data having a length longer than the register size and identifiable by the defined property tag in association with an identifier value.

58. The computer readable medium of claim 56, in which defining content for selected nodes comprises defining the node control block to comprise a node tag identifier having a value selectably defined from the set of property tags.

59. The computer readable medium of claim 58 in which creating nodes in the tree data structure comprises storing the nodes in shared memory to permit the provider processes and consumer processes to have an interface to information stored in the nodes in the tree data structure using the shared memory.

60. The computer readable medium of claim 58, further comprising defining a node access data structure permitting a process to attach to a node in the tree data structure, the node access data structure comprising information to specify the location of the node in the shared memory, the node tag identifier for the node, an identifier for the node, and control information for the node.

61. The computer readable medium of claim 52, comprising implementing a node control facility comprising node control services and a set of methods selectably accessible by the consumer processes for the consumer processes to start, stop, interrogate status of, and pass requests to, the node control services.

62. The computer readable medium of claim 61, further comprising invoking a defined node control service for expanding an identified node in the tree data structure into a sub-tree of the tree data structure, in response to a request passes from one of the set of consumer processes.

63. The computer readable medium of claim 52 comprising adding one or more types to the defined set of export information types whereby provider processes may add export information data of the added types to the nodes of the tree data structure.

65. A computer readable medium encoded with a computer program for a computing environment comprising provider processes for generating status information relating to one or more systems and consumer processes for obtaining selected information from said status information, the computer program comprising computer-executable instructions for:

(a) defining and maintaining a tree data structure comprising nodes,

(b) defining and making accessible to the provider processes a set of provider methods, the provider methods comprising methods for the provider processes to create and define the content of nodes in the tree data structure; and

(c) defining and making accessible to the consumer processes a set of consumer methods, the consumer methods comprising methods for the consumer processes to access the content of nodes in the tree data structure.

66. The computer readable medium of claim 65 in which the content of each node in the tree data structure represents information and comprises a control block and a set of export information data,

the control block comprising data defining characteristics of the node and comprising an export variable,

the set of export information data comprising:

a variable number of defining elements, and

for each defining element in the set of defining elements, an associated list of export data items, each defining element and associated list of items having a corresponding export information type specified by the export variable in the control block and selected from a defined set of export information types.

67. The computer readable medium of claim 66 in which each defining element specifies a starting position for, and the space occupied by, the list of items in the node associated with the defining element.

68. The computer readable medium of claim 66, in which the defined set of export information types comprises:

an identifier type for identifying a node,

a set of local property types for specifying status information,

a set of base property types for specifying status information,

a dependent node type for identifying dependent nodes in the tree data structure,

a parent node type for identifying the parent node in the tree data structure,

a provider type for specifying a provider process associated with a node, and a node control service type for specifying a service accessible by a consumer process for carrying out processing related to the node.