Method and system for identifying and conducting inventory of computer assets on a network

• US 20080021984A1
• Filed: 08/25/2006
• Published: 01/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Barclays Capital Incorporated (Barclays PLC)
• Original Assignee: Lehman Brothers Incorporated (Barclays PLC)
• Inventors: Belugin, Anatoliy, Zarenin, Alex, Bernadskii, Yuri
• Granted Patent: US 7,680,907 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3093 Configuration details thereof, e.g. installation, enabling, spatial arrangement of the probes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0869 Validating the configuration within one network element
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

A system that includes one or more clients, databases and servers. The clients communicate with the servers using hyper-text transfer protocol. Each client includes a scheduling and monitoring agent. Each server includes several components. A first server component performs a plurality of functions, including receiving requests from the client(s) for configuration file verification information and storing in the database(s) a log of the requests. A second server component is capable of performing a plurality of functions, including receiving hardware and software inventory information, as well as software metering statistics, and storing the inventory information in at least one of the databases.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

(A) one or more clients, each client comprising a scheduling and monitoring agent;

(B) one or more databases; and

(C) one or more servers, each server comprising;

(i) a first server component that performs a plurality of functions comprising (a) receiving requests from at least one of the clients for configuration file verification information and (b) storing in at least one of the databases a log of the requests; and

(ii) a second server component that is capable of performing a plurality of functions comprising (a) receiving one or more of software inventory information, hardware inventory information, and software metering statistics; and

(b) storing one or more of the software inventory information, the hardware inventory information and the software metering statistics in at least one of the databases;

wherein the clients communicate with the servers using hyper-text transfer protocol.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein one or more of the clients further comprise:

a hardware inventory agent that collects the hardware inventory information in accordance with a configuration file.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein one or more of the clients further comprise:

a software inventory agent that collects the software inventory information in accordance with a configuration file.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein one or more of the clients further comprise:

a software metering agent that collects the software metering statistics in accordance with a configuration file.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein one or more of the servers further comprise:

a third server component that is triggered by a network status change event to identify a computer asset on the network that is associated with the network status change.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein one or more of the servers further comprise:

a fourth server component that identifies a computer asset on the network in response to data feeds from at least one of the databases.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the first server component further performs the functions of providing updates to the configuration file and storing the updates in at least one of the databases.

8. The system of claim 2 wherein the configuration file comprises processing instructions and a component extending a capability of the hardware inventory agent.

9. The system of claim 5 wherein the network status change event comprises one of an event in an active directory, an event in an IP management system, and an event log message collected on a DHCP server.

10. In a system comprising (a) one or more clients, one or more of which comprises a hardware inventory agent, (b) one or more servers, and (c) one or more databases, communicating over a network, a method for collecting computer asset information on the network in accordance with a configuration file, the method comprising:

(A) generating a checksum of the configuration file;

(B) submitting the checksum to at least one of the servers over the network for verification, the verification comprising comparing the checksum to current client configuration information stored in at least one of the databases; and

(C) if the verification produces a negative result, requesting a current configuration file from at least one of the servers;

wherein the configuration file comprises processing instructions and a component extending a capability of the hardware inventory agent.

11. In a system comprising (a) one or more clients, one or more of which comprises a scheduling and monitoring agent, (b) one or more servers, and (c) one or more databases, communicating over a network, a method comprising:

(A) collecting computer asset information;

(B) reporting to at least one of the servers the computer asset information; and

(C) storing the computer asset information in at least one of the databases;

wherein the collecting step occurs in accordance with a schedule executed by the scheduling and monitoring agent and wherein the schedule is downloaded by at least one of the servers to at least one of the clients.