Method and apparatus for processing system management messages

• US 20080209023A1
• Filed: 02/27/2007
• Published: 08/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Mazzitelli, John J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,653,741 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0266 using meta-data, objects or commands for formatting management information, e.g. using eXtensible markup language [XML]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/08 Configuration management of networks or network elements address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/344 Out-of-band transfers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0227 Filtering policies mail message filtering H04L51/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Method and apparatus for processing system management messages are described herein. In one embodiment, a throttling policy associated with a network node is determined for throttling system management messages to be sent to a system management server over a network. The system management messages are then sent to the system management server according to the throttling policy, where the system management server is configured to manage multiple network nodes over the network. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for processing system management messages, the method comprising:

determining a throttling policy associated with a network node for throttling system management messages to be sent to a system management server over a network; and

throttling the system management messages sent to the system management server according to the throttling policy, the system management server managing a plurality of network nodes over the network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the throttling policy comprises:

determining a maximum number of system management messages that can be sent to the system management server before entering a quiet period; and

determining a duration of the quiet period during which no throttleable system management messages are sent to the system management server.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising entering the quiet period after sending up to the maximum number of system management messages to the system management server.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising resuming sending further system management messages to the system management server up to the determined maximum number of system management messages after the quiet period lapses.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the throttling policy comprises:

determining a maximum number of system management messages that can be dequeued from a message queue within a burst period; and

determining a duration of the burst period.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

for each burst period, dequeuing up to the determined maximum number of system management messages from the message queue; and

transmitting the dequeued system management messages to the system management server over the network.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the dequeuing is suspended once up to the maximum number of system management messages have been dequeued from the message queue until a current burst period lapses.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to an instruction received from the system management server indicating one of disabling, enabling, and modifying the throttling policy, updating the throttling policy; and

throttling further system management messages according to the updated throttling policy.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a particular system management message that satisfies a predetermined condition; and

transmitting the identified system management message to the system management server without throttling.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the throttling policy is defined via a configuration file associated with the network node.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

in response to an instruction received from the system management server indicating one of disabling, enabling, and modifying the throttling policy, updating the throttling policy; and

throttling further system management messages according to the updated throttling policy.

11. A computer-readable medium having instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method for processing system management messages, the method comprising:

determining a throttling policy associated with a network node for throttling system management messages to be sent to a system management server over a network; and

throttling the system management messages sent to the system management server according to the throttling policy, the system management server managing a plurality of network nodes over the network.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein determining the throttling policy comprises:

determining a maximum number of system management messages that can be sent to the system management server before entering a quiet period; and

determining a duration of the quiet period during which no throttleable system management messages are sent to the system management server.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises entering the quiet period after sending up to the maximum number of system management messages to the system management server.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises resuming sending further system management messages to the system management server up to the determined maximum number of system management messages after the quiet period lapses.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein determining the throttling policy comprises:

determining a maximum number of system management messages that can be dequeued from a message queue within a burst period; and

determining a duration of the burst period.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

for each burst period, dequeuing up to the determined maximum number of system management messages from the message queue; and

transmitting the dequeued system management messages to the system management server over the network.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the dequeuing is suspended once up to the maximum number of system management messages have been dequeued from the message queue until a current burst period lapses.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

identifying a particular system management message that satisfies a predetermined condition; and

transmitting the identified system management message to the system management server without throttling.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the throttling policy is defined via a configuration file associated with the network node.

21. A network node, comprising:

a throttling policy unit to determine a throttling policy associated with the network node for throttling system management messages to be sent to a system management server over a network; and

a message processing unit coupled to the throttling policy unit to throttle the system management messages sent to the system management server according to the throttling policy, the system management server managing a plurality of network nodes over the network.

22. The network node of claim 21, further comprising a message queue coupled to the message processing unit to buffer the system management messages, wherein the message processing unit is configured to dequeue the system management messages from the message queue and to send the dequeued system management messages to the system management server.

23. A computer-implemented method for processing system management messages, the method comprising:

determining a first maximum number of messages to be dequeued within a burst period from a message queue of a network node, the message queue buffering the messages to be sent from the network node to a server over a network;

determining a second maximum number of messages to be sent to the server before entering a quiet period during which no throttleable message would be sent to the server;

for each burst period, dequeuing up to the first maximum number of messages from the message queue; and

transmitting up to the second maximum number of the dequeued messages to the server over the network prior to entering each quiet period.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the dequeuing messages from the message queue and transmitting the dequeued messages are performed independently within the network node.