PSEUDO-AGENT

• US 20080222280A1
• Filed: 03/07/2008
• Published: 09/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Goodrow, Dennis Sidney, LIPPINCOTT, Lisa Ellen, Lincroft, Peter James, Spiegel, Jeremy Scott, Loer, Peter Benjamin, Toto, Gregory Mitchell
• Granted Patent: US 8,161,149 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/173 using an interconnection network, e.g. matrix, shuffle, pyramid, star, snowflake
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning

Abstract

A pseudo-agent is disclosed herein that bridges this divide. For purposes of the discussion herein, a pseudo-agent is a machine that is installed on a fully capable host machine, such as a Windows or UNIX machine, and that gathers and evaluates content from a management server, takes actions if so instructed, and reports the results of its evaluation upstream. However, unlike an agent in a traditional management system, which inspects and acts on the local machine, the pseudo-agent actually inspects and acts on a remote device, or many remote devices.

Claims

1. An apparatus for managing at least one device and/or logical element that cannot host a management function and/or is prohibited from hosting a management function, comprising:

a pseudo-agent installed on, and executing in, a host environment that is logically and/or physically proximate to at least one device and/or logical element that cannot host a management function and/or is prohibited from hosting a management function;

a management system for providing management information, remediation information and/or policy enforcement information to said pseudo-agent;

said pseudo-agent further comprising means;

for evaluating said management information, remediation information, and/or policy enforcement information from said management system;

for determining relevance of said management information, remediation information and/or policy enforcement information received from said management system to said at least one device and/or logical element, based upon evaluation thereof;

for taking one or more actions in connection with said at least one device and/or logical element, if so instructed by said management system via said management information, remediation information, and/or policy enforcement information based upon said relevance determination; and

for reporting results of any of said evaluation, relevance determination, and taking of one or more actions to said management system.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, said management system comprising:

a server/relay;

a management console; and

a network for said server/relay to communicate with said pseudo-agent host machine.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one connector associated with said pseudo-agent for interoperating with said at least one device and/or logical element on behalf of said pseudo-agent.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, said pseudo-agent automatically determining relevance based on any of:

hardware attributes;

configuration attributes;

database attributes;

environmental attributes;

computed attributes;

remote attributes;

timeliness;

personal attributes;

randomization; and

advice attributes.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, said pseudo-agent evaluating said management information, remediation information, and/or policy enforcement information from said management system by automatically performing any of:

mathematico-logical calculations;

executing computational algorithms;

returning results of system calls;

accessing contents of said at least one device and/or logical element;

querying said at least one device and logical element and/or at least one remote device and/or logical element to evaluate any of;

said properties of said at least one device and/or logical element;

said at least one device and/or logical element'"'"'s configuration;

contents of storage devices associated with said at least one device and/or logical element;

peripherals associated with said at least one device and/or logical element; and

said at least one device and/or logical element'"'"'s environment.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, said pseudo-agent comprising:

a pseudo-agent layer for evaluating relevance and reporting on behalf of said at least one device and/or logical element; and

a connector layer for inspecting and/or remediate said at least one device and/or logical element.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said pseudo-agent periodically connect said at least one device and/or logical element and sends to it a batch of queries that have been collected from said management system.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, said pseudo-agent comprising:

an inspector for inspection of values on said at least one device and/or logical

wherein said inspector is parameterized with an argument and is not allowed to feed results of relevance evaluation into said inspector;

wherein said management system collects all instances of the inspector, creates a list of values to retrieve from the pseudo-agent, and retrieves at least one value for each unique argument.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein inspections performed by said inspector comprise inspecting any of:

remote device operating system version;

remote device processor properties; and

remote device software and/or hardware version.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, said inspector comprising:

a set of built-in inspectors that is available for each said at least one device and/or logical element, and which comprise any of;

type of remote device; and

last connect time of remote device.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, said at least one device and/or logical element comprising any of:

network devices;

mobile devices;

exotic operating system devices;

monitoring and control devices; and

virtual devices.

12. An apparatus for managing at least one device and/or logical element that cannot host a management function and/or is prohibited from hosting a management function, comprising:

a pseudo-agent for managing said at least one device and/or logical element from a hosting environment;

wherein said pseudo-agent receives management information, remedial information, and/or policy enforcement information from a management system infrastructure;

wherein said pseudo-agent receives information about said at least one device and/or logical element by interacting with said at least one device and/or logical element;

wherein said pseudo-agent extracts information about said at least one device and/or logical element from said at least one device and/or logical element and/or other systems in a network infrastructure;

wherein said pseudo-agent provides a computational environment for evaluating a set of policies that exist in said management system infrastructure about said at least one device and/or logical element;

wherein said pseudo-agent combines said set of policies with properties of said at least one device and/or logical element to determine whether or not said at least one device and/or logical element is in or out of compliance with said set of policies;

wherein said pseudo-agent determines if said at least one device and/or logical element needs remediation;

wherein said pseudo-agent monitors state of said at least one device and/or logical element; and

wherein said pseudo-agent returns state information to said management system infrastructure for use to view and manage said at least one device and/or logical element.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said management system infrastructure streams content created by outside sources to said pseudo-agent;

wherein said pseudo-agent evaluates said content relevance and provides a relevance determination to a management console.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said pseudo-agent performs one or more actions on said at least one device and/or logical element based upon said relevance determination.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said pseudo-agent comprises:

an inspection abstraction for making measurements of said at least one device and/or logical element; and

an action abstraction for implementing changes to said at least one device and/or logical element.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said management system infrastructure distributes pseudo-agent computation requirements among resources within said network infrastructure;

wherein processing resources close to said at least one device and/or logical element are applied logically and/or physically proximate to said at least one device and/or logical element.

17. A computer implemented method for managing at least one device and/or logical element that cannot host a management function and/or is prohibited from hosting a management function, comprising the steps of:

providing a pseudo-agent installed on, and executing in, a host environment that is logically and/or physically proximate to at least one device and/or logical element that cannot host a management function and/or is prohibited from hosting a management function;

providing a management system for supplying management information, remediation information, and/or policy enforcement information to said pseudo-agent;

said pseudo-agent further performing the steps of;

evaluating said management information, remediation information, and/or policy enforcement information from said management system;

determining relevance of said management information, remediation information, and/or policy enforcement information received from said management system to said at least one device and/or logical element, based upon evaluation thereof;

taking one or more actions in connection with said at least one device and/or logical element, if so instructed by said management system via said management information, remediation information, and/or policy enforcement information, based upon said relevance determination; and

reporting results of any of said evaluation, relevance determination, and taking of one or more actions to said management system.

18. A computer implemented method for managing at least one device and/or logical element that cannot host a management function and/or is prohibited from hosting a management function, comprising the steps of:

providing a pseudo-agent for managing said at least one device and/or logical element from a hosting environment;

said pseudo-agent receiving management information, remedial information, and/or policy enforcement information, from a management system infrastructure;

said pseudo-agent receiving information about said at least one device and/or logical element by interacting with said at least one device and/or logical element;

said pseudo-agent extracting information about said at least one device and/or logical element from said at least one device and/or logical element and/or other systems in a network infrastructure;

said pseudo-agent providing a computational environment for evaluating a set of policies that exist in said management system infrastructure about said at least one device and/or logical element;

said pseudo-agent combining said set of policies with properties of said at least one device and/or logical element to determine whether or not said at least one device and/or logical element is in or out of compliance with said set of policies;

said pseudo-agent determining if said at least one device and/or logical element needs remediation;

said pseudo-agent monitoring state of said at least one device and/or logical element; and

said pseudo-agent returning state information to said management system infrastructure for use to view and manage said at least one device and/or logical element.