GENERATING A MANAGEMENT PACK AT PROGRAM BUILD TIME

• US 20090158241A1
• Filed: 12/17/2007
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chang, Cheng-Chang, Nandan, Durgesh, Hu, Shuyi
• Granted Patent: US 8,438,542 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/33 Intelligent editors

Abstract

Technologies are described herein for generating a management pack at program build time. Data is received that defines one or more events generated by the application program. Data is also received that defines one or more management classes for the application program. When a request to build the program is received, the data defining the events generated by the program and the data defining the management classes is utilized to generate a management pack for the program in an automated fashion. Once the management pack has been generated, it may be provided to an operations manager application program for use in monitoring the operation of the application program.

Claims

1. A method for generating a management pack for use in monitoring the operation of an application program, the method comprising:

receiving data defining one or more events generated by the application program;

receiving data defining one or more management classes for the application program;

receiving a request to build the application program; and

in response to receiving the request, using the data defining the one or more events generated by the application program and the data defining the one or more management classes to generate the management pack.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the management pack comprises data consumable by an operations manager application program to monitor the operation of the application program.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data defining the one or more events generated by the application program comprises a unified logging service (ULS) manifest.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the data defining the one or more management classes for the application program comprises an extensible markup language (XML) file that defines the management classes using XML.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein using the data defining the one or more events generated by the application program and the data defining the one or more management classes to generate the management pack comprises:

executing a first translator to translate the data defining the one or more events generated by the application program to an object model specified using a system modeling language (SML);

executing a second translator to translate the data defining the one or more management classes for the application program to the object model specified using the SML; and

executing a management pack compiler configured to read the model expressed using the SML and to compile the model into the management pack.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first translator is further configured to call an application programming interface (API) exposed by a management pack engine to translate the data defining the one or more events generated by the application program to the object model specified using a SML.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the second translator is further configured to call an API exposed by a management pack engine to translate the data defining the one or more management classes for the application program to the object model specified using the SML.

8. A system for generating a management pack for use in monitoring the operation of an application program, the system comprising:

a first translator configured to read a manifest comprising data defining one or more events generated by the application program and to call an application programming interface (API) exposed by a management pack engine at a build time of the application program to convert the data of the manifest into a model expressed using a system modeling language (SML);

a second translator configured to read a source extensible markup language (XML) file comprising XML data defining one or more management classes for the application program and to call the API at the build time to convert the XML data of the source XML file into the model expressed using the SML;

a management pack engine operative to implement the API and to maintain a model store for storing the model expressed using the SML; and

a management pack compiler configured to read the model expressed using the SML from the model store using the API and to execute at the build time to compile the model into the management pack.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising an operations manager application configured to utilize the management pack to monitor the operation of the application program.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the XML data contained in the source XML file further defines one or more management rules.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the XML data contained in the source XML file further defines one or more management tasks.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the XML data contained in the source XML file further defines data for use in discovering instances of the one or more management classes.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the manifest further comprises data defining one or more performance counters for the application program.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the manifest comprises a unified logging service (ULS) manifest.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the first translator comprises a ULS manifest translator configured to read the ULS manifest and to call the API exposed by the management pack engine to convert the ULS manifest into the model expressed using the SML.

16. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

generate a manifest, the manifest comprising data defining one or more events generated by an application program;

generate a source extensible markup language (XML) file, the source XML file comprising data defining one or more management classes for the application program; and

execute a manifest translator while performing a build of the application program, the manifest translator configured to read the manifest and to call one or more application programming interfaces (APIs) exposed by a management pack engine to convert the data of the manifest into a model expressed using a system modeling language (SML),

execute a source XML translator configured to read the source XML file and to call the APIs to convert the data of the source XML file into the model expressed using the SML, and to

execute a management pack compiler configured to read the model expressed using the SML and to compile the model into a management pack for use by the operations manager application to monitor the operation of the application program.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the XML data contained in the source XML file further defines one or more management rules, one or more management tasks, and data for use in discovering instances of the one or more management classes.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the manifest comprises a unified logging service (ULS) manifest and wherein the ULS manifest further comprises data defining one or more performance counters for the application program.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, having further computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to execute an operations manager application configured to utilize the management pack to monitor the operation of the application program.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the manifest translator comprises a ULS manifest translator configured to read the ULS manifest and to call the APIs exposed by the management pack engine to convert the ULS manifest into the model expressed using the SML.