Unified Service Management

• US 20090228579A1
• Filed: 11/15/2007
• Published: 09/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Jacobsen, Jens K., Rajarajan, Vij, Sanghvi, Ashvinkumar J., McKinnon, Casey, Bice, Shawn, Schultz, Kristoffer S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,838,755 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0843 based on generic templates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0869 Validating the configuration within one network element
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0883 Semiautomatic configuration, e.g. proposals from system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning

Abstract

The described unified service management system provides a unified console to perform functions of individual management specialists. A unified console facilitates an administrator to perform the complex tasks that were performed by the individual management specialists. The unified console provides a “wizard” based approach to the administrator to design all aspects of the complex tasks including placement of components or computing devices, deciding on policies of the components or computing devices, deciding on health policies of components or computing devices, fixing data protection policies of components or computing devices, etc.

Claims

1. A method for authoring models and using the models for managing a network comprising:

identifying changes to be implemented on the network;

selecting an appropriate model associated with the changes;

selecting a deployment profile associated with the appropriate model;

configuring administration policies associated with the deployment profile;

choosing a change template based on the selected deployment profile;

creating change order instances from the chosen change template;

validating change order instances prior to implementation of the identified changes; and

implementing the identified changes based on the validated change order instances.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying changes is based on status of software applications and hardware components on the network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting the appropriate model based on the responses given by a user to queries displayed in a user interface.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting a deployment profile is from a list of profiles suitable to the appropriate model.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuring administration policies includes considering constraints defined in the deployment profile.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the choosing the change template is from a group of predefined change templates.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating change order instances are based on work flow to be followed to implement the identified changes

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising developing of an application driven by the models, wherein the same models are leveraged for the application management.

9. A system comprising:

a network;

one or more managed nodes connected to the network, wherein the managed nodes run an application program;

unifying agents employed on the managed nodes, wherein the unifying agents employ changes to the network and managed nodes; and

one or more management servers employing a unified console to implement the changes.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the managed nodes include one or more of the following:

PDAs, desktops, workstations, servers, and laptops,

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the unifying agents employ instructions to automatically collecting status of the managed nodes and of other resources in the network.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the unifying agents employ instructions to automatically collecting status of the managed nodes and of other resources in the network.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the unifying agents include an application monitor, a configuration module, and a notification reporter.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the management servers employ one or more of the following modes:

an operating mode, a changing mode, a supporting mode, and a planning mode.

15. The system of claim 9 further comprising a configuration management database to track the changes.

16. A method in a computer system for displaying changes to a managed network comprising the steps of:

displaying a unified console that addresses operations, changes, support and planning of the managed network;

profiling resources that provide a best fit for changes; and

validating changes performed on the managed network.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the unified consoles provides a unified change plan and execution.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the displaying is based on a structured rules editor that results in a plain language policy statement.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the profiling assigns grades to software applications and hardware components based on expected performances.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the method is part of a flow based configuration for implementing polices on the managed network.