Service Model Flight Recorder

• US 20090292720A1
• Filed: 05/20/2008
• Published: 11/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BMC Software Incorporated (KKR & Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: BMC Software Incorporated (KKR & Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Pieters, Eric JS, De Peuter, Geert, Bonnell, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,082,275 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9024 Graphs; Linked lists G06F16/9027 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis

Abstract

A method, system and medium for recording events in a system management environment is described. As system events are detected in an enterprise computing environment they are stored in a manner allowing them to be “replayed” either forward or reverse to assist a system administrator or other user to determine the chain of events that affected the enterprise. The system engineer and business process owner are therefore presented with pertinent information for monitoring, administrating and diagnosing system activities and their correlation to business services.

Claims

1. A method of recording state changes in an enterprise computing environment, comprising:

representing a service impact model in one or more graphs, each graph having one or more nodes;

storing changes to the service impact model over a period of time;

obtaining input to identify a first point in time;

determining a state for each node in the one or more graphs at the first point in time;

presenting a representation of the service impact model at the first point in time;

identifying a second point in time; and

presenting a representation of the service impact model at the second point in time.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the act of storing changes further comprises storing the changes in a delta file.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the act of storing changes in a delta file comprises stored changes in a flat file.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the act of storing changes in a delta file comprises stored changes in a database.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the act of storing changes further comprises storing data into a persistent storage device.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the act of storing changes further comprises storing changes based on events reported by a system monitoring tool.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the act of storing changes further comprises storing changes based on changes in a definition of the service impact model.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the act of presenting a representation of the service model further comprises displaying a state of one or more nodes in the one or more graphs.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the act of presenting a representation of the service model further comprises displaying a business impact calculation based on a state of one or more nodes in the one or more graphs.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the act of presenting a representation of the service model further comprises providing at least one statistical measure between one or more identified points in time.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the statistical measures are selected from the group consisting of mean time to repair, mean time between failure.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the second point in time precedes the first point in time.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the second point in time is after the first point in time.

25. A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon for causing a programmable control device to perform the method of claim 1.

14. A method of presenting a service impact model, comprising:

representing a service impact model comprising one or more graphs, each graph having one or more nodes;

storing changes associated with nodes in the service impact model over a period of time, each stored change representing a state of the service impact model; and

presenting, at a specified time, a first visual representation of the service impact model representing the state of the service impact model at a first time, wherein the first time is prior to the specified time.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

allowing a user, at a second time, to alter one or more attributes of one or more nodes in the service impact model;

propagating an impact due to the altered one or more attributes through the service impact model; and

presenting a second visual representation of the service impact model representing the state of the service impact model at a first time due to the act of propagating.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the act of presenting the first visual representation consists of displaying the first visual representation in a first area of a display unit and the act of presenting the second visual representation consists of presenting the second visual representation in a second area of the display unit.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein the act of storing changes further comprises storing said changes in a delta file.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein the act of storing changes further comprises storing data representing the changes into a persistent storage device.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein the act of storing changes further comprises storing changes based on events reported by a system monitoring tool.

20. The method of claim 14 wherein the act of storing changes further comprises storing changes based on changes in a definition of the service impact model.

21. The method of claim 14 wherein the acts of presenting a representation of the service model further comprise displaying the state of one or more nodes in the service impact model.

22. The method of claim 14 wherein one or more of the acts of presenting a representation of the service model further comprise displaying a business impact calculation based on the state of one or more nodes in the service impact model.

23. The method of claim 14 wherein one or more of the acts of presenting a representation of the service model further comprise providing statistical measures between a first stored change and a second stored change.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the act of providing statistical measures comprise selecting statistical measures selected from the group consisting of mean time to repair, mean time between failure.

26. A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon for causing a programmable control device to perform the method of claim 14.