SERVER CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT METHOD

• US 20090319653A1
• Filed: 06/20/2008
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Moatti, Yosef, Lorenz, Dean
• Application Number:
  US12/143,340
• Publication Number:
  US 20090319653A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1433 during software upgrading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/658 Incremental updates; Differential updates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0873 Checking configuration conflicts between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass networks security protocols H04L9/40; wireless communication networks H04W

Abstract

A method for monitoring changes in at least two servers, that creates difference results that encapsulate effects of changes applied to file systems of at least two servers. These differences results are defined by predetermined creation rules. The method includes comparing the difference results between the at least two servers to detect differences in the respective difference results. These detected differences are defined in accordance with predetermined comparison rules. The method further includes: analyzing the detected differences in comparison results in accordance with predetermined analysis rules and indicating potential problems from the analyzed and detected differences.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring changes in a plurality of servers, comprising:

creating difference results that encapsulate effects of changes applied to file systems of at least one reference server, a first set of predetermined creation rules identify and define difference results of the file systems of the at least one reference server to be stored and analyzed;

creating difference results that encapsulate effects of changes applied to file systems of at least two additional servers, wherein a second set of predetermined creation rules identify and define difference results of the file systems of the at least two additional servers to be stored and analyzed;

comparing the stored difference results between the at least one reference server to the stored difference results of the at least two additional servers to detect differences in the respective results, wherein the detected differences are defined in accordance with predetermined comparison rules;

analyzing the detected differences in comparison results in accordance with predetermined analysis rules; and

indicating potential problems from the analyzed and detected differences,

wherein the first set of predetermined creation rules and the second set of predetermined creation rules are refined based on feedback from the comparing and analyzing.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising reconstructing a pre-change file, for each of the file systems of at least one reference server, from a respective current file including changes applied to each of the file systems of the at least one reference server and change information stored in snapshot data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the reconstructed pre-change file is compared to the respective current file to create the difference results for each of the file systems of at least one reference server.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the snapshot data includes data in the pre-change file that would have been overwritten in the respective current file.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating difference results that encapsulate effects of changes applied to file systems of the at least one reference server comprises:

monitoring and tracking changes to each file system of the at least one reference server;

creating difference results using outputs of the monitoring and tracking changes; and

identifying difference results to be stored using the first set of predetermined creation rules.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating difference results that encapsulate effects of changes applied to file systems of the at least two additional servers comprises:

monitoring and tracking changes to each file system of the at least two additional servers;

creating difference results using outputs of the monitoring and tracking changes; and

identifying difference results to be stored using the second set of predetermined creation rules.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing comprises using the predetermined comparison rules to instruct that differences of the stored difference results between the at least one reference server and the stored difference results of the at least two additional servers be ignored.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing comprises using predetermined analysis rules to instruct that potential problems be ignored.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of predetermined creation rules indicate that changes applied to the file systems of the at least one reference server is to be recorded so that a pre-change file can be reconstructed, and

wherein the second set of predetermined creation rules indicate that changes applied to the file systems of the at least two additional servers are to be recorded so that pre-change files can be reconstructed for the file systems of the at least two additional servers.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reconstructing a pre-change file for each of the file systems of the at least two additional servers from current files including changes applied to file systems of the at least two additional servers and change information stored in snapshot data,

wherein the reconstructed pre-change file for each of the file systems of the at least two additional servers is compared to a respective current file to create the difference results of each of the file systems of the at least two additional servers, and

wherein the snapshot data includes data in the pre-change file that would have been overwritten in the respective current file.

11. An apparatus for monitoring changes in a plurality of servers, comprising:

means for creating difference results that encapsulate effects of changes applied to file systems of at least one reference server, wherein a first set of predetermined creation rules identify and define difference results of the file systems of the at least one reference server to be stored and analyzed;

means for creating difference results that encapsulate effects of changes applied to file systems of at least two additional servers, wherein a second set of predetermined creation rules identify and define difference results of the file systems of the at least two additional servers to be stored and analyzed;

means for comparing the stored difference results between the at least one reference server to the stored difference results of the at least two additional servers to detect differences in the respective results, wherein the detected differences are defined in accordance with predetermined comparison rules;

means for analyzing the detected differences in comparison results in accordance with predetermined analysis rules; and

means for indicating potential problems from the analyzed and detected differences,

wherein the first set of predetermined creation rules and the second set of predetermined creation rules are refined based on feedback from the comparing and analyzing.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising means for reconstructing a pre-change file for file systems of the at least one reference server from a current file including changes applied to file systems of the at least one reference server and change information stored in snapshot data.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the reconstructed pre-change file is compared to the current file to create the difference results of the file systems of the at least one reference server.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the snapshot data includes data in the pre-change file that would have been overwritten in the current file.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the means for creating difference results that encapsulate effects of changes applied to file systems of the at least one reference server comprises:

means for monitoring and tracking changes to each file system of the at least one reference server;

means for using outputs of the monitoring and tracking changes to create difference results; and

means for identifying difference results to be stored using the first set of predetermined creation rules.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the means for creating difference results that encapsulate effects of changes applied to file systems of the at least two additional servers comprises:

means for monitoring and tracking changes to each file system of the at least two additional servers;

means for using outputs of the monitoring and tracking changes to create difference results; and

means for identifying difference results to be stored using the second set of predetermined creation rules.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the means for comparing comprises means for using the predetermined comparison rules to instruct that differences of the stored difference results between the at least one reference server and the stored difference results of the at least two additional servers be ignored.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the means for analyzing comprises means for using predetermined analysis rules to instruct that potential problems be ignored.

19. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the first set of predetermined creation rules indicate that changes applied to the file systems of the at least one reference server is to be recorded so that a pre-change file can be reconstructed, and

wherein the second set of predetermined creation rules indicate that changes applied to the file systems of the at least two additional servers are to be recorded so that pre-change files can be reconstructed for the file systems of the at least two additional servers.

20. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising:

means for reconstructing a pre-change file for each of the file systems of the at least two additional servers from current files including changes applied to file systems of the at least two additional servers and change information stored in snapshot data,

wherein the reconstructed pre-change file for each of the file systems of the at least two additional servers is compared to a respective current file to create the difference results of each of the file systems of the at least two additional servers, and

wherein the snapshot data includes data in the pre-change file that would have been overwritten in the respective current file for each of the file systems of the at least two additional servers.