DISTRIBUTED APPLICATION MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

• US 20100005103A1
• Filed: 09/15/2009
• Published: 01/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ip Ot Sub Ulc
• Original Assignee: Global 360, Inc. (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Chang, Robert, Hager, Geoffrey, Tjia, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 7,987,472 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0233 Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0266 using meta-data, objects or commands for formatting management information, e.g. using eXtensible markup language [XML]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/048 mobile agents

Abstract

A system and method is provided for remote administration and management of a computer network, by installation of distributed software agents in remote network components, such as software agents implemented using encapsulated reusable interfaces such as COM or CORBA interfaces. Remote network management is effected by communication with the distributed agents using a structured language-independent parsable text document, such as a markup language; e.g. XML.

Claims

1. A computerized method of administration of remote networked computing resources, the resources having an operating system running background processes, comprising the steps of

retrieving via a structured markup document one or more particular subsets of available managed service properties or statistics specified by a remote administrative client;

and

configuring, via a structured markup document transmitted to a remote administrative client, background processes of the resources, the background process operating without interaction with a user while the user is working on another task, said configuring including sending instructions to an inactive background process.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the structured markup language comprises an SGML derivative.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the structured markup language comprises XML.

4. A computerized method for the secure remote management of distributed computer network comprising the steps of:

providing a remote distributed agent resident on a plurality of remote networked computers, the remote distributed agent configured to monitor and control an operating system background process, including a dormant process, the background process operating without interaction with a user while the user is working on another task;

providing to the remote distributed agent access to a utility for the processing and interpreting of programming language-independent parsable text documents;

composing via a programming language-independent parsable text document inquiries regarding network resources and background processes properties and status;

transmitting the text document via a secure transmission path to a remote distributed agent;

receiving via a secure transmission path from the remote distributed agent a programming language-independent parsable text document containing data regarding network status; and

transmitting to a remote agent via a secure transmission path, a language-independent, parsable text document containing instructions to the remote agent for network administration functions for execution including instructions for dormant processes.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the programming language-independent parsable text document is composed in a SGML derived markup language.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the language-independent parsable text document is composed in XML.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the secure transmission path is established using DCOM.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the secure transmission path is established using Kerberos.

9. A remotely administered computerized network, comprising:

distributed computing resources comprising multiple computing and peripheral devices, said resources being interconnected by communications links;

an operating system; and

distributed software agents resident, respectively, on the multiple computing and peripheral devices, said agents using specified interface objects, said agents having access to and control over background processes of the network, the background process capable of operating without interaction with a user while the user is working on another task, and said agents being capable of receiving and transmitting network administration data via structured markup documents, the structured markup documents including instructions to background processes.

10. The computerized network of claim 9, wherein the markup documents are implemented in a derivative of SGML.

11. The computerized network of claim 10, wherein the markup documents are implemented in XML.

12. The computerized network of claim 9, wherein the interface objects are polymorphic interface objects.

13. The computerized network of claim 12, wherein the interface objects are implemented as COM components.

14. The computerized network of claim 12, wherein the interface objects are implemented as CORBA objects.

15. The computerized method of claim 9, wherein at least one of the background process is inactive.

16. A computerized method of monitoring and administering remote computer resources, the method comprising:

installing a remote software agent;

composing a markup-language structured document;

providing by the markup-language structured document structured data to the remote software agent, including instructions for a background process; and

accessing the background process of a remote computer resource using the remote software agent provided with the markup-language structured document, the background process capable of operating without interaction with a user while the user is working on another task.

17. The computerized method of claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

automatically generating a markup-language structured document containing desired data regarding network attributes; and

returning the automatically generated document.

18. The computerized method of claim 16, wherein the background process is inactive.

19. A computerized method of monitoring and administering remote computer resources, the method comprising automatically accessing an inactive background process of a remote computer resource, the background process capable of operating without interaction with a user while the user is working on another task, using a remote software agent, said accessing including sending instructions to the inactive background process.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising the steps of:

composing a markup-language structured document; and

providing structured data and instructions for inactive background processes to the remote software agent using the markup-language structured document.