Mechanism for Performing Verification of Template Integrity of Monitoring Templates Used for Customized Monitoring of System Activities

• US 20120084608A1
• Filed: 10/05/2010
• Published: 04/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Pasternak, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,256,488 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/41
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/54 by adding security routines or objects to programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/64 Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures

Abstract

A mechanism for performing verification of template integrity of monitoring templates used for customized monitoring of system activities. A method of embodiments of the invention includes calculating a first hash code for a monitoring template, the monitoring template to customize a performance monitor to serve as a universal monitor to facilitate a plurality of monitoring tools to perform monitoring of activities of a plurality of system components of the computer system, extracting the first hash code from the monitoring template, and calculating a second hash code for the monitoring template. The method further includes verifying integrity of the monitoring template by comparing the first hash code with the second hash code, and the integrity of the monitoring template is determined to be satisfactory if the first hash code matches the second hash code.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to test integrity of a monitoring mechanism for monitoring system resources of a computer system, the method comprising:

calculating a first hash code for a monitoring template, the monitoring template to customize a performance monitor to serve as a universal monitor to facilitate a plurality of monitoring tools to perform monitoring of activities of a plurality of system components of the computer system;

extracting the first hash code from the monitoring template;

calculating a second hash code for the monitoring template; and

verifying integrity of the monitoring template by comparing the first hash code with the second hash code, wherein the integrity of the monitoring template is determined to be satisfactory if the first hash code matches the second hash code.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the integrity of the monitoring template is determined to be unsatisfactory if the first hash code does not match the second hash code.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein integrity verification is performed prior to loading the monitoring template, and wherein the monitoring template is loaded to used for monitoring the activities if the integrity is determined to be satisfactory.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising throwing an exception error if the integrity of the monitoring template is determined to be unsatisfactory.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first hash code is calculated prior to saving the monitoring template.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising embedding the first hash code into the monitoring template, and saving the monitoring template with the embedded first hash code prior to extracting the first hash code from the monitoring template.

7. A system comprising:

a processor communicably coupled to a memory of a computer system having an operating system and a performance monitor; and

the performance monitor having a template integrity component, the template integrity component is operable to;

calculate a first hash code for a monitoring template, the monitoring template to customize the performance monitor to serve as a universal monitor to facilitate a plurality of monitoring tools to perform monitoring of activities of a plurality of system components of the computer system;

extract the first hash code from the monitoring template,

calculate a second hash code for the monitoring template, and

verify integrity of the monitoring template by comparing the first hash code with the second hash code, wherein the integrity of the monitoring template is determined to be satisfactory if the first hash code matches the second hash code.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the integrity of the monitoring template is determined to be unsatisfactory if the first hash code does not match the second hash code.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein integrity verification is performed prior to loading the monitoring template, and wherein the monitoring template is loaded to used for monitoring the activities if the integrity is determined to be satisfactory.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the template integrity component is further operable to throw an exception error if the integrity of the monitoring template is determined to be unsatisfactory.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the first hash code is calculated prior to saving the monitoring template.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the template integrity component is further operable to embed the first hash code into the monitoring template, and saving the monitoring template with the embedded first hash code prior to extracting the first hash code from the monitoring template.

13. An article of manufacture comprising a machine-readable storage medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

calculating a first hash code for a monitoring template, the monitoring template to customize a performance monitor to serve as a universal monitor to facilitate a plurality of monitoring tools to perform monitoring of activities of a plurality of system components of the computer system;

extracting the first hash code from the monitoring template;

calculating a second hash code for the monitoring template; and

verifying integrity of the monitoring template by comparing the first hash code with the second hash code, wherein the integrity of the monitoring template is determined to be satisfactory if the first hash code matches the second hash code.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 13, wherein the integrity of the monitoring template is determined to be unsatisfactory if the first hash code does not match the second hash code.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 13, wherein integrity verification is performed prior to loading the monitoring template, and wherein the monitoring template is loaded to used for monitoring the activities if the integrity is determined to be satisfactory.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 14, further having instructions that, when executed, cause the machine to throw an exception error if the integrity of the monitoring template is determined to be unsatisfactory.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 13, wherein the first hash code is calculated prior to saving the monitoring template.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 13, further having instructions that, when executed, cause the machine to embed the first hash code into the monitoring template, and saving the monitoring template with the embedded first hash code prior to extracting the first hash code from the monitoring template.