NETWORK RESOURCE CONFIGURATIONS

• US 20120290715A1
• Filed: 01/25/2012
• Published: 11/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dinger, John E., Duggan, Matthew E., Martin, Daniel J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,350,567 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport

Abstract

Temporally classifying and visually representing network and IT infrastructure with planned or occurred configuration activities and/or policy compliance or non-compliance of network and IT resources, including a method, apparatus and computer program for gathering and classifying observable configuration aspects of resources and relationships in a network of resources, wherein the method comprises: analyzing the network of resources to collect planned configuration times and actual resource status; monitoring actual resource status to make determinations if planned configurations are executed; and updating a network configuration status with the determinations. Planned and actual configurations are collected and monitored over a defined time range extending before and/or after a time zero. Each planned or actual configuration is categorized with respect to one or more time windows in the defined time range.

Claims

1. A method for gathering and classifying observable configuration aspects of resources and relationships in a network of resources, wherein the method comprises:

analyzing the network of resources to collect planned configuration times and actual resource status;

monitoring the actual resource status to make determinations if planned configurations are executed; and

updating a network configuration status with the determinations.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more physical groups of resources in the network of resources are analyzed.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more types of configuration and corresponding actual resource status are collected and monitored.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising collecting and monitoring planned and actual configurations over a defined time range extending before and/or after a time zero.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising categorizing each planned and actual configuration with respect to one or more time windows in the defined time range.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising rendering the planned configurations and actual configurations together in a same context in shared graphical space.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising calculating policy compliance using the network configuration status.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining the resources in the network or IT environment;

determining relationships between the resources in the network or IT environment; and

determining resource groups from the relationships.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein monitoring the actual resource status is only performed close to or after the planned configuration.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising categorizing each configuration according to (i) a planned schema if the configuration has not been executed and (ii) a historic schema if the configuration has occurred.

31. A computer program, stored on a computer readable storage medium and loadable into an internal memory of a digital computer, comprising software code portions for performing the method of claim 1 when said computer program is run on the digital computer.

11. A system for gathering and classifying observable configuration aspects of resources and relationships in a network of resources, wherein the system comprises a data processor coupled to a memory comprising instructions that are operable by the data processor to perform steps of:

analyzing the network of resources to collect planned configuration times and actual resource status;

monitoring the actual resource status to make determinations if planned configurations are executed; and

updating a network configuration status with the determinations.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein one or more physical groups of resources in the network of resources are analyzed.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein one or more types of configuration and corresponding actual resource status are collected and monitored.

14. The system of claim 11 further comprising collecting and monitoring planned and actual configurations over a defined time range extending before and/or after a time zero.

15. The system of claim 14 further comprising categorizing each planned and actual configuration with respect to one or more time windows in the defined time range.

16. The system of claim 14 further comprising rendering the planned configurations and actual configurations together in a same context in shared graphical space.

17. The system of claim 11 further comprising calculating policy compliance using the network configuration status.

18. The system of claim 11 further comprising:

determining the resources in the network or IT environment;

determining relationships between the resources in the network or IT environment; and

determining resource groups from the relationships.

19. The system of claim 11 wherein monitoring the actual resource status is only performed close to or after the planned configuration.

20. The system of claim 11 further comprising categorizing each configuration according to (i) a planned schema if the configuration has not been executed and (ii) a historic schema if the configuration has occurred.

21. A computer program product comprising computer readable recording medium having computer readable code stored thereon for gathering and classifying observable configuration aspects of resources and relationships in a network of resources, the computer readable code which when loaded onto a computer system and executed performs the following steps:

analyzing the network of resources to collect planned configuration times and actual resource status;

monitoring the actual resource status to make determinations if planned configurations are executed; and

updating a network configuration status with the determinations.

22. The computer program product of claim 21 wherein one or more physical groups of resources in the network of resources is analyzed.

23. The computer program product of claim 21 wherein only one or more types of configuration and corresponding actual resource status are collected and monitored.

24. The computer program product of claim 21 further comprising collecting and monitoring planned and actual configurations over a defined time range extending before and/or after a time zero.

25. The computer program product of claim 24 further comprising categorizing each planned and actual configuration with respect to one or more time windows in the defined time range.

26. The computer program product of claim 24 further comprising rendering the planned configurations and actual configurations together in a same context in shared graphical space.

27. The computer program product of claim 21 further comprising calculating policy compliance using the network configuration status.

28. The computer program product of claim 21 further comprising:

determining the resources in the network or IT environment;

determining relationships between the resources in the network or IT environment; and

determining resource groups from the relationships.

29. The computer program product of claim 21 wherein monitoring the actual resource status is only performed close to or after the planned configuration.

30. The computer program product of claim 21 further comprising categorizing each configuration according to (i) a planned schema if the configuration has not been executed and (ii) a historic schema if the configuration has occurred.