Platform independent alarm service for manipulating managed objects in a distributed network management system

• US 6,349,333 B1
• Filed: 12/04/1998
• Issued: 02/19/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Pedron, Emmanuelle, Panikatt, Sujit
• Primary Examiner(s): Geckil, Mehmet B.
• Application Number:
  US09/206,069
• Time in Patent Office: 1,173 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/219, 709/224, 709/223, 714/4, 707/103, 707/104, 707/102
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0226 Mapping or translating multiple network management protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0253 using browsers or web-pages for accessing management information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/042 comprising distributed management centres cooperatively managing the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/045 comprising client-server management architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor

Abstract

The client portion of a distributed client-server network management system uses an interface designed with, and written in, a platform independent language, such as Java. This allows management application programs to be written in the platform independent language and insures their portability. Further, in accordance with another aspect of the invention, the inventive interface allows a user to query an alarm log while the alarm log record information is cached at the server so that only a small client program is necessary. This program can run on a system with minimal resources, thereby allowing a network manager to manage a network from virtually any location on the network. For example, the client management application could be written as a Java applet which could then be run on any Java-enabled browser. In accordance with still another aspect of the invention, an alarm log can be queried on any user-defined attribute based on relational criteria such as: “greater than”, “less than”, “equal”, “not equal”, etc.

Claims

1. An alarm services system for use in a distributed network management system having a management application program that is used by managers to control the system, a management information server and an alarm logging system which receives alarms and stores alarm records representing the alarms in a database, the alarm services system comprising:

a platform-independent interface in a client node, the platform-independent interface having remote objects which are accessible to the management application program and which contain method calls used by the management application program to retrieve and view alarm records;

an alarm services server running in a server node remote from the client node and having the management information server running therein, the alarm services server having object implementations for the remote objects, a mechanism for receiving notifications from the management information server and an interface for retrieving alarm records from the database; and

an object transport mechanism connecting the interface to the alarm services server.

2. An alarm services system according to claim 1 wherein the alarm services server comprises an interface by which the alarm services server can perform a query on the database to retrieve selected alarm records.

3. An alarm services system according to claim 1 wherein the interface is written in the Java language.

4. An alarm services system according to claim 1 wherein the interface comprises at least one alarm log object which represents alarm records in the database.

5. An alarm services system according to claim 1 wherein the interface comprises a generic query object for constructing a query to retrieve alarm records from the database according to a user-defined sequence of logical operators.

6. An alarm services system according to claim 1 wherein the alarm services server comprises an event dispatcher object for receiving notifications from the management information server.

7. An alarm services system according to claim 6 wherein the interface comprises a listener object which receives event notifications from the event dispatcher object.

8. An alarm services system according to claim 7 wherein records retrieved from the database cause an event notification to be generated so that record retrieval can be carried out asynchronously.

9. An alarm services system according to claim 7 wherein the interface comprises at least one attribute object for representing attributes of an alarm record.

10. An alarm services system according to claim 9 wherein the interface comprises a query object which can generate a query based on the attribute object.

11. A method for use in a distributed network management system having a management application program that is used by managers to control the system, a management information server and an alarm logging system which receives alarms and stores alarm records representing the alarms in a database, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) creating a platform-independent interface in a client node, the platform-independent interface having remote objects which are accessible to the management application program and which contain method calls used by the management application program to retrieve and view alarm records;

(b) creating an alarm services server in a server node remote from the client node and having the management information server running therein, the alarm services server having object implementations for the remote objects, a mechanism for receiving notifications from the management information server and an interface for retrieving alarm records from the database; and

(c) using an object transport mechanism to connect the interface to the alarm services server.

12. A method according to claim 11 wherein step (b) comprises the step of:

(b1) using an interface in the alarm services server to perform a query on the database to retrieve selected alarm records.

13. A method according to claim 11 wherein the interface is written in the Java language.

14. A method according to claim 11 wherein step (a) comprises the step of:

(a1) instantiating at least one alarm log object which represents alarm records in the database.

15. A method according to claim 11 wherein step (a) comprises the step of:

(a2) instantiating a generic query object for constructing a query to retrieve alarm records from the database according to a user-defined sequence of logical operators.

16. A method according to claim 11 wherein step (b) comprises the step of:

(b2) instantiating an event dispatcher object for receiving notifications from the management information server.

17. A method according to claim 16 wherein step (a) comprises the step of:

(a3) instantiating a listener object which receives event notifications from the event dispatcher object.

18. A method according to claim 17 further comprising the step of:

(d) causing an event notification to be generated when records are retrieved from the database so that record retrieval can be carried out asynchronously.

19. A method according to claim 17 wherein step (a) comprises the step of:

(a4) instantiating at least one attribute object for representing attributes of an alarm record.

20. A method according to claim 19 wherein step (a) comprises the step of:

(a5) instantiating a query object which can generate a query based on the attribute object.

21. A computer program product for use in a distributed network management system having a management application program that is used by managers to control the system, a management information server and an alarm logging system which receives alarms and stores alarm records representing the alarms in a database, the computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code thereon including:

program code for creating a platform-independent interface in a client node, the platform-independent interface having remote objects which are accessible to the management application program and which contain method calls used by the management application program to retrieve and view alarm records;

program code for creating an alarm services server in a server node remote from the client node and having the management information server running therein, the alarm services server having object implementations for the remote objects, a mechanism for receiving notifications from the management information server and an interface for retrieving alarm records from the database; and

program code for creating an object transport mechanism to connect the interface to the alarm services server.