System and method for monitoring and managing system assets and asset configurations
First Claim
1. In a network of devices, a method for monitoring the configuration and/or status of said devices, comprising the steps of:
- launching a device monitoring tool on at least one of said devices on said network;
said monitoring tool launching one or more data collectors on one or more target devices, said target devices being the devices on the network that are to be monitored;
said data collectors collecting status and configuration data about target devices and passing said data back to said monitoring tool;
said monitoring tool uploading said data to a central site, wherein the uploading comprises splitting the data into multiple data chunks and transmitting the data chunks separately to the central site, the transmitting comprising transferring each of the data chunks over a link in the network between the at least one of said devices and the central site according to a transfer protocol wherein each of the data chunks may be subject to packetization;
at the central site, merging the data chunks to create a data file; and
at said central site, loading said data file into a database;
wherein the monitoring tool is further adapted for listening to a storage location at the at least one of the devices to determine if the storage location has an available data file comprising at least a portion of said data from the data collectors and when determined available, initiating the unloading of said available data file to the central site.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for monitoring the configuration and/or status of target devices on a network. The system comprises a monitoring application that can be run on a first network device. The monitoring application is configured to monitor one or more target devices on the network using data collector modules that run on the target devices. The data collector modules are launched on the target devices by the monitoring application and are configured to collect configuration and/or status information about the target devices. After collecting the data, the data collector modules preferably pass the data back to the first network device, where a data upload application receives the data and uploads it to a central site. The data at the central site is placed in a database for access by users or clients. Users can access the data in the database by communicating with the central site, for example, via a dial-up connection or via the Internet. Once connected to the central site, a user can retrieve system information using a graphical user interface, or can submit report requests to the central site. The interface used to access information at the central site may be a web browser communicating through a web server at the central site.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. In a network of devices, a method for monitoring the configuration and/or status of said devices, comprising the steps of:
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launching a device monitoring tool on at least one of said devices on said network; said monitoring tool launching one or more data collectors on one or more target devices, said target devices being the devices on the network that are to be monitored; said data collectors collecting status and configuration data about target devices and passing said data back to said monitoring tool; said monitoring tool uploading said data to a central site, wherein the uploading comprises splitting the data into multiple data chunks and transmitting the data chunks separately to the central site, the transmitting comprising transferring each of the data chunks over a link in the network between the at least one of said devices and the central site according to a transfer protocol wherein each of the data chunks may be subject to packetization; at the central site, merging the data chunks to create a data file; and at said central site, loading said data file into a database; wherein the monitoring tool is further adapted for listening to a storage location at the at least one of the devices to determine if the storage location has an available data file comprising at least a portion of said data from the data collectors and when determined available, initiating the unloading of said available data file to the central site. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 18)
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8. A system for monitoring the configuration and/or status of devices on a network, comprising:
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a monitoring application to be run on a first device on the network, said monitoring application being configured to coordinate the monitoring of one or more target devices on the network; data collector modules to be run on the one or more target devices, the data collector modules being configured to collect configuration and/or status data about said target devices, said data collector modules being launched on said one or more target devices by said monitoring application and said monitoring application accessing a configuration file to determine which of the data collector modules to run on which ones of the target devices; and an upload application to be run on said first device, said upload application being configured to receive said data from said data collector modules and upload the data to a central site, wherein the upload application listens to a storage location at the first device to determine if the storage location has an available data file comprising at least a portion of said data from said data collector modules and when determined available, initiating the uploading of the data to the central site. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method for monitoring a set of information for a plurality of computer devices linked to a digital communications network, comprising:
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starting a data collection tool on a one of the network devices; retrieving a configuration file with the data collection tool; using the configuration file to identify a set of the network devices to be monitored; running one or more data collectors on the identified network devices, each of the data collectors collecting differing sets of information for a corresponding one of the identified network devices; transmitting the collected set of information from the identified network devices to the data collection tool on the one of the network devices; and operating an upload tool on the one of the network devices to listen to a storage location at the one of the network devices to determine if the storage location has an available data file comprising at least a portion of the collected set of information and when determined available, uploading the available data file to a central site over a communications network. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification