Method and system for integrated service administration via a directory service

• US 7,076,476 B2
• Filed: 03/02/1999
• Issued: 07/11/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Judd, Steven G., Harjanto, Andy
• Primary Examiner(s): Corrielus, Jean M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ly, Anh
• Application Number:
  US09/260,703
• Publication Number:
  US 20020194171A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,688 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 707/102, 707/103, 707/104, 707/201, 707100-1041, 709/203, 709/227, 709221-225, 709/226
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation

Abstract

A system and method of network administration uniformly exposes the administrative interfaces of network services to facilitate network administration. Each service has published, in a network directory service, an object comprising information relevant to the service. An administrative tool is able to harvest information from the object and use it to automatically invoke a service-specific tool. The service-specific tool is able to locate and communicate with the service by using information passed to the service-specific tool from the administrative tool.

Claims

1. An administrative tool to use in managing a computer network service in a computer network comprising:

a service object containing information representative of a computing network service, wherein the information identifies the network service by one or more characteristics and is selected from group consisting of the name, type, location, and description of the network service, and information usable to locate a service-specific administrative tool, the information also including a binding information property which is used for identifying at least the location of the network service;

a directory service in which the object is published;

a generalized tool for guerving the directory service and for obtaining the information representative of the network service, wherein the generalized tool includes;

a directory service user interface providing options for querying network services by at least one of a service keyword or a service class upon querying, providing a list of one or more selectable service objects corresponding to one or more network services that are identified during the query and that correspond to the at least one of said service keyword or service class, wherein each of the selectable objects is also associated with information representative of each corresponding service; and

in response to the user selection selecting one of the service objects from the list, means for launching a service specific user interface for managing the service corresponding to the selected service object, and locating and binding the corresponding service to the service-specific administrative tool associated with the service specific user interface for enabling administrative of the corresponding service from the service specific user interface; and

mean for the service-specific administrative tool, which is in communication with the generalized tool, and which is receiving the information representative of the network service to use the information representative of the network service to administer the service.

2. The administrative tool according to claim 1, further comprising an interface usable to pass at least some of the information contained in the service object from the generalized tool to the service-specific administrative tool.

3. The administrative tool according to claim 2, wherein the generalized tool queries the service object to determine whether it supports the interface, and user the ability of the object to support the interface to determine the ability of the service to be managed by the service-specific administrative tool.

4. The administrative tool according to claim 1, wherein the computer network is a local area network.

5. The administrative tool according to claim 1, wherein the computer network is a wide area network.

6. For use in a computer network, a method for invoking a service-specific administrative tool adapted for administering a computer network service installed on a network computer, the method comprising;

providing a directory service user interface for querying one or more network services from one or more network directories, the directory service user interface providing options for querying network services registered with the one or more network directories by at least one of a service keyword or a service class;

querying for a particular one or more of the registered network services using the directory service and user input received at the directory service user interface comprising at least one of said service keyword or service class;

upon querying, providing a list of one or more selectable service objects corresponding to one or more network services that are identified during the query and that corresponding to the at least one of said service keyword or service class, wherein each of the selectable object is also associated with information representative of each corresponding service, wherein the information identifies each corresponding network service by one or more characteristics and is selected from group consisting of the name, type, location, and description of the network service, and information usable to locate a service-specific administrative tool, the information also including a binding information property which is used for identifying at least the location of the network service; and

in response to the user selection selecting one of the service objects from the list, launching a service specific user interface for managing the service corresponding to the selected service object, and locating and binding the corresponding service to the service-specific administrative tool associated with the service specific user interface for enabling administrative of the corresponding service from the service specific user interface.

7. A method as recited in claim 6, wherein options for querying by at least one of said service keyword or service class are provided to a user by the directory service user interface only after a specific directory to be queried has first been identified, and such that the one or more directories queried by the directory service comprises the identified directory service.

8. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein the directory service is queried for the particular service in response to input comprising both a service keyword and service class.

9. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein the directory service is queried for the particular service in response to input other than a service name.

10. The method according to claim 6, further comprising:

indirectly administering the corresponding service using a generalized management program.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:

causing the generalized management program to invoke an interface program usable to pass at least some of the information contained in the object corresponding to the service from the generalized management program to the service-specific administrative tool.

12. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

querying the object corresponding to the service to determine whether the object supports the interface program; and

using the object'"'"'s ability to support the interface program to determine the ability of the corresponding service to be managed by the service-specific administrative tool.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein the computer network is a local area network.

14. The method of claim 6, wherein the computer network is a wide area network.

15. A computer program product for use in a computer network, the computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for implementing a method for invoking a service-specific administrative tool adapted for administering a computer network service installed on a network computer, the method comprising:

providing a directory service user interface for querying one or more network services from one or more network directories, the directory service user interface providing options for querying network services registered with the one or more network directories by at least one of a service keyword or a service class;

querying for a particular one or more of the registered network services using the directory service and user input received at the directory service user interface comprising at least one of said service keyword or service class;

upon querying, providing a list of one or more selectable service objects corresponding to one or more network services that are identified during the query and that corresponding to the at least one of said service keyword or service class, wherein each of the selectable object is also associated with information representative of each corresponding service, wherein the information identifies each corresponding network service by one or more characteristics and is selected from group consisting of the name, type, location, and description of the network service, and information usable to locate a service-specific administrative tool, the information also including a binding information property which is used for identifying at least the location of the network service; and

in response to the user selection selecting one of the service objects from the list, launching a service specific user interface for managing the service corresponding to the selected service object, and locating and binding the corresponding service to the service-specific administrative tool associated with the service specific user interface for enabling administrative of the corresponding service from the service specific user interface.