Method and apparatus for maintaining the status of objects in computer networks using virtual state machines
First Claim
1. In a computer system having a processor, memory and a network interface, an apparatus for monitoring a plurality of device or process objects operatively coupled to the computer system over a computer network, the apparatus comprising:
- (a) means for monitoring the status of the plurality of monitored objects over the computer network;
(b) first means for storing in memory a plurality of different finite state machine models;
(c) second means for storing in memory a virtual state machine associated with each of the plurality of monitored objects; and
(d) a decision engine, coupled to the first and second means for storing in the memory, for receiving input event data relating to one of the monitored objects and for accessing the virtual state machine in memory associated with said one monitored object, the decision engine further configured to manipulate data identifying a current state of the virtual state machine and for determining which actions of a plurality of actions associated with an identified finite state machine model should be performed.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A network appliance for monitoring, diagnosing and documenting problems among a plurality of devices and processes (objects) coupled to a computer network utilizes periodic polling and collection of object-generated trap data to monitor the status of objects on the computer network. The status of a multitude of objects is maintained in memory utilizing virtual state machines which contain a small amount of persistent data but which are modeled after one of a plurality of finite state machines. The memory further maintains dependency data related to each object which identifies parent/child relationships with other objects at the same or different layers of the OSI network protocol model. A decision engine verifies through on-demand polling that a device is down. A root cause analysis module utilizes status and dependency data to locate the highest object in the parent/child relationship tree that is affected to determine the root cause of a problem. Once a problem has been verified, a “case” is opened and notification alerts may be sent out to one or more devices. A user interface allows all objects within the network to be displayed with their respective status and their respective parent/child dependency objects in various formats.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. In a computer system having a processor, memory and a network interface, an apparatus for monitoring a plurality of device or process objects operatively coupled to the computer system over a computer network, the apparatus comprising:
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(a) means for monitoring the status of the plurality of monitored objects over the computer network; (b) first means for storing in memory a plurality of different finite state machine models; (c) second means for storing in memory a virtual state machine associated with each of the plurality of monitored objects; and (d) a decision engine, coupled to the first and second means for storing in the memory, for receiving input event data relating to one of the monitored objects and for accessing the virtual state machine in memory associated with said one monitored object, the decision engine further configured to manipulate data identifying a current state of the virtual state machine and for determining which actions of a plurality of actions associated with an identified finite state machine model should be performed. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. In a computer system having a processor, memory and a network interface, an method for monitoring a plurality of device or process objects operatively coupled to the computer system over a computer network, a method comprising:
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(a) monitoring the status of the plurality of monitored objects over the computer network; (b) storing in memory a plurality of different finite state machine models; (c) storing in memory a virtual state machine associated with each of the plurality of monitored objects; (d) receiving with a decision engine input event data relating to one of the monitored objects and accessing the virtual state machine in memory associated with said one monitored object; and (e) manipulating with the decision engine the data identifying the current state of the virtual state machine and determining which actions associated with an identified finite state machine model should be performed. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A computer program product for use with an computer system operatively coupled over a computer network to a plurality of device or process objects, the computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having embodied therein program code comprising:
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(a) program code for monitoring the status of the plurality of monitored objects over the computer network; (b) program code for storing in memory a plurality of different finite state machine models; (c) program code for storing in memory a virtual state machine associated with each of the plurality of monitored objects; (d) program code for receiving input event data relating to one of the monitored objects and accessing the virtual state machine in memory associated with said one monitored object; and (e) program code for manipulating the data identifying the current state of the virtual state machine associated with said one monitored object and determining which actions associated with the identified finite state machine model should be performed. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification