Method and system for network management with backup status gathering

• US 7,305,461 B2
• Filed: 12/15/2000
• Issued: 12/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ullman, Lorin Evan
• Primary Examiner(s): VU, THONG H
• Application Number:
  US09/737,434
• Publication Number:
  US 20020112039A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,545 Days
• Field of Search: 709/227, 709221-226, 709/246, 705/8, 701/1, 379/219, 700/105, 370/354
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning

Abstract

A method, system, apparatus, and computer program product are presented for management of a distributed data processing system. Resources within the distributed data processing system are dynamically discovered, and the discovered resources are adaptively monitored using the network management framework. A network or system administrator configures some mission critical endpoints with multiple network interface cards (NICs) and specifies mission critical endpoints, non-mission critical actions, etc. During status collection activities associated with network or system management activities, the categorization of an endpoint as a mission-critical or non-mission critical endpoint affects the manner in which the status collection activity is performed. Applications can request the performance of actions at endpoints without regard to the categorization of the endpoint or without regard to the categorization of the requested action, and the network management system routes the action based on whether or not the specified endpoint is a mission critical endpoint. A non-mission-critical endpoint is associated with a mission-critical endpoint based on the non-mission-critical endpoint'"'"'s communication history with the mission critical endpoint. The management system may use the status of a non-mission-critical endpoint as a reflection of the status of a mission-critical endpoint.

Claims

1. A method for managing a distributed data processing system, the method comprising:

configuring monitoring parameters for network interface cards within the distributed data processing system using a network management framework;

dynamically discovering a set of discovered endpoints within the distributed data processing system;

designating a plurality of discovered endpoints as mission critical endpoints;

choosing mission critical twin endpoints from a subset of discovered endpoints which have not been previously specified as twin endpoints; and

associating a mission critical twin endpoint with each mission critical endpoint, wherein a mission critical twin endpoint is a discovered endpoint that has a communication history with a mission critical endpoint with which the mission critical twin endpoint is being associated.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

retrieving a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) table from a discovered endpoint;

searching the SNMP table for an address associated with a mission critical endpoint; and

associating the discovered endpoint with the mission critical endpoint in response to finding the address associated with the mission critical endpoint in the SNMP table.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

selecting an endpoint in the subset of discovered endpoints that has a most significant communication history with a particular mission critical endpoint; and

creating a mission critical twin association between the selected endpoint and the particular mission critical endpoint in response to a determination of the most significant communication history.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

retrieving a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) table from a discovered endpoint in the subset of discovered endpoints;

searching the SNMP table for an address associated with the particular mission critical endpoint;

in response to finding the address associated with the particular mission critical endpoint in the SNMP table, obtaining a value from the SNMP table to be compared with values obtained from other retrieved SNMP tables; and

determining the most significant communication history based on a comparison of the values obtained from the retrieved SNMP tables.

5. A apparatus for managing a distributed data processing system, the apparatus comprising:

configuring means for configuring monitoring parameters for network interface cards within the distributed data processing system using a network management framework;

discovering means for dynamically discovering a set of discovered endpoints within the distributed data processing system;

designating means for designating a plurality of discovered endpoints as mission critical endpoints;

first associating means for associating a mission critical twin endpoint with each mission critical endpoint, wherein a mission critical twin endpoint is a discovered endpoint that has a communication history with a mission critical endpoint with which the mission critical twin endpoint is being associated; and

rerouting means for rerouting an action directed to a given mission critical endpoint to the given mission critical endpoint'"'"'s associated mission critical twin endpoint.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 further comprising:

wherein the action is a polling action, and the associated mission critical twin endpoint responds to the polling action directed to the given mission critical endpoint in lieu of the given mission critical endpoint responding to the polling action to thereby automatically limit bandwidth consumption of the given mission critical endpoint.

7. The apparatus of claim 5

wherein the action is an action object from an application reguesting the action on the given mission critical endpoint.

8. The apparatus of claim 7

wherein the application reguests the action on the given mission critical endpoint without regard to whether the mission critical endpoint has been specially categorized as being mission critical, and a response for a given mission critical twin endpoint associated with the given mission critical endpoint is provided to the application in lieu of a response for the given mission critical endpoint to thereby automatically limit bandwidth consumption of the given mission critical endpoint.

9. A computer program product in a computer readable medium for use in a distributed data processing system for managing the distributed data processing system, the computer program product comprising:

instructions for configuring monitoring parameters for network interface cards within the distributed data processing system using a network management framework;

instructions for dynamically discovering a set of discovered endpoints within the distributed data processing system;

instructions for designating a plurality of discovered endpoints as mission critical endpoints;

instructions for choosing mission critical twin endpoints from a subset of discovered endpoints which have not been previously specified as twin endpoints; and

instructions for associating a mission critical twin endpoint with each mission critical endpoint, wherein a mission critical twin endpoint is a discovered endpoint that has a communication history with a mission critical endpoint with which the mission critical twin endpoint is being associated.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 further comprising:

instructions for retrieving a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) table from a discovered endpoint;

instructions for searching the SNMP table for an address associated with a mission critical endpoint; and

instructions for associating the discovered endpoint with the mission critical endpoint in response to finding the address associated with the mission critical endpoint in the SNMP table.

11. The computer program product of claim 9 further comprising:

instructions for selecting an endpoint in the subset of discovered endpoints that has a most significant communication history with a particular mission critical endpoint; and

instructions for creating a mission critical twin association between the selected endpoint and the particular mission critical endpoint in response to a determination of the most significant communication history.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 further comprising:

instructions for retrieving a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) table from a discovered endpoint in the subset of discovered endpoints;

instructions for searching the SNMP table for an address associated with the particular mission critical endpoint;

instructions for obtaining, in response to finding the address associated with the particular mission critical endpoint in the SNMP table, a value from the SNMP table to be compared with values obtained from other retrieved SNMP tables; and

instructions for determining the most significant communication history based on a comparison of the values obtained from the retrieved SNMP tables.