System and method for providing a server control interface

• US 7,337,408 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2004
• Issued: 02/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kiernan, Casey L, Hodge, Kevin A, Snover, Jeffrey P, DeLuca, Steve A, Martin, Sally J, Darcy, Paul B, Lee, Juhan
• Primary Examiner(s): BAUTISTA, XIOMARA L
• Application Number:
  US10/975,636
• Publication Number:
  US 20050060657A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,216 Days
• Field of Search: 715733-736, 715762-764, 715/769, 715/771, 715/781, 715/810, 715/835, 715/837, 715/846, 715/853, 709/201, 709/203, 709/223, 709/224, 719/315, 719/316, 717/100, 717/105, 717/106, 717/109, 717/162, 717/165
• US Class Current: 715/763
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

A method and system for providing a computing device control interface are provided. A system administrator accesses a graphical user interface and selects a group of actions that are to be executed by a number of computing devices. The actions selected by the system administrator are embodied in a graphical action icon and displayed on the graphical user interface. The system administrator initiates the actions by manipulating the action icon such that it overlaps a computer icon, which embodies one or more computing devices within the network that will execute the selected actions. The computing device icon is also displayed on the user interface. The user interface executes the selected action on the selected computer and then generates an archive file embodying the execution of the selected actions on the selected group of computing devices.

Claims

1. A computer storage medium having computer-executable components for providing a centralized computing device control interface for providing instructions to a number of servers to concurrently execute a number of user selected actions, the computer-executable components comprising:

an action creating component for creating an action icon representative of a number of user selected control parameters, wherein the user selected control parameters does not specify any computing device that will implement the user selected control parameters;

a computing device icon component, for creating a computing device icon different from the action icon, the computing device icon corresponding to a number of servers that will concurrently execute a number of user selected control parameters represented by the action item; and

a template engine component for encoding and transmitting computer-executable instructions for instructing computing devices associated with a selected action item to implement the user selected control parameters associated with a selected action icon.

2. The computer storage medium as recited in claim 1, further comprising an executable component for generating an archive file corresponding to associating a selected action icon to a selected control icon.

3. The computer storage medium as recited in claim 2, wherein a number of servers can repeatedly execute the number of user selected actions corresponding to the archive file.

4. The computer storage medium as recited in claim 1, further comprising an executable execution component for instructing a number of computing devices to concurrently execute the number of user selected actions corresponding to an action icon.

5. The computer storage medium as recited in claim 2, wherein a control parameter for generating the archive file is obtained using a control for obtaining a request for generating the archive file.

6. The computer storage medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the set of control parameters are obtained using controls comprising a control for establishing a common priority and a global priority for executing the number of user selected actions by each server in the plurality of servers, a control for selecting a start time, duration, and end time to collect the specific performance monitoring data from each server in the plurality of servers, and a control for selecting specific components of each server in the plurality of servers to collect the specific performance monitoring data.

7. The computer storage medium as recited in claim 6, wherein the controls further comprising a control for selecting one or more pre-selected servers in the plurality of servers to collect the specific performance monitoring data, and a control for selecting specific components within each pre-selected servers to collect the specific performance monitoring data.

8. The computer storage medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the action creating component includes a number of pre-configured action icons in addition to creating new action icons and wherein the action creating component is operable to repudiate one or more servers in the plurality of servers from implementing the captured number of user selected actions.

9. A computer storage medium having computer-executable components for providing a centralized computing device control interface to execute a number of user selected actions via a single manipulation of the centralized computing device control interface, the computer-executable components comprising:

an action creating component for;

(a) obtaining a selection of a set of control parameters, wherein the set of control parameters comprises a control parameter relating to a collection of a specific performance monitoring data from the plurality of servers, a control parameter relating to a collection name and collection priority of the monitoring data, a control parameter relating to a specification of a collection time of the monitoring data, and a control parameter relating to a collection of capacity planning data from the plurality of servers, wherein the selected set of control parameters do not define any computing device that will implement the control parameters; and

(b) generating an action icon representative of the selection control parameters;

a computing device icon component for creating a computing device icon different from the action icon, wherein the computing device icon corresponding to a number of servers that will concurrently execute the set of selected-control parameters represented by the action item; and

a template engine component for encoding and transmitting computer-executable instructions for instructing computing devices associated with a selected action item to implement the user selected control parameters associated with a selected action icon.

10. The computer storage medium as recited in claim 9, further comprising an archive component for generating an archive file corresponding to associating a selected action icon to a selected control icon.

11. The computer storage medium as recited in claim 10, wherein the plurality of servers can repeatedly execute the number of user selected actions stored in the archive file without repeatedly obtaining a set of control parameters from the user for creating an action icon to capture the number of user selected actions and the captured user selected actions can be modified before execution.

12. The computer storage medium as recited in claim 10, wherein a control parameter for generating the archive file is obtained using a control for obtaining a request for generating the archive file.

13. The computer storage medium as recited in claim 9, wherein the set of control parameters are obtained using controls comprising a control for establishing a common priority and a global priority for executing the number of user selected actions by each server in the plurality of servers, a control for selecting a start time, duration, and end time to collect the specific performance monitoring data from each server in the plurality of servers, and a control for selecting specific components of each server in the plurality of servers to collect the specific performance monitoring data.

14. The computer storage medium as recited in claim 13, wherein the controls further comprising a control for selecting one or more pre-selected servers in the plurality of servers to collect the specific performance monitoring data, and a control for selecting specific components within each pre-selected servers to collect the specific performance monitoring data.

15. The computer storage medium as recited in claim 9, wherein the action creating component includes a number of pre-configured action icons in addition to creating new action icons and wherein the action creating component is operable to repudiate one or more servers in the plurality of servers from implementing the captured number of user selected actions.

16. The computer storage medium as recited in claim 9, wherein the number of servers are selected from a group consisting of database servers, application servers, and client servers.

17. A method for managing a number servers comprising:

obtaining a selection of a set of control parameters, wherein the set of control parameters comprises a control parameter relating to a collection of a specific performance monitoring data from the plurality of servers, a control parameter relating to a collection name and collection priority of the monitoring data, a control parameter relating to a specification of a collection time of the monitoring data, and a control parameter relating to a collection of capacity planning data from the plurality of servers, wherein the selected set of control parameters do not define any computing device that will implement the control parameters; and

generating an action icon representative of the selection control parameters;

obtaining a selection of a set of computing devices to implement control parameters;

generating a computing device icon representative of a number of servers that will concurrently execute the set of selected-control parameters represented by the action item; and

encoding and transmitting computer-executable instructions for instructing computing devices associated with a selected action item to implement the user selected control parameters associated with a selected action icon.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein the number of servers are selected from a group consisting of database servers, application servers, and client servers.

19. The method as recited in claim 17, further comprising:

obtaining a selection to archive the association of a selected action icon to a selected control icon; and

generating an icon representative of the selected association.