Dynamic status tree facility

• US 7,533,098 B2
• Filed: 07/15/2002
• Issued: 05/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Wilding, Mark F., Abrashkevich, Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): MIZRAHI, DIANE D
• Application Number:
  US10/196,024
• Publication Number:
  US 20030135619A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,493 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 707100-1041, 707200-206, 716/17
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

A dynamic status tree facility for providing status information about one or more systems. The facility includes a tree data structure and methods for manipulating the data structure. The facility is accessible to provider processes using a set of provider interface methods. The facility is accessible to consumer processes using a set of consumer interface methods. The tree data structure is defined by nodes stored in shared memory and attached to by way of a defined data structure made available to the provider and consumer interface methods. The nodes in the tree data structure are defined to have a control block and a variable set of export data. The export data for any one node is specified by a variable in the control block. Certain of the exported data in the tree is representable in a format selected to have one of four defined properties. A set of tags are defined for the identification of nodes and export information in the tree data structure.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for storing in a computer system, and for providing access to, status information relating to one or more monitored systems, the method comprising:

accepting status information from a set of provider processes performed by computer memory;

creating and defining one or more nodes in a tree data structure and defining content for selected nodes in the tree data structure based on the status information accepted;

accepting requests from a set of consumer processes for obtaining selected information from the nodes in the tree data structure; and

providing the selected information to the consumer processes by accessing the content of specified nodes in the tree data structure,

wherein defining content for selected nodes in the tree data structure comprises defining information in a control block and in a set of export information data for each node in the selected nodes, the control block comprising data defining characteristics of the node and comprising an export variable, and the set of export information data comprising, a variable number of defining elements and for each defining element in the set of defining elements and an associated list of export data items, each defining element and associated list of items having a corresponding export information type specified by the export variable in the control block and selected from the defined set of export information types, and

wherein defining information in a set of export information data comprises defining data to conform to types in the defined set of export information types, the types in the defined set of export information types comprising,

an identifier type for identifying a node;

a set of local property types for specifying status information;

a set of base property types for specifying status information;

a dependent node type for identifying dependent nodes in the tree data structure;

a parent node type for identifying the parent node in the tree data structure;

a parent node type for identifying dependent nodes in the tree data structure;

a provider type for specifying a provider process associated with a node; and

a node control service type for specifying a service accessible by a consumer process for carrying out processing related to the node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein defining information in a set of export information data comprises defining each defining element to specify a starting position for, and the space occupied by, the list of items in the node associated with the defining element.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein defining information in a set of export information data comprises defining data to conform to types in the defined set of export information types, the types in the defined set of export information types, comprising

an identifier type for identifying a node,

a set of local property types for specifying status information,

a set of base property types for specifying status information,

a dependent node type for identifying dependent nodes in the tree data structure,

a parent node type for identifying the parent node in the tree data structure,

a provider type for specifying a provider process associated with a node, and a node control service type for specifying a service accessible by a consumer process for carrying out processing related to the node.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising defining and making available a set of property tags for identifying nodes and export information data.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein defining content for selected nodes comprises defining data to conform to one of a set of representing data properties, the set of representing data properties comprising,

a register property, representable in the computer system by a register sized value and uniquely identifiable by the defined property tag,

a variable property, representable in the computer system by a data having a length longer than the register size and uniquely identifiable by the defined property tag,

an identifier register property, representable in the computer system by a register sized value and identifiable by the defined property tag in association with an identifier value, and

an identifier variable property, representable in the computer system by a data having a length longer than the register size and identifiable by the defined property tag in association with an identifier value.

6. The method of claim 4, defining content for selected nodes comprises defining the node control block to comprise a node tag identifier having a value selectably defined from the set of property tags.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising implementing a node control facility comprising node control services and a set of methods selectably accessible by the consumer processes for the consumer processes to start, stop, interrogate status of, and pass requests to, the node control services.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising invoking a defined node control service for expanding an identified node in the tree data structure into a sub-tree of the tree data structure, in response to a request passes from one of the set of consumer processes.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding one or more types to the defined set of export information types whereby provider processes may add export information data of the added types to the nodes of the tree data structure.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising traversing the tree data structure to locate a target node in the tree data structure having content matching a search parameter specified by a consumer process.

11. A computer implemented method for storing in a computer system, and for providing access to, status information relating to one or more monitored systems, the method comprising:

accepting status information from a set of provider processes performed by computer memory;

creating and defining one or more nodes in a tree data structure and defining content for selected nodes in the tree data structure based on the status information accepted;

accepting requests from a set of consumer processes for obtaining selected information from the nodes in the tree data structure; and

providing the selected information to the consumer processes by accessing the content of specified nodes in the tree data structure,

wherein defining content for selected nodes in the tree data structure comprises defining information in a control block and in a set of export information data for each node in the selected nodes, the control block comprising data defining characteristics of the node and comprising an export variable, the set of export information data comprising, a variable number of defining elements and for each defining element in the set of defining elements and an associated list of export data items, each defining element and associated list of items having a corresponding export information type specified by the export variable in the control block and selected from a defined set of export information types,

wherein the method further includes defining and making available a set of property tags for identifying nodes and export information data, and

wherein defining content for selected nodes comprises defining data to conform to one of a set of representing data properties, the set of representing data properties comprising,

a register property, representable in the computer system by a register sized value and uniquely identifiable by the defined property tag;

a variable property, representable in the computer system by a data having a length longer than the register size and uniquely identifiable by the defined property tag;

an identifier register property, representable in the computer system by a register sized value and identifiable by the defined property tag in association with an identifier value; and

an identifier variable property,

representable in the computer system by a data having a length longer than the register size and identifiable by the defined property tag in association with an identifier value.