Discovery of component relationships in distributed data processing networks

• US 7,697,545 B1
• Filed: 07/14/2005
• Issued: 04/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: O'Sullivan, Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): Ryman; Daniel J
• Assistant Examiner(s): OH, ANDREW CHUNG SUK
• Application Number:
  US11/182,654
• Time in Patent Office: 1,734 Days
• Field of Search: 370/254, 370/255, 370/256, 370/257, 370/258, 370/395.52
• US Class Current: 370/395.52
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/161 Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures

Abstract

A technique for automated discovery of relationships between components providing a service and discovery of the relationship of shared components to other services. A discovery engine determines a management address for a component experiencing a problem and retrieves a TCP connection table for the component. It then identifies TCP connections that are either active or that were recently active. For each, the destination address is added to a global connection table. After the TCP connection table has been processed in this manner, the global connection table is traversed and TCP connection tables for each listed destination address are examined recursively. At the conclusion of this recursive process, the management table contains a list of management agents in the distributed system to which the original component had a TCP connection, either directly or indirectly.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for automatically discovering component relationships in a network, the method comprising:

receiving, at a computer system, an origination IP address of an original component;

determining, at the computer system, an original management address associated with the origination IP address of the original component;

storing, at the computer system, the original management address;

retrieving, at the computer system, a TCP connection table associated with the original component, the TCP connection table includes entries, each entry identifies;

(a) a TCP connection between the original component and another component, and (b) a source IP address;

for each entry of at least selected entries of the TCP connection table, at the computer system;

comparing the source IP address to the origination IP address;

if the source IP address and the origination IP address are the same, discarding the entry; and

if the source IP address and the origination IP address are not the same, storing the entry in a global connection table; and

for each entry in the global connection table, at the computer system;

determining an associated management address;

comparing the associated management address to the original management address;

if the associated management address and the original management address are the same, discarding the entry of the global connection table; and

if the associated management address and the original management address are not the same, storing the entry of the global connection table.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the storing the entry of the global connection table comprises storing the entry of the global connection table in a management agent table as a newly added entry, the method further comprising:

for at least one newly added entry of the management agent table, retrieving a new TCP connection table, the new TCP connection table include entries, each of which identifies;

(a) a TCP connection between a new original component and a new another component, the new original component has a new origination IP address and (b) a new source IP address;

for each entry of at least selected entries of the new TCP connection table;

comparing the new source IP address to the new origination IP address;

if the new source IP address and the new origination IP address are the same, discarding the entry of the new TCP connection; and

if the new source IP address and the new origination IP address are not the same, storing the entry of the new TCP connection in the global connection table as a newly added entry; and

for each newly added entry in the global connection table;

determining an associated management address;

comparing the associated management address of the newly added entry to the original management address;

if the associated management address of the newly added entry and the original management address are the same, discarding the newly added entry of the global connection table; and

if the associated management address of the newly added entry and the original management address are not the same, storing the newly added entry of the global connection table.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the storing the original management address comprises storing the original management address in a management agent table; and

the storing the entry of the global connection table comprises storing the entry of the global connection table in the management agent table, the management agent table identifies management agents to which the original component had a TCP connection, directly and indirectly.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

each entry of the at least selected entries of the TCP connection table is selected by determining that a connection between the original component and the another component is open.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

each entry of the at least selected entries of the TCP connection table is selected by determining that a TCP connection between the original component and the another component was open.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

each entry of the at least selected entries of the TCP connection table is selected by determining that a TCP connection between the original component and the another component is active.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein:

for each entry of the at least selected entries of the TCP connection table, the determining that the TCP connection is active comprises determining that a connection state of the TCP connection is at least one of;

ESTABLISHED, FIN_WAIT_I, FIN_WAIT_—

2, CLOSE_WAIT, CLOSING, LAST_ACK, or TIME-WAIT.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the original component is a web server responding to a client request, and the IP address of the original component is received with a notification that a problem exists with the web server; and

said steps of determining the original management address, storing the original management address, and retrieving the TCP connection table, are performed in response to receipt of the notification of the problem.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the TCP connection table is retrieved by an access method in accordance with a SNMP standard.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the storing the original management address comprises storing the original management address in a management agent table; and

the storing the entry of the global connection table comprises storing the entry of the global connection table in the management agent table, the management agent table provides a list which identifies management agents to which the original component had a connection, directly and indirectly.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

after the retrieving the TCP connection table, and prior to the comparing step for the TCP connection table, discarding entries of the TCP connection table for which a TCP connection is determined to be inactive.

12. A tangible computer readable storage medium having instructions configured to cause a processor to perform a method for automatically discovering component relationships in a network, the method comprising:

receiving an origination address of an original component;

determining an original management address associated with the origination address of the original component;

storing the original management address;

retrieving a connection table associated with the original component, the connection table includes entries, each entry identifies;

(a) a connection between the original component and another component, and (b) a source address;

for each entry of at least selected entries of the connection table;

comparing the source address to the origination address;

if the source address and the origination address are the same, discarding the entry; and

if the source address and the origination address are not the same, storing the entry in a global connection table; and

for each entry in the global connection table;

determining an associated management address;

comparing the associated management address to the original management address;

if the associated management address and the original management address are the same, discarding the entry of the global connection table; and

if the associated management address and the original management address are not the same, storing the entry of the global connection table.

13. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the method performed further comprises:

after the retrieving the connection table, and prior to the comparing step for the connection table, discarding entries of the connection table for which a connection is determined to be inactive.

14. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein:

the storing the original management address comprises storing the original management address in a management agent table; and

the storing the entry of the global connection table comprises storing the entry of the global connection table in the management agent table, the management agent table provides a list which identifies management agents to which the original component had a connection, directly and indirectly.

15. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein:

each entry of the at least selected entries of the connection table is selected by determining that a connection between the original component and the another component is open.

16. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein:

each entry of the at least selected entries of the connection table is selected by determining that a connection between the original component and the another component was open.