System and method for implementing polling agents in a client management tool

• US 7,882,215 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2006
• Issued: 02/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: DeLuca, Steve A., Bishop, David A., Darcy, Paul B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Meky; Moustafa M
• Application Number:
  US11/362,807
• Publication Number:
  US 20060155849A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,799 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/225, 709/208, 709/240, 709/223, 707101-102, 707/705
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3442 for planning or managing the needed capacity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/885 Monitoring specific for caches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• 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 41/5032 Generating service level reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/509 wherein the managed service relates to media content delivery, e.g. audio, video or TV

Abstract

A method and system is provided for implementing a variety of polling agent functions in a client management tool. Users at a central manager are prompted to select either a central polling function or a resident polling function for the collection of client management data from a number of computer objects. Additionally, the polling agent functions of the present invention are capable of distinguishing between critical data and non-critical data and determining an appropriate transmission interval for the data.

Claims

1. A computer system executing instructions to implement a central manager communicatively connected to a plurality of objects, the central manager comprising:

a collection function to distinguish between critical data and non-critical data based on collection frequencies associated with the critical data and noncritical data;

a central polling agent utilizing the collection function to collect critical and non-critical data from the plurality of objects;

a filter for accepting the critical and non-critical data in a pre-existing format and automatically converting the critical and non-critical data to a standardized format; and

a database to integrate the critical and non-critical data collected from the plurality of objects.

2. The computer system recited in claim 1, wherein the computer system is in a central polling mode.

3. The computer system recited in claim 1, wherein a subset of the plurality of objects are configured with resident polling agents, and the computer system operates in a hybrid mode that concurrently executes a central polling mode and a resident polling mode.

4. The computer system recited in claim 3, wherein the computer system reduces traffic generated when collecting the critical and noncritical data from the plurality of objects.

5. The computer system recited in claim 3, wherein the computer system assigns priorities to the critical and non-critical data.

6. The computer system recited in claim 3, wherein the central manager minimizes traffic generated when collecting the critical and noncritical data from the plurality of objects.

7. The computer system of claim 3, further comprising a user console comprising a set of menu entries of available polling agent configurations.

8. The computer system of claim 7, further comprising a user selected change to one of the available polling agent configurations, which reinitializes a client management session and solicits the selected available polling agent configuration.

9. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the critical data comprises performance monitoring data and the non-critical data comprises capacity planning data.

10. A computer system executing instructions to implement a plurality of objects communicatively connected to a central manager, each of the plurality of objects comprising:

a data provider to measure critical and non-critical data;

a cache to store the critical and non-critical data measured by the data provider; and

a resident polling agent to receive a collection function from the central manager specifying intervals to transmit the measured critical and non-critical data to the central manager based on collection frequencies associated with the critical data and non-critical data, wherein the computer system is in a combined central and resident polling mode and a subset of the plurality of objects are concurrently executing in the central polling mode and the resident polling mode.

11. The computer system recited in claim 10, wherein the subset of objects determine the type of non-critical or critical data required and when to send the non-critical or critical data.

12. The computer system of claim 10, further comprising a user interface with one or more user options to create a new archive, to restore archived data, or to delete archived files.

13. A computer system having one or more computer-storage media storing computer-useable instructions that implement a central manager communicatively connected to a plurality of objects, the central manager operates in a hybrid mode that concurrently executes a central polling mode and a resident polling mode, and further comprises:

a collection function to distinguish between critical data and non-critical data based on collection frequencies associated with the critical data and noncritical data;

a central polling agent utilizing the collection function to collect critical and non-critical data from the plurality of objects, wherein the central manager assigns priorities to the critical and non-critical data; and

a database to integrate the critical and non-critical data collected from the plurality of objects, wherein a subset of the plurality of objects are configured with resident polling agents.

14. The computer system of claim 13, further comprising a cache for storing and averaging repeated collections of critical data.