System and method to dynamically extend a management information base using SNMP in an application server environment

• US 8,001,228 B2
• Filed: 01/15/2009
• Issued: 08/16/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Inamdar, Rajendra, Shrivastava, Sandeep, Cico, Michael, Mousseau, Richard P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Barot; Bharat
• Application Number:
  US12/354,734
• Publication Number:
  US 20090182849A1
• Time in Patent Office: 943 Days
• Field of Search: 709202-203, 709220-226, 709/230
• US Class Current: 709/223
• 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 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227

Abstract

A system and method for sharing security information across multiple SNMP Agents running within a domain, including features such as dynamically extending SNMP MIB to expose customer MBeans with SNMP. The system includes a managed server instance of an application that hosts an SNMP agent. An agent or sub-agent is registered to the SNMP Agent on each managed server and there is a management information base which describes different management attributes that the application server exposes. A network-manager hosts a SNMP manager that communicates with the SNMP Agents. A non-application server specific MBean exposes a set of attributes about the application to the sub-agent and hosts the non-application server specific MBean in a dynamic MIB. The set of attributes are communicated through SNMP by the SNMP Agent to SNMP manager, to extend the SNMP MIB dynamically, and allow the non-application server specific MBean to be exposed through SNMP.

Claims

1. A system to dynamically extend a management information base to expose a set of attributes associated with an application comprising:

a managed server instance in a domain, wherein the managed server instance includes a SNMP Agent, an application having a sub-agent associated therewith, and a managed bean or object that exposes a set of attributes associated with the application, wherein the sub-agent is registered to the SNMP agent, and wherein the sub-agent receives the set of attributes associated with the application from the managed bean or object;

an administration server in the domain, wherein the administration server includes a management information base capable of receiving the set of attributes associated with the application, and a SNMP manager that communicates with said SNMP Agent on the managed server instance, and wherein the management information base is stored in a computer readable storage medium;

wherein upon exposing the set of attributes about the application to the sub-agent by the managed bean or object, the set of attributes are communicated through SNMP by the SNMP Agent to the SNMP manager on the administration server, and wherein in response to communicating the set of attributes to the SNMP manager, the management information base is dynamically extended by creating an entry in the management information base to include the set of attributes received from the SNMP manager; and

wherein the set of attributes are then available to one or more other managed server instances in the domain.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the SNMP Agent on the managed server acts as a master agent to which a sub-agent can register.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the SNMP manager on the administration server exchanges monitoring and control information about the application and a resource to the SNMP Agent on the managed server instance using SNMP.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein a network-manager views the sub-agent and the SNMP Agent on the managed server as one entity, and wherein the sub-agent provides an extensibility mechanism to dynamically generate the management information base entries for the managed bean or object associated with the application.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising a resource in addition to the application on the managed server, wherein a sub-agent associated with the resource exposes a set of attributes of the resource to the SNMP Agent of the managed server, and wherein the set of attributes are communicated from the SNMP Agent to the SNMP manager at the administration server.

6. The system of claim 1 further including a plurality of managed server instances in a domain, wherein each managed server instance includes a plurality of applications, each particular application having a sub-agent associated therewith, a SNMP Agent, and a managed bean or object that exposes a set of attributes associated with that particular application, wherein the set of attributes for the plurality of applications are communicated through SNMP by the SNMP Agent to the SNMP manager on the administration server.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the set of attributes at the administration server for each of the plurality of applications is available through SNMP to the plurality of managed server instances.

8. A method to dynamically extend a management information base to expose a set of attributes associated with an application comprising the steps of:

providing a managed server instance in a domain, wherein the managed server instance includes an application, a SNMP Agent, and a managed bean or object that exposes a set of attributes associated with the application;

registering a sub-agent to said SNMP Agent on the managed server instance, wherein the sub-agent is associated with the application, and wherein the sub-agent receives the set of attributes associated with the application from the managed bean or object;

providing an administration server that includes a management information base capable of receiving the set of attributes associated with the application, and a SNMP manager that communicates with the SNMP Agent on the managed server instance;

exposing, by a managed bean or object on the managed server instance, the set of attributes associated with the application to the sub-agent registered to the SNMP Agent on the managed server instance;

communicating the set of attributes through SNMP by the SNMP Agent to the SNMP manager on the administration server; and

extending the management information base dynamically by creating an entry in the management information base to include the set of attributes received from the SNMP manager; and

wherein the set of attributes are then available to one or more other managed server instances in the domain.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said SNMP Agent on said managed server is configurable.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the sub-agent has a unique id used to identify the sub-agent amongst a plurality of sub-agents.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising the steps of:

configuring security aspects of SNMP on said SNMP manager, wherein the security aspects are centralized to said SNMP manager; and

wherein the SNMP manager which is monitoring a plurality of SNMP Agents running on a plurality of managed servers can directly go to a particular one of the plurality of SNMP Agents to configure security aspects of the particular SNMP Agent.

12. The method of claim 8 further comprising providing a plurality of managed server instances in a domain, wherein each managed server instance includes a plurality of applications, each particular application having a sub-agent associated therewith, a SNMP Agent, and a managed bean or object that exposes a set of attributes associated with that particular application, wherein the set of attributes for the plurality of applications are communicated through SNMP by the SNMP Agent to the SNMP manager on the administration server.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the set of attributes at the administration server for each of the plurality of applications is available through SNMP to the plurality of managed server instances.

14. A computer readable medium including instructions stored thereon for dynamically extending a management information base to expose a set of attributes associated with an application, wherein said instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

providing a managed server instance in a domain, wherein the managed server instance includes an application, a SNMP Agent, and a managed bean or object that exposes a set of attributes associated with the application;

registering a sub-agent to said SNMP Agent on the managed server instance, wherein the sub-agent is associated with the application, and wherein the sub-agent receives the set of attributes associated with the application from the managed bean or object;

providing an administration server that includes a management information base capable of receiving the set of attributes associated with the application, and a SNMP manager that communicates with the SNMP Agent on the managed server instance;

exposing, by the managed bean or object on the managed server instance, the set of attributes associated with the application to the sub-agent registered to the SNMP Agent on the managed server instance;

communicating the set of attributes through SNMP by the SNMP Agent to the SNMP manager on the administration server; and

extending the management information base dynamically by creating an entry in the management information base to include the set of attributes received from the SNMP manager; and

wherein the set of attributes are then available to one or more other managed server instances in the domain.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14 wherein said SNMP Agent provides a read-only access to a managed bean or object server.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 14 wherein said SNMP Agent on said managed server is configurable.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 14 wherein the sub-agent has a unique id used to identify the sub-agent from a plurality of sub-agents.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 14 further comprising instructions stored thereon which when executed cause the computer to perform the steps of:

configuring security aspects of SNMP on said SNMP manager, wherein the security aspects are centralized to said SNMP manager; and

wherein the SNMP manager which is monitoring a plurality of SNMP Agents running on a plurality of managed servers can directly go to a particular one of the plurality of SNMP Agents to configure security aspects of the particular SNMP Agent.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 14 further comprising providing a plurality of managed server instances in a domain, wherein each managed server instance includes a plurality of applications, each particular application having a sub-agent associated therewith, a SNMP Agent, and a managed bean or object that exposes a set of attributes associated with that particular application, wherein the set of attributes for the plurality of applications are communicated through SNMP by the SNMP Agent to the SNMP manager on the administration server.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19 wherein the set of attributes at the administration server for each of the plurality of applications is available through SNMP to the plurality of managed server instances.