Pseudo-agent

• US 8,161,149 B2
• Filed: 03/07/2008
• Issued: 04/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lippincott, Lisa Ellen, Lincroft, Peter James, Loer, Peter Benjamin, Spiegel, Jeremy Scott, Goodrow, Dennis Sidney, Toto, Gregory Mitchell
• Primary Examiner(s): Lin, Kenny
• Assistant Examiner(s): SMARTH, GERALD A
• Application Number:
  US12/044,614
• Publication Number:
  US 20080222280A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,502 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/173 using an interconnection network, e.g. matrix, shuffle, pyramid, star, snowflake
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning

Abstract

A pseudo-agent is disclosed herein that bridges this divide. For purposes of the discussion herein, a pseudo-agent is a machine that is installed on a fully capable host machine, such as a Windows or UNIX machine, and that gathers and evaluates content from a management server, takes actions if so instructed, and reports the results of its evaluation upstream. However, unlike an agent in a traditional management system, which inspects and acts on the local machine, the pseudo-agent actually inspects and acts on a remote device, or many remote devices.

Claims

1. An apparatus for managing at least one device that cannot host a management function, comprising:

one or more processors;

an entity to determine at least one device cannot host a management function;

a pseudo-agent processor (pseudo-agent) installed on and executing in, in response to the determination, a host machine on a network, said device cannot host a management function;

at least one connector in communication with said pseudo-agent for interoperating with said at least one device on behalf of said pseudo-agent, said at least one connector configured to inspect values on said at least one device;

a management system for providing information to said pseudo-agent, said information comprising any of;

management information, remediation information and policy enforcement information;

said pseudo-agent further comprising means;

for evaluating said information;

for determining, in response to said evaluating, relevance of said information to said at least one device, based upon evaluation thereof, said pseudo-agent automatically determining relevance based on configuration attributes and personal attributes;

for taking, in response to said determining, one or more actions in connection with said at least one device, if so instructed by said management system via said information, based upon said relevance determination; and

for reporting results of said evaluation, relevance determination, and taking of one or more actions to said management system.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, said management system comprising:

a server/relay;

a management console; and

a network for said server/relay to communicate with said pseudo-agent host machine.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, said pseudo-agent automatically determining relevance based on any of:

hardware attributes;

database attributes;

environmental attributes;

computed attributes;

remote attributes;

timeliness;

randomization; and

advice attributes.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, said pseudo-agent evaluating said information by automatically performing any of:

mathematico-logical calculations;

executing computational algorithms;

returning results of system calls;

accessing contents of said at least one device;

querying said at least one device to evaluate any of;

said properties of said at least one device;

said at least one device'"'"'s configuration;

contents of storage devices associated with said at least one device;

peripherals associated with said at least one device; and

said at least one device'"'"'s environment.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, said pseudo-agent comprising:

a pseudo-agent layer for evaluating relevance and reporting on behalf of said at least one device; and

a connector layer for remediating said at least one device.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said pseudo-agent periodically connects said at least one device and sends to it a batch of queries that have been collected from said management system.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, said pseudo-agent comprising:

an inspector for inspection of values on said at least one device;

wherein said inspector is parameterized with an argument and is not allowed to feed results of relevance evaluation into said inspector;

wherein said management system collects all instances of the inspector, creates a list of values to retrieve from the pseudo-agent, and retrieves at least one value for each unique argument.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein inspections performed by said inspector comprise inspecting any of:

remote device operating system version;

remote device processor properties; and

remote device software and/or hardware version.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, said inspector comprising:

a set of built-in inspectors that is available for each said at least one device, and which comprise any of;

type of remote device; and

last connect time of remote device.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, said at least one device comprising any of:

network devices;

mobile devices;

exotic operating system devices;

monitoring and control devices; and

virtual devices.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said device is a logical element.

12. A computer implemented method for managing at least one device that cannot host a management function, comprising the steps of:

providing one or more processors;

determining, by an entity, at least one device cannot host a management function;

providing, in response to said determination, a pseudo-agent processor (pseudo-agent) installed on, and executing in, a host machine on a network, said device cannot host a management function;

providing at least one connector in communication with said pseudo-agent for interoperating with said at least one device on behalf of said pseudo-agent, said at least one connector configured to inspect values on said at least one device;

providing a management system for supplying information to said pseudo-agent, said information comprising any of;

management information, remediation information, and policy enforcement information;

said pseudo-agent further performing the steps of;

evaluating said information;

determining relevance of said information to said at least one device, based upon evaluation thereof, said pseudo-agent determining relevance based on configuration attributes and personal attributes;

taking one or more actions in connection with said at least one device, if so instructed by said management system via said information, based upon said relevance determination; and

reporting results of said evaluation, relevance determination, and taking of one or more actions to said management system.