Enterprise management system

• US 8,230,056 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2010
• Issued: 07/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bishop, David A., Hoover, Kelvin M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Swearingen, Jeffrey R
• Application Number:
  US12/957,665
• Publication Number:
  US 20110145383A1
• Time in Patent Office: 601 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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 41/0253 using browsers or web-pages for accessing management information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/065 involving logical or physical relationship, e.g. grouping and hierarchies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/069 using logs of notifications; Post-processing of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity

Abstract

A Managed Site (10), a logical network entity, is composed of a number of Sub Sites (20) in a one to many relationship. A Sub Site (20) is a logical component, which is composed of a number of Engines (30). Nodes (40) similarly relates to their Engine (30) in a many to one relationship. A Node (40) is a collection of Managed Elements (ME'"'"'s) (50) (while being an ME (50) itself), which represent network state information. The subsite (20) consists of the engine (30) connected to server nodes (40). One or more clients (110) are connected to the management engine (30) and access management engine (30) information relating to managed elements (50) including nodes (40). The connected manager engines may communicate with one another so that, for example, in the event of a failure, one of the manager engines remaining on line commences monitoring of manage elements assigned to the failed manager engine. Upon accessing the manager engine (30), the client interface displays relationships among managed elements (50) using meaningful connectors and tree-like structures. In addition to basic managed element state monitoring functionality, the manager engine (30) provides a variety of automated tasks ensuring the health of the network and optimal failure correction in the event of a problem. For example, the manager engine (30) performs root cause analysis utilizing an algorithm tracing through manged element (50) relationships and indicating the source of the failure.

Claims

1. A manager engine system operable for use with a computer network, the computer network including a plurality of managed sites, each of the plurality of managed sites including a plurality of manager engine computers, each one manager engine computer of the plurality of manager engine computers coupled to a corresponding plurality of managed nodes, the manager engine computer system comprising:

a computing processor;

computing memory communicatively coupled with the computing processor, the computing memory having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that cause the system to perform operations comprising;

operating a management component being capable of retrieving and storing data representative of network state information, the network state information comprising a subset of a plurality of managed network elements, wherein at least one of the subset of the plurality of managed network elements represents at least one of the corresponding plurality of managed nodes; and

operating a managed element assignment manager component, the managed element assignment manager software component facilitating assignment of the managed network elements among the plurality of manager engine computers using a load balancing formula, the load balancing algorithm incorporating load balancing parameters, the managed element assignment management component performing the following;

generating a mean engine load for a plurality of managed nodes;

identifying managed nodes in the plurality of managed nodes with a load outside of an established interval of the generated mean engine load;

creating a first sorted list from the identified managed nodes, the first sorted list comprising managed nodes having a load greater than an average load of the plurality of managed nodes;

creating a second sorted list of identified managed nodes, the second sorted list comprising managed nodes having a load less than an average load of the plurality of managed nodes;

reassigning processing from managed nodes in the first sorted list to managed nodes in the second sorted list.

2. The manager engine system computer network of claim 1, wherein the load balancing parameters include a Mean Engine Load parameter.

3. The manager engine system computer network of claim 1, wherein the load balancing parameters include an Average Engine Load parameter.

4. The manager engine system computer network of claim 1, wherein the load balancing parameters include a Low Tide Mark parameter.

5. The manager engine system computer network of claim 1, wherein the load balancing parameters include a High Tide Mark parameter.

6. The manager engine system computer network of claim 1, wherein the load balancing parameters include a Low Water Mark parameter.

7. The manager engine system computer network of claim 1, wherein the load balancing parameters include a High Water Mark parameter.

8. The manager engine system computer network of claim 1, wherein the manager engine computer further comprises a replication manager software component, the replication manager software component facilitating synchronization among the plurality of manager engine of the stored data representative of network state information.

9. A computer-implemented method for assigning processing in a computing system, comprising:

generating a mean engine load for a plurality of managed nodes;

identifying managed nodes in the plurality of managed nodes with a load outside of an established interval of the generated mean engine load;

creating a first sorted list from the identified managed nodes, the first sorted list comprising managed nodes having a load greater than an average load of the plurality of managed nodes;

creating a second sorted list of identified managed nodes, the second sorted list comprising managed nodes having a load less than an average load of the plurality of managed nodes;

reassigning processing from managed nodes in the first sorted list to managed nodes in the second sorted list.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein identifying managed nodes in the plurality of managed nodes with a load outside of an established interval of the generated mean engine load comprises:

identifying nodes in the plurality of managed nodes having a load greater than a first predetermined value or less than a second predetermined value.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein creating a first sorted list from the identified managed nodes comprises sorting managed nodes in descending order based on load.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein creating a second sorted list from the identified managed nodes comprises sorting managed nodes in ascending order based on load.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein reassigning processing from managed nodes in the first sorted list to managed nodes in the second sorted list comprises reassigning processing from the first item in the first sorted list to the first item in the second sorted list.

14. An article of manufacture, comprising a computer readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that cause a computing system to perform operations comprising:

generating a mean engine load for a plurality of managed nodes;

identifying managed nodes in the plurality of managed nodes with a load outside of an established interval of the generated mean engine load;

creating a first sorted list from the identified managed nodes, the first sorted list comprising managed nodes having a load greater than an average load of the plurality of managed nodes;

creating a second sorted list of identified managed nodes, the second sorted list comprising managed nodes having a load less than an average load of the plurality of managed nodes; and

reassigning processing from managed nodes in the first sorted list to managed nodes in the second sorted list.