Computing system infrastructure to administer distress messages

• US 8,312,135 B2
• Filed: 02/02/2007
• Issued: 11/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chandrasekaran, Nirupama, Parupudi, Gopal, Padhi, Prabhu, Yim, Ben, Gul, Atif
• Primary Examiner(s): Follansbee, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mejia, Anthony
• Application Number:
  US11/670,838
• Publication Number:
  US 20080189369A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,111 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/223, 709/224
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0609 based on severity or priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0686 Additional information in the notification, e.g. enhancement of specific meta-data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area

Abstract

A system and method that allows for distress or SoS messages from various managed resources to be sent to a reliable location such as a server. The server can gather the distress messages and provide a summary or health status based on the gathered distress messages.

Claims

1. A resource comprising:

a memory;

one or more processors operatively coupled to the memory; and

an interface component coupled to the memory, configured to provide an interface between the resource and a dedicated communication channel, wherein;

the dedicated communication channel provides for communicating, via one of a variety of communication protocols and independent from restrictions imposed by firewalls or other security measures, a distress message describing detailed issues relating to at least one application on the resource to a fallback status point (FSP) server that is continuously available to the resource;

the distress message is generated from a minimum reporting set that provides a library of generic messages that applies to and represents needs of a plurality of different applications configured to be executed on the resource, wherein the minimum reporting set helps one or more of the plurality of different applications generate a plurality of different distress messages in different communication formats; and

the FSP server is an intermediate server to a second server that deploys an agent, and the FSP server monitors and updates the resource, the FSP server being independent from the resource and the second server and the FSP server filtering a plurality of distress messages so that a subset of distress messages that are most recently received from the resource have priority for propagation to the second server over older distress messages received from the resource.

2. The resource of claim 1, wherein the interface component is a communication pipe interface and the dedicated communication channel is a communication pipe continuously available to the resource and the FSP server.

3. The resource of claim 1, wherein the dedicated communication channel uses a particular protocol of the variety of communication protocols at the resource and the FSP server, where the distress message is passed absent any other process or infrastructure.

4. The resource of claim 1, further comprising an application program interface to format and send the distress message.

5. The resource of claim 1, wherein the resource is one of the following:

a cell phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a laptop computer, a desktop computer, or a mobile communication device.

6. A server comprising:

a memory;

one or more processors operatively coupled to the memory;

a collector included in the memory, and configured to receive a plurality of distress messages describing detailed issues relating to a plurality of agents deployed on a plurality of resources, wherein;

the plurality of distress messages are directly received from the plurality of resources through a plurality of continuously available communication pipes that implement one of a variety of communication protocols used to communicate the plurality of distress messages independent from restrictions imposed by firewalls or other security measures;

the server is a fallback status point (FSP) server that gathers the plurality of distress messages received and communicates with a second server that monitors and updates the plurality of resources; and

the collector filters the plurality of distress messages according to the respective resources, such that distress messages that are most recently received from a resource have priority for propagation to the second server over older distress messages received from the same resource;

a summarizer that summarizes respective portions of the filtered distress messages per a predefined format thereby providing a plurality of summarized distress messages; and

a reporter configured to send one or more of the plurality of summarized distress messages to the second server in accordance with a maximum number of distress messages the second server is configured to handle within a certain period of time.

7. The server of claim 6, wherein the second server defines the predefined format.

8. The server of claim 6, wherein the reporter sends the one or more of the plurality of summarized distress messages to the second server such that the second server provides appropriate action to mitigate one or more problems in the plurality of resources, wherein the one or more problems relate to a service, health, installation, communication, or configuration issue.

9. A method comprising:

receiving, via one of a variety of communication protocols and independent from restrictions imposed by firewalls or other security measures, a plurality of distress messages describing detailed issues relating to one or more deployed agents on one or more resources, wherein the plurality of distress messages are received at a dedicated network location that is separate from the one or more resources, the dedicated location being a fallback status point (FSP) server;

storing the plurality of distress messages received;

filtering, under control of a processor, the plurality of distress messages received so that recent distress messages received from the one or more resources have priority for propagation to the second server over older distress messages received from the one or more resources;

summarizing the recent distress messages according to a format determined by an enterprise server; and

relaying the summarized recent distress messages to an enterprise server in accordance with a maximum number of distress messages the enterprise server is configured to handle within a predetermined period of time.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the detailed issues are identified to be associated with one or more applications resident at the one or more resources.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein any of the one or more applications can report service, health, installation, communication, or configuration problems.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the plurality of distress messages allow an administrator to perform one or more of the following:

determine problems at the one or more resources, root cause analysis, and trend analysis.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the receiving is through a continuously available network communication channel connecting the one or more resources to the dedicated location.