Monitoring delegated operations in information management systems

• US 8,522,248 B1
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Issued: 08/27/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Nair, Manoj, Perrin, Stephen R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen, Li B
• Assistant Examiner(s): WHEATON, BRADFORD F
• Application Number:
  US11/864,774
• Time in Patent Office: 2,160 Days
• Field of Search: 718/104
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3048 where the topology of the computing system or computing system component explicitly influences the monitoring activity, e.g. serial, hierarchical systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3065 Monitoring arrangements determined by the means or processing involved in reporting the monitored data error or fault reporting or logging G06F11/0766
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5013 Request control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/509 Offload
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Information management is provided. Information management may include a method of monitoring the information management processes. The method may include delegating one or more information management processing operations to one or more external computing resources. The information management processing operations require intelligence provided by an information management server. Monitoring information received from the external computing resources indicates that the external computing resources are performing the one or more delegated information management processing operations. An analysis of a subset of data objects from the information management system is performed to ensure that the delegated information management process operations have been performed on the data objects.

Claims

1. In an information management system including a series of computing resources performing a plurality of delegated information management processes, a method of performing information management, the method comprising:

performing, by an information management system, information management processing operations including;

discovering data objects in a computing system;

classifying the data objects by assigning categories to each of the data objects;

mapping the data objects to service level based on the assigned categories, wherein each of the data objects is considered individually according to the assigned categories; and

orchestrating services for the data objects based on the service levels, wherein the services are individualized for each of the data objects, wherein orchestrating services includes executing actions for one or more of the data objects and;

delegating, by the information management system, one or more of at least some of the information management processing operations to one or more external computing resources;

providing, by the information management system, the external computing resources with access to configuration data required to perform the delegated information management processing operations, wherein the external computing resources perform the delegated information management processing operations using the configuration data;

receiving network information from the external computing resources, the network information including results of the delegated information management processing operations performed by the external computing resources, wherein the information management system uses the network information in performing the information processing operations;

receiving monitoring information from the one or more external computing resources indicating that the one or more external computing resources are performing the one or more delegated information management processing operations; and

performing an analysis of a subset of data objects on which the delegated information management processing operations were performed from the information management system to ensure that the delegated information management process operations have been performed on the data objects, wherein performing an analysis of a subset of data objects includes reviewing the actions executed for at least some the subset of data objects in order to discover or detect any incomplete or incorrect processing operations.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein performing an analysis of a subset of data objects comprises performing redundant information management processing operations on the subset of data objects in order to discover or detect any incomplete or incorrect processing operations.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the delegated information management processing operations comprise:

classifying objects according to their location in the network, the objects including data, servers and services operating in the network;

assigning categories to each of the data objects according to a series of rules;

mapping service levels, wherein each service level includes one or more services;

or

orchestrating services, wherein actions proposed or actions are executed for one or more objects.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a report of the analysis of the subset of data objects indicating whether the delegated information management processing operations have been performed on the subset of data objects.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the subset of data objects is selected randomly from the set of all data objects in the system.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the subset of data objects is selected from the set of data objects in a category of data objects.

7. An information management system for managing information in a computing environment, the system comprising:

an information management server having at least one processor configured to perform information management, the information management server including;

an environment discovery module configured for discovering the configuration and state of environment objects within the computing environment;

a classification module configured for categorizing objects, including environment objects and data objects;

an orchestration module configured for executing policies in regard to the categorized objects, wherein the orchestration module executes actions for one or more of the data objects,

wherein the information management server;

delegates at least some operations performed by one of the environment discovery module, the classification module or the orchestration module to an external computing resource; and

provides configuration data for performing the delegated operations to the external computing resource; and

an information management module capable of performing an analysis of the delegated operations performed by the external computing resource by performing an analysis on a subset of data objects on which the delegated operations were performed,

wherein the information management system ensures that operations of the environment discovery module, classification module, and orchestration module delegated to the external computing resource are functioning properly and performs an analysis of a subset of data objects, which analysis includes reviewing the actions executed for at least some of the subset of data objects in order to discover or detect any incomplete or incorrect processing operation,

wherein the information management servers uses network information returned by the external computing resource in performing the information management in the computing environment, the network information including results of the delegated operations.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the information management module, when performing an analysis of a subset of data objects in the information management system, performs redundant information management processing operations on the subset of data objects in order to discover or detect any incomplete or incorrect processing operations.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the information management module generates a report of the analysis of the subset of data objects indicating whether environment discovery module, classification module, and orchestration module are functioning properly.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the subset of data objects is selected randomly from the set of all data objects in the system.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the subset of data objects is selected from the set of data objects in a category of objects.

12. An information management system for managing information in a computing environment, the system comprising:

an information management server having at least one processor and configured to perform information management in the computing environment, wherein performing information management includes performing operations including;

discovery operations,

information classification operations,

service level mapping operations, and

service orchestration operations,

the information management server including;

an environment discovery module configured to perform the discovery operations which include discovering a configuration and state of environment objects within the computing environment;

a classification module configured to perform the information classification operations which include categorizing objects including environment objects and data objects;

an orchestration module configured to perform the service orchestration operations which include executing policies in regard to the categorized objects and execute actions for one or more of the data objects;

wherein at least some of the discovery operations, information classification operations, service level mapping operations or service orchestration operations are delegated to an external computing resource; and

an information management module capable of performing an analysis of a subset of data objects on which the delegated operations were performed to ensure that the policies in regard to the data objects have been properly executed, wherein the analysis includes reviewing the actions executed for at least some of the subset of data objects in order to discover or detect any incomplete or incorrect processing operations,

wherein the information management module ensures that the policies in regard to the data objects have been properly executed by the external computing resource.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the analysis of a subset of data objects in the information management system includes performing redundant information management processing operations on the subset of data objects in order to determine if the environment discovery module, classification module, and orchestration module are functioning properly.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the analysis of a subset of data objects in the information management system includes reviewing the actions executed for a data object in order to discover or detect any incomplete or incorrect processing operations.

15. The system of claim 13, further comprising the information management module generating a report of the analysis of the subset of data objects indicating whether environment discovery module, classification module, and orchestration module are functioning properly.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the subset of data objects is selected randomly from the set of all data objects in the system.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the subset of data objects is selected from the set of data objects in a category of objects.