Visual outage management tool

• US 8,726,103 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2010
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lee, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Iqbal, Nadeem
• Application Number:
  US12/962,215
• Publication Number:
  US 20120144250A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,253 Days
• Field of Search: 714/37, 714/38.1, 714/39, 714/40, 714/45, 714/46, 714/47.1, 714/47.2, 714/47.3, 714 48- 50, 714/57
• US Class Current: 714/57
• 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 11/3017 where the computing system is implementing multitasking multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/302 where the computing system component is a software system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/328 Computer systems status display G06F11/327 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Described herein are systems related to a visual tool for providing a dynamic and accessible collaborative environment during a production outage or network downtime. An outage management tool comprising a server application tool receiving and storing monitoring data related to an operation of a network and application-level components of the network, wherein the monitoring data includes outage information corresponding to one of the network and the application-level components, and a visualization tool generating an interactive representation of the network including the outage information, the visualization tool and generating, in response to a request, an adjusted interactive representation of the network including application-level components affected by an outage and event traffic related to the outage.

Claims

1. An outage management tool, comprising:

a server application tool receiving and storing monitoring data related to an operation of a network and application-level components of the network, wherein the monitoring data includes outage information corresponding to one of the network and the application-level components; and

a visualization tool generating an interactive representation of the network including the outage information, the interactive representation including a three-dimensional depiction of the network, the three-dimensional depiction providing a pictorial representation of the application-level components of the network, the pictorial representation representing each of the application-level components in a same relationship to the remaining application-level components as in the network, the visualization tool generating, in response to a request, an adjusted interactive representation of the network including application-level components affected by an outage and event traffic related to the outage.

2. The outage management tool of claim 1, wherein the server application tool includes a messaging framework for controlling the event traffic between the server application tool and a monitoring tool.

3. The outage management tool of claim 1, wherein the server application tool receives updated monitoring data and transmits the updated monitoring data to the visualization tool.

4. The outage management tool of claim 1, wherein the visualization tool includes one of a diagrammer building the interactive representation, a customizable palette of symbols, and a symbol editor for adjusting the symbols.

5. The outage management tool of claim 4, wherein the interactive representation includes a three-dimensional rendering of the network and application-level components constructed by the diagrammer.

6. The outage management tool of claim 1, wherein the interactive representation is transmitted to a client application tool for displaying the monitoring data, wherein the request is user input received from the client application tool.

7. The outage management tool of claim 1, wherein the outage management tool is a browser-based software application.

8. The outage management tool of claim 1, wherein the server application tool includes a repository storing the monitoring data and historical network operation data.

9. The outage management tool of claim 1, further including:

a reporting tool generating a report of the monitoring data, wherein the report includes post-outage metrics, diagnosis data, and resolution data related to the outage.

10. The outage management tool of claim 1, wherein the event traffic includes information related to one of network status, application-level component status, affected components, impacted applications, outage issues, outage causes, user impact details, current tasks being performed, prior task performed, task progress, personnel involved in the outage.

11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including a set of instructions that are executable by a processor, the set of instructions, when executed by the processor, causing the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving and storing, by a server application tool, monitoring data related to an operation of a network and application-level components of the network, wherein the monitoring data includes outage information corresponding to one of the network and the application-level components;

generating, by a visualization tool, an interactive representation of the network including the outage information, the interactive representation including a three-dimensional depiction of the network, the three-dimensional depiction providing a pictorial representation of the application-level components of the network, the pictorial representation representing each of the application-level components in a same relationship to the remaining application-level components as in the network, the visualization tool generating, in response to a request, an adjusted interactive representation of the network including application-level components affected by the outage and event traffic related to the outage.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the server application tool includes a messaging framework for controlling the event traffic between the server application tool and a monitoring tool.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving updated monitoring data; and

transmitting the updated monitoring data to the visualization tool.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the visualization tool includes one of a diagrammer building the interactive representation, a customizable palette of symbols, and a symbol editor for adjusting the symbols.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the interactive representation includes a three-dimensional rendering of the network and application-level components constructed by the diagrammer.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the interactive representation is transmitted to a client application tool for displaying the monitoring data, wherein the request is user input received from the client application tool.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions are performed via a browser-based software application.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the server application tool includes a repository storing the monitoring data and historical network operation data.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

generating, by a reporting tool, a report of the monitoring data, wherein the report includes post-outage metrics, diagnosis data, and resolution data related to an outage.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the event traffic includes information related to one of network status, application-level component status, affected components, impacted applications, outage issues, outage causes, user impact details, current tasks being performed, prior task performed, task progress, personnel involved in the outage.