Managing clients utilizing reverse transactions

• US 8,972,543 B1
• Filed: 04/11/2012
• Issued: 03/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Spirent Communications Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Spirent Communications Incorporated
• Inventors: Park, Soo Hwan
• Primary Examiner(s): Golabbakhsh, Ebrahim
• Application Number:
  US13/444,299
• Time in Patent Office: 1,056 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/221
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/028 for synchronisation between service call and response
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/029 Firewall traversal, e.g. tunnelling or, creating pinholes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1433 Vulnerability analysis

Abstract

Various embodiments are directed to systems and methods for managing a plurality of clients. A controller may be programmed to receive a first request message from a first client. The request message may be formatted as a request according to a transport layer protocol and may comprise information describing the first client. The controller may also select a command to be executed by the first client and send a response message to the first client, where the response message is formatted according to the transport layer protocol as a response. The response message may comprise information describing the command to be executed by the first client. The controller may additionally receive a second request message from the first client. The second request message may comprise information describing a result of the command indicated by the response message.

Claims

1. A system for managing a plurality of clients, the system comprising:

a computer system comprising at least one processor and associated memory, wherein the computer system is programmed to execute a controller, and wherein the controller is programmed to;

receive a first request message from a first client among the plurality of clients that announces availability of the first client to be managed by the controller, wherein the first request message is formatted as a request, and wherein the first request message comprises information that identifies one or more distributed test capabilities of an application running on the first client, wherein the distributed test capabilities are selected from a group of capabilities used when testing a system under test selected from a group including load testing, mutation testing or fuzz testing;

select a distributed test command to be executed by the first client based at least in part on the information that identifies the capabilities of the application running on the first client;

send a response message to the first client, wherein the response message is formatted as a response directed to the application running on the first client, and wherein the response message comprises information describing the distributed test command to be executed at the first client;

receive a second request message from the first client, wherein the second request message comprises information describing a result of the distributed test command selected to be executed at the first client.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is further programmed to:

send a second response message to the first client, wherein the second response message is formatted as a response directed to the application running on the client, and wherein the response message comprises information that identifies a second command to be executed at the first client; and

receive a third request message from the first client, wherein the third request message comprises information describing a result of execution of the second command at the first client.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first request message and the response message constitute a request/response pair.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the response message comprises a command identification uniquely identifying the command, wherein the second request comprises the command identification uniquely identifying the command, and wherein the controller is further programmed to associate the second request message to the response message based at least in part on the command identification.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first request message further comprises a unique identifier of the first client.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the first request message further comprises credential information for verifying an identity of the client.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the credential information comprises an application program interface (API) key for providing the controller with access to an API of the first client.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the response message comprises the API key.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein first request message further comprises at least one capability of the first client, and wherein controller is further programmed to select the command to be executed based on the at least one capability of the first client.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is further programmed to send an initial message to the first client before sending the response message, wherein the initial response message comprises a command instructing the first client to continue waiting for a response to the first request.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is further programmed to:

send a second level request message to a second level controller, wherein the second level request message is formatted as a request, and wherein the second level request message comprises information describing the controller; and

receive from the second level controller a second level response message, wherein the second level response message is formatted as a response, wherein the second level response message comprises information describing a task to be performed by the controller, and wherein the selection of the command to be executed by the first client is also based at least in part on the task to be performed by the controller.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the response message is sent to the first client via at least one component selected from the group consisting of a network address translation (NAT) device and a firewall.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the command instructs the first client to perform a testing task on a device under analysis (DUA).

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the testing task is selected from the group consisting of:

Secure Shell Channel (SSH) monitoring;

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) monitoring and protocol instrumentation.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the testing task is selected from the group consisting of:

executing a portion of a concurrency test against the DUA; and

launching a mutation test against the DUA.

28. The system of claim 3, wherein the request/response pair are implemented using an application layer protocol selected from the group consisting of:

hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), file transfer protocol (FTP), and media gateway control protocol (MGCP).

16. A computer-implemented method for managing a plurality of clients, the method comprising:

receiving, by a computer system, a first request message from a first client among the plurality of clients that announces availability of the first client to be managed by the controller, wherein the first request message is formatted as a request, wherein the first request message comprises information that identifies one or more distributed test capabilities of an application running on the first client, wherein the distributed test capabilities are selected from a group of capabilities used when testing a system under test selected from a group including load testing, mutation testing or fuzz testing, and wherein the computer system comprises at least one processor and associated memory;

selecting, by the computer system, a distributed test command to be executed by the first client based at least in part on the information that identifies capabilities of the application running on the first client;

sending, by the computer system, a response message to the first client, wherein the response message is formatted as a response directed to the application running on the first client, and wherein the response message comprises information describing the distributed test command to be executed by the first client;

receiving, by the computer system, a second request message from the first client, wherein the second request message comprises information describing a result of execution of the distributed test command selected to be executed at the first client.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first request message further comprises a unique identifier of the first client.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein first request message further comprises at least one capability of the first client, and wherein the method further comprises selecting the command to be executed based on the at least one capability of the first client.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the command instructs the first client to perform a testing task on a device under analysis (DUA).

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the testing task is selected from the group consisting of:

Secure Shell Channel (SSH) monitoring;

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) monitoring and protocol instrumentation.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the testing task is selected from the group consisting of:

executing a portion of a concurrency test against the DUA; and

launching a mutation test against the DUA.

29. The method of claim 16, wherein the first request and the response pair of messages are implemented using an application layer protocol selected from the group consisting of:

hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), file transfer protocol (FTP), and media gateway control protocol (MGCP).

22. A client system for receiving and executing processing commands received from a controller, the system comprising:

a computer system comprising at least one processor and associated memory, wherein the computer system is programmed to execute an application running on the client, and wherein the application running on the client is programmed to;

send a first request message to the controller that announces availability of the client to be managed by the controller, wherein the first request message is formatted as a request, and wherein the first request message comprises information that identifies distributed test capabilities of the application running on the client;

receive a response message from the controller, wherein the response message is formatted as a response, and wherein the response message comprises information describing a distributed test command to be executed at the client;

execute the distributed test command; and

send a second request message to the controller, wherein the second request message is formatted as a request, and wherein the second request message comprises information describing a result of execution of the distributed test command indicated by the response message.

23. The system of claim 22, further comprising:

receiving a sub-client request message from a sub-client, wherein the second level request message is formatted as a request, and wherein the sub-client request message comprises information describing the sub-client; and

sending a sub-client response message to the sub-client, wherein the sub-client response message is formatted as a response, and wherein the sub-client response message comprises information describing a sub-command to be executed by the sub-client; and

receiving a second sub-client request message from the sub-client, wherein the second sub-client request message is formatted according to the transport layer protocol as a request, and wherein the second sub-client request message comprises information describing a result of the sub-command indicated by the sub-client response message, and wherein the information describing the result of the command indicated by the response message comprises the information describing the result of the sub-command.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the command instructs the client to perform a testing task on a device under analysis (DUA).

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the testing task is selected from the group consisting of:

Secure Shell Channel (SSH) monitoring;

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) monitoring and protocol instrumentation.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the testing task is selected from the group consisting of:

executing a portion of a concurrency test against the DUA; and

launching a mutation test against the DUA.

27. A computer-implemented method for receiving and executing processing commands received from a controller, the method comprising:

sending, by a client computer system, a first request message to the controller that announces availability of the client to be managed by the controller, wherein the first request message is formatted as a request, wherein the first request message comprises information that identifies distributed test capabilities of an application running on the client, wherein the distributed test capabilities are selected from a group of capabilities used when testing a system under test selected from a group including load testing, mutation testing or fuzz testing, and wherein the client computer system comprises at least one processor and associated memory;

receiving, by the client computer system, a response message from the controller, wherein the response message is formatted as a response, and wherein the response message comprises information describing a distributed test command to be executed by the client;

executing the distributed test command, by the client computer system; and

sending, by the client computer system, a second request message to the controller, wherein the second request message is formatted as a request, and wherein the second request message comprises information describing a result of execution of the distributed test command indicated by the response message.