Recommending a policy for an IT asset

• US 9,215,144 B2
• Filed: 10/18/2012
• Issued: 12/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Biles, Nathan P., Kugel, Jacob, Riedemann, Matthew C., Wood, Brian O.
• Primary Examiner(s): Moise, Emmanuel L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Roumi, Mahran Abu
• Application Number:
  US13/654,565
• Publication Number:
  US 20140115134A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,153 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0856 by backing up or archiving configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements

Abstract

When a policy for an IT asset is created in a system manager that manages one or more IT assets, other IT assets that are related to the selected IT asset are determined based on at least one relation criteria related to system topology. The system administrator is prompted to apply the same policy to the related systems. When the system administrator accepts the recommendation to apply the same policy to the related systems, a system group is defined that includes the selected computer system and the related systems, and the system group and its corresponding policy are displayed to the system administrator.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory coupled to the at least one processor;

a network interface that couples the apparatus to a plurality of information technology (IT) assets in a networked computer system;

a system manager residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the system manager managing the plurality of IT assets in the networked computer system, the system manager allowing a system administrator to create a policy for a selected IT asset that defines how the selected IT asset is managed by the system manager; and

a policy recommendation mechanism that detects when the policy for the selected IT asset is created, dynamically determines after the policy for the selected IT asset is created at least one related IT asset based on at least one relation criterion that the at least one related IT asset has in common with the selected IT asset, the at least one relation criterion comprising;

connection to the same network switch;

running the same workload;

cloned from the same virtual server;

running a same level of agent;

components of the same system; and

physical proximity;

wherein the policy recommendation mechanism prompts the system administrator with a recommendation to apply the policy to the at least one related IT asset that the at least one related IT asset has in common with the selected IT asset, wherein, when the system administrator accepts the recommendation to apply the policy to the at least one related IT asset, the system manager defines a system group containing the selected IT asset and the at least one related IT asset and displays the system group and the policy to the system administrator.

2. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory coupled to the at least one processor;

a network interface that couples the apparatus to a plurality of information technology (IT) assets in a networked computer system; and

a system manager residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the system manager managing the plurality of IT assets in the networked computer system, the system manager allowing a system administrator to create a policy for a selected IT asset that defines how the selected IT asset is managed by the system manager;

a policy recommendation mechanism that detects when the policy for the selected IT asset is created, dynamically determines after the policy for the selected IT asset is created at least one related IT asset based on at least one relation criterion the at least one related IT asset has in common with the selected IT asset, the at least one relation criterion comprising;

connection to the same network switch;

running the same workload;

cloned from the same virtual server;

running a same level of agent;

components of the same system; and

physical proximity;

wherein the policy recommendation mechanism prompts the system administrator with a recommendation to apply the policy to the at least one related IT asset, wherein, when the system administrator accepts the recommendation to apply the policy to the at least one related IT asset, the system manager defines a system group containing the selected IT asset and the at least one related IT asset and displays the system group and the policy to the system administrator.