Intelligent discovery of network information from multiple information gathering agents

• US 9,407,700 B2
• Filed: 06/17/2014
• Issued: 08/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bharadwaj, Sunil, Merbach, David L., Basham, Robert, Heitman, Allen R., Padbidri, Sumant, Axberg, Gary T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sison, June
• Assistant Examiner(s): COONEY, ADAM A
• Application Number:
  US14/306,379
• Publication Number:
  US 20140297853A1
• Time in Patent Office: 777 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A system, method and computer program product for intelligent discovery of network information from multiple information gathering agents adapted to discover information concerning the network. The discovery agents each have an associated discovery capability. Based on consideration of the agent discovery capabilities, discovery assignments are computed and network discovery is performed according to the assignments so as to reduce discovery poll overhead.

Claims

1. A network manager system for managing a data storage network, comprising:

one or more processors;

memory operatively coupled to said one or more processors;

program instructions in said memory for programming said one or more processors to perform network manager operations, said operations comprising;

performing a discovery agent capability determination that determines discovery capabilities of two or more discovery agents in said data storage network;

detecting, prior to discovery execution, whether a discovery capability overlap condition exists wherein said discovery capabilities are overlapping due to some of said agents being capable of discovering the same information from the same network device;

computing agent discovery assignments prior to discovery execution based on said discovery agent capability determination and according to whether a discovery overlap condition exists;

collectively, said agent discovery assignments being computed as a subset of said agent discovery capabilities in response to said discovery capability overlap condition being detected to reduce overlapping discovery;

said agent discovery assignments being based on an input listing of said discovery agents, the network devices they are capable of discovering and a cost to discover each network device, and an output listing of said discovery agents and the network devices said discovery agents are assigned to discover;

said agent discovery assignments being further based on an entity-sorting computation that produces an entity-sorting listing that associates each network device and one or more discovery agents each having a cost to discover that network device, said listing ordering said network devices according to the discovery costs of the associated discovery agents; and

said agent discovery assignments being further based on an agent-sorting computation that produces an agent-sorting listing that modifies said entity-sorting listing to order the discovery agents associated with each network device according to one or more of agent cost, load factor and agent identifier.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said agent discovery assignments are computed such that (1) no network device is discovered more than once by different discovery agents seeking the same information, (2) one or more agents are not permitted to perform full discovery of information due to one or more other discovery agents being assigned to discover the same information, and (3) no duplicate discovery information is generated.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said agent discovery assignments are computed based which said discovery agents having overlapping discovery capabilities are most fit to receive said agent discovery assignments.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said agent discovery assignments reflect one or more of data collection service registrations in which said network manager registers with said discovery agents and receives information regarding specified discovery, agent cost to obtain network information, load balancing among said discovery agents, and assignment churn.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said agent discovery assignments comprise both inband and outband discovery assignments.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein said agent discovery assignments are provided to said discovery agents for storing at said discovery agents for subsequent reference.

7. A machine-implemented method for managing a data storage network, comprising:

performing a discovery agent capability determination that determines discovery capabilities of two or more discovery agents in said data storage network;

detecting, prior to discovery execution, whether a discovery capability overlap condition exists wherein said discovery capabilities are overlapping due to some of said agents being capable of discovering the same information from the same network device;

computing agent discovery assignments prior to discovery execution based on said discovery agent capability determination and according to whether a discovery overlap condition exists;

collectively, said agent discovery assignments being computed as a subset of said agent discovery capabilities in response to said discovery capability overlap condition being detected to reduce overlapping discovery;

said agent discovery assignments being based on an input listing of said discovery agents, the network devices they are capable of discovering and a cost to discover each network device, and an output listing of said discovery agents and the network devices said discovery agents are assigned to discover;

said agent discovery assignments being further based on an entity-sorting computation that produces an entity-sorting listing that associates each network device and one or more discovery agents each having a cost to discover that network device, said listing ordering said network devices according to the discovery costs of the associated discovery agents; and

said agent discovery assignments being further based on an agent-sorting computation that produces an agent-sorting listing that modifies said entity-sorting listing to order the discovery agents associated with each network device according to one or more of agent cost, load factor and agent identifier.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said agent discovery assignments are computed such that (1) no network device is discovered more than once by different discovery agents seeking the same information, (2) one or more agents are not permitted to perform full discovery of information due to one or more other discovery agents being assigned to discover the same information, and (3) no duplicate discovery information is generated.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein said agent discovery assignments are computed based which said discovery agents having overlapping discovery capabilities are most fit to receive said agent discovery assignments.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein said agent discovery assignments reflect one or more of data collection service registrations in which said network manager registers with said discovery agents and receives information regarding specified discovery, agent cost to obtain network information, load balancing among said discovery agents, and assignment churn.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein said agent discovery assignments comprise both inband and outband discovery assignments.

12. The method of claim 7 wherein said agent discovery assignments are provided to said discovery agents for storing at said discovery agents for subsequent reference.

13. A computer program product, comprising:

one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media;

software code stored on said one or more storage media for programming a data processing system perform network management operations for discovering information about a network, said operations comprising;

performing a discovery agent capability determination that determines discovery capabilities of two or more discovery agents in said data storage network;

detecting, prior to discovery execution, whether a discovery capability overlap condition exists wherein said discovery capabilities are overlapping due to some of said agents being capable of discovering the same information from the same network device;

computing agent discovery assignments prior to discovery execution based on said discovery agent capability determination and according to whether a discovery overlap condition exists;

collectively, said agent discovery assignments being computed as a subset of said agent discovery capabilities in response to said discovery capability overlap condition being detected to reduce overlapping discovery;

said agent discovery assignments being based on an input listing of said discovery agents, the network devices they are capable of discovering and a cost to discover each network device, and an output listing of said discovery agents and the network devices said discovery agents are assigned to discover;

said agent discovery assignments being further based on an entity-sorting computation that produces an entity-sorting listing that associates each network device and one or more discovery agents each having a cost to discover that network device, said listing ordering said network devices according to the discovery costs of the associated discovery agents; and

said agent discovery assignments being further based on an agent-sorting computation that produces an agent-sorting listing that modifies said entity-sorting listing to order the discovery agents associated with each network device according to one or more of agent cost, load factor and agent identifier.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein said agent discovery assignments are computed such that (1) no network device is discovered more than once by different discovery agents seeking the same information, (2) one or more agents are not permitted to perform full discovery of information due to one or more other discovery agents being assigned to discover the same information, and (3) no duplicate discovery information is generated.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein said agent discovery assignments are computed based which said discovery agents having overlapping discovery capabilities are most fit to receive said agent discovery assignments.

16. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein said agent discovery assignments reflect one or more of data collection service registrations in which said network manager registers with said discovery agents and receives information regarding specified discovery, agent cost to obtain network information, load balancing among said discovery agents, and assignment churn.

17. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein said agent discovery assignments comprise both inband and outband discovery assignments.

18. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein said agent discovery assignments are provided to said discovery agents for storing at said discovery agents for subsequent reference.