Method and system for generating a state profile report

• US 9,563,647 B1
• Filed: 03/11/2013
• Issued: 02/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Varma, Preeti, Chopra, Shelesh, Mandic, Vladimir, Narayanan, Sudha
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Ann Tai
• Application Number:
  US13/793,087
• Time in Patent Office: 1,429 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3051 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247

Abstract

Disclosed are systems and methods relating to profiling software and configuration information associated with one or more entities. In various implementations, software and configuration information associated with one or more entities may be retrieved. The retrieved software and configuration information may provide state information associated with the one or more entities. The retrieved information may be processed to identify one or more changes in the software and configuration information that is associated with the one or more entities. A report may be generated based on the retrieved information. The report may display identified changes in a state for at least one entity based on the changes in the software and configuration information that were identified during the processing.

Claims

1. A method for profiling software information and configuration information and a currently available hardware capacity associated with one or more entities, the method comprising:

determining, by the processor, occurrence of a trigger event in a first entity of a plurality of entities, wherein the trigger event triggers recording of information by a first tracking agent associated with a first software application executing on the first entity and a second tracking agent associated with a second software application executing on a second entity, the first software application being interdependent with the second software application;

retrieving, by a processor, the information based on the occurrence of the trigger event, wherein the information comprises software information, configuration information and a currently available hardware capacity associated with the first entity and the second entity;

processing, by the processor, the retrieved information to identify one or more changes in the software information, the configuration information and the currently available hardware capacity associated with the first entity and the second entity; and

generating, by the processor, a report based on the retrieved information, the report displaying identified changes in a state for at least the first entity based on the changes in the software information, the configuration information and the currently available hardware capacity identified during the processing.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first entity comprise at least one host application or at least one software application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the software information, the configuration information and the currently available hardware capacity includes one or more types of information selected from the group consisting of:

a host name, a host internet protocol (IP) address, a domain name, a firewall status, a software version, a software publisher, a software build number, software patch information, a file path, a software component name, an operating system, disk usage, a scheduled backup setting, group and pool settings, a browse policy, a data retention policy, and network connectivity information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the software information, the configuration information and the currently available hardware capacity associated with the first entity is retrieved by at least one the first tracking agent.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first tracking agent is implemented in one or more servers remote from the plurality of entities.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the first tracking agent is embedded in the software application hosted by at least the first entity entities.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the software application provides backup and recovery services in a computing environment.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the report includes identifiers that identify configuration parameters that have changed.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the report is requested for a client, and wherein the report is organized based on the client.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the report is requested for a software application, and wherein the report is organized based on the software application.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating, by the processor, a notification that provides a user with a notification that at least part of the software information, the configuration information and the currently available hardware capacity associated with the first entity has changed.

12. A non-transitory machine-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

determining, by the processor, occurrence of a trigger event in a first entity of a plurality of entities, wherein the trigger event triggers recording of information by a first tracking agent associated with a first software application executing on the first entity and a second tracking agent associated with a second software application executing on a second entity, the first software application being interdependent with the second software application;

retrieving, by a processor, the information based on the occurrence of the trigger event, wherein the information comprises software information, configuration information and a currently available hardware capacity associated with the first entity and the second entity;

processing, by the processor, the retrieved information to identify one or more changes in the software information, the configuration information and the currently available hardware capacity associated with the first entity and the second entity; and

generating a report based on the retrieved information, the report displaying identified changes in a state for at least the first entity based on the changes in the software information, the configuration information and the currently available hardware capacity identified during the processing.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the first entity and the second entity comprise at least one host application or at least one software application.

14. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the at least part of the software information, the configuration information and the currently available hardware capacity is retrieved by at least the first tracking agent.

15. The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the first tracking agent is embedded in the software application hosted by at least one of the plurality of entities, and wherein the software application provides backup and recovery services in a computing environment.

16. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the steps further comprise:

generating a notification that provides a user with a notification that at least part of the software information, the configuration information and the currently available hardware capacity associated with the first entity has changed.

17. A system for profiling software information, configuration information and a currently available hardware capacity associated with one or more entities, the system comprising:

a processor; and

one or more stored sequences of instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to carry out the steps of;

determining, by the processor, occurrence of a trigger event in a first entity of a plurality of entities, wherein the trigger event triggers at least one recording of information by a first tracking agent associated with a first software application executing on the first entity and a second tracking agent associated with a second software application executing on a second entity, the first software application being interdependent with the second software application;

retrieving, by a processor, the information based on the occurrence of the trigger event, wherein the information comprises software information, configuration information and a currently available hardware capacity associated with the first entity and the second entity;

processing, by the processor, the retrieved information to identify one or more changes in the software information, the configuration information and the currently available hardware capacity associated with the first entity and the second entity; and

generating a report based on the retrieved information, the report displaying identified changes in a state for at least the first entity based on the changes in the software information and the configuration information and the currently available hardware capacity identified during the processing.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the first entity and the second entity comprise at least one host application or at least one software application.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the software information and the configuration information, the currently available hardware capacity is retrieved by at least one tracking agent embedded in the software application hosted by at least one of the plurality of entities, and wherein the software application provides backup and recovery services in a computing environment.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the steps further comprise:

generating a notification that provides a user with a notification that at least part of the software information, the configuration information and the currently available hardware capacity associated with the first entity has changed.