Inventory validator with notification manager

• US 9,672,489 B1
• Filed: 04/02/2014
• Issued: 06/06/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2014
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Kangas, Lukas J., Kurtz, Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): YU, ARIEL J
• Application Number:
  US14/243,882
• Time in Patent Office: 1,161 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A validator for an inventory management system is provided. The validator comprises at least one validation module, wherein the at least one validation module validates at least a portion of inventory information in the inventory management system by comparing the portion of inventory information to equivalent information in an information source that is one of a group of information sources comprising at least one of: a domain name system for converting a name of an alphanumerically labeled network component into an IP address, an automated monitoring system for monitoring a status of equipment for which the inventory management system maintains inventory information, a backup system capable of recording errors that occur in a data backup procedure, and a photograph system that maintains photographs of equipment for which the inventory management system maintains inventory information.

Claims

1. An inventory management system for dynamically maintaining servers on a network, the system comprising:

a plurality of servers communicatively coupled to the network;

a domain name system (DNS) computer system coupled to the network and configured to convert a name of an alphanumerically labeled network component into an internet protocol (IP) address;

an automated monitoring system computer coupled to the network and configured to monitor a status of equipment for which the inventory management system maintains inventory information;

a backup system computer coupled to the network and configured to record errors that occur in a data backup procedure;

a photograph system computer coupled to the network and configured to maintain photographs of equipment for which the inventory management system maintains inventory information; and

a validator computer system communicatively coupled to the network, the validator computer system comprising;

a processor, and

a non-transitory memory storing a thread manager and at least one validation module for communicating with each of the DNS computer system, the automated monitoring system computer, the backup system computer, and the photograph system computer, wherein upon execution of the thread manager and the at least one validation module, the processor;

spawns a first thread on the processor for a DNS validation module and a second thread on the processor for a monitoring system validation module,

provides a first portion of inventory information to the DNS validation module via the first thread and a second portion of inventory information to the monitoring system validation module via the second thread,

validates the first portion of inventory information in the inventory management system by comparing the first portion of inventory information to equivalent information from the DNS computer system,

discovers, from the DNS validation module based on the first portion of inventory information, that an IP address returned by the DNS computer system is not the same as an IP address associated with a host name in the inventory management system,

responsive to the discovery, updates the inventory management system with the IP address returned by the DNS computer system,

responsive to the second portion of inventory information being provided to the monitoring system validation module via the second thread, determines, via the monitoring system validation module, that a particular server of the plurality of servers has not been in operation for a period of time,

determine that a discrepancy exists between the inventory management system and the automated monitoring system computer based on the particular server not being in operation for the period of time but being designated as a production server,

identify the second portion of inventory information as an instance of invalid data based on the discrepancy, and

report the instance of invalid data from the monitoring system validation module to the thread manager.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein, responsive to discovering invalid information in the inventory management system, the validator computer system sends a notification about the invalid information to a party responsible for the invalid information.

3. An inventory management system for dynamically maintaining servers on a network, the system comprising:

a server communicatively coupled to the network; and

a validator computer system communicatively coupled to the server, a domain name system (DNS) computer system, an automated monitoring computer system, a backup computer system, and a photograph computer system, the validator computer system comprising;

a processer; and

a non-transitory memory storing a control component, a notification component, and a plurality of validation modules that includes at least a DNS validation module and a monitoring system validation module, wherein upon execution of the control component, the processor;

spawns a first thread on the processor for the DNS validation module and a second thread on the processor for the monitoring system validation module,

provides a first portion of inventory information to the DNS validation module and a second portion of inventory information to the monitoring system validation module, where each module validates, via independent execution of the first and second threads, the portions of inventory information in the inventory management system,

discovers, from the DNS validation module based on the first portion of inventory information, that an IP address returned by the DNS computer system is not the same as an IP address associated with a network component name in the inventory management system,

responsive to the discovery, updates the inventory management system with the IP address returned by the DNS computer system, and

responsive to being informed by the DNS validation module about the discovery, instructs, via the control component, the notification component to send a notification about the discovery to an email address associated with a party responsible for the network component name in the inventory management system.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein each validation module validates the portion of inventory information in the inventory management system by comparing the portion of inventory information to associated information in one information source from a plurality of information sources, the plurality of information sources comprising at least two of:

the DNS computer system for converting a name of an alphanumerically labeled network component into an internet protocol (IP) address;

the automated monitoring computer system for monitoring a status of equipment for which the inventory management system maintains inventory information;

the backup computer system capable of recording errors that occur in a data backup procedure; and

the photograph computer system that maintains photographs of equipment for which the inventory management system maintains inventory information.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein upon execution of one of the validation modules, the processor validates information in the inventory management system by performance of a DNS lookup on a network component name stored in the inventory management system, comparison of comparing an IP address returned by the DNS computer system for the network component name to an IP address associated with the network component name in the inventory management system, and in response to determination that the returned IP address is not the same as the associated IP address, informs the control component that the associated IP address is invalid.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein one of the validation modules validates information in the inventory management system by comparing information stored in the inventory management system regarding an operational status of a piece of equipment to information regarding an operational status of the piece of equipment obtained from the automated monitoring computer system, and when the stored operational status information is not the same as the obtained operational status information, informing the control component that the stored operational status information is invalid.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein one of the validation modules validates information in the inventory management system by determining if the backup computer system has recorded an error in a backup procedure for data maintained in the inventory management system, and when the backup computer system has recorded an error, informing the control component that the error was recorded.

8. The system of claim 4,

wherein one of the validation modules validates information in the inventory management system by determining if a photograph of a piece of equipment is present in the inventory management system, and

wherein the validation module makes the determination by:

requesting a photograph of the piece of equipment,

performing a hash operation on the content of an image returned in reply to the request,

comparing an output of the hash operation on the content to an output of the hash operation known to be produced when a photograph of the piece of equipment is not present in the inventory management system, and

when the output of the hash operation on the content matches the output of the hash operation known to be produced when a photograph of the piece of equipment is not present in the inventory management system, informing the control component that a photograph of the piece of equipment is not present in the inventory management system.

9. The system of claim 4,

wherein, when a validation module discovers invalid information in the inventory management system, the validation module provides to the control component the equivalent information to which the invalid information was compared, and

wherein the control component automatically updates the inventory management system with the equivalent information and instructs the notification component to send a notification to the party responsible for the invalid information informing the party to confirm that the automatic update was correct.

10. The system of claim 3, wherein the control component provides each of the validation modules with a respective portion of inventory information that the respective validation module is to validate and instructs each of the validation modules to commence execution of a respective validation procedure on a respective portion of inventory information, and wherein each validation procedure executes in a separate thread concurrently with the other validation procedures.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the control component provides each of the validation modules with the respective portion of inventory information in a common output format, and wherein the control component is informed about invalid information by the validation modules in a common input format.

12. The system of claim 3, wherein, when the control component is informed of the discovery of invalid information, the control component obtains from the inventory management system contact information associated with the invalid information and provides the contact information to the notification component as the responsible party to which the notification component is to send the notification about the invalid information.

13. A method for dynamically maintaining servers on a network in an inventory management system, the method comprising:

spawning, by executing a thread manager on a processor of a validator computer system, a first thread on a processor for a domain name system (DNS) validation module and a second thread on the processor for a monitoring system validation module;

providing, by executing the thread manager on the validator computer system, a first portion of inventory information to the DNS validation module, wherein the inventory information is associated with a server communicatively coupled to the validator computer system;

providing, by the validator computer system, a second portion of the inventory information to the monitoring system validation module;

instructing, by the validator computer system, the DNS validation module to perform a first validation procedure on the first portion of the inventory information via the first thread;

instructing, by the validator computer system, the monitoring system validation module to perform a second validation procedure on the second portion of the inventory information via the second thread;

in response to the instruction to perform the first validation procedure;

performing, by executing the DNS validation module, a DNS lookup on a network component name stored in a non-transitory memory of the inventory management system;

comparing, by executing the DNS validation module, an IP address returned by the DNS system for the network component name to an IP address associated with the network component name in the inventory management system; and

responsive to the returned IP address not being the same as the associated IP address, sending, from the DNS validation module to the thread manager, a report indicating that the IP address associated with the network component name is invalid;

responsive to the instruction to perform the second validation procedure and the second portion of inventory information being provided to the monitoring system validation module via the second thread;

determining, via the monitoring system validation module, that a particular server on the network has not been in operation for a period of time and that a discrepancy exists between the inventory management system and an automated monitoring system based on the particular server not being in operation for the period of time but being designated as a production server;

identifying, via the monitoring system validation module, the second portion of inventory information as an instance of invalid information based on the discrepancy; and

generating, via the monitoring system validation module, a report of the instance of invalid information for the thread manager;

receiving from the DNS validation module and the monitoring system validation module reports that the first validation procedure and the second validation procedure discovered invalid information in the inventory management system; and

instructing, by the thread manager of the validator computer system, a notification component to send a notification about the invalid information to an email address associated with a party responsible for the invalid information.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein each of the DNS validation module and the monitoring system validation module validates a respective portion of inventory information by comparing the respective portion of inventory information to equivalent information in one of a plurality of information sources, the plurality of information sources comprising at least two of:

a DNS system for converting a name of an alphanumerically labeled network component into an internet protocol (IP) address;

the automated monitoring system for monitoring a status of equipment for which the inventory management system maintains inventory information;

a backup system capable of recording errors that occur in a data backup procedure; and

a photograph system that maintains photographs of equipment for which the inventory management system maintains inventory information.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein one of the first and second validation procedures comprises:

when the returned IP address is not the same as the associated IP address, generating, from the thread manager to the notification component executing on the validator computer system, a report indicating that the associated IP address is invalid.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein one of the first and second validation procedures comprises:

comparing information stored in the inventory management system regarding an operational status of a piece of equipment to information regarding an operational status of the piece of equipment obtained from the automated monitoring system; and

when the stored operational status information is not the same as the obtained operational status information, sending a report indicating that the stored operational status information is invalid.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein one of the first and second validation procedures comprises:

determining if the backup system has recorded an error in a backup procedure for data maintained in the inventory management system; and

when the backup system has recorded an error, sending a report indicating that the error was recorded.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein one of the first and second validation procedures comprises:

determining if a photograph of a piece of equipment is present in the inventory management system, wherein the determination is made by;

requesting a photograph of the piece of equipment,

performing a hash operation on the content of an image returned in reply to the request,

comparing an output of the hash operation on the content to an output of the hash operation known to be produced when a photograph of the piece of equipment is not present in the inventory management system, and

when the output of the hash operation on the content matches the output of the hash operation known to be produced when a photograph of the piece of equipment is not present in the inventory management system, sending a report indicating that a photograph of the piece of equipment is not present in the inventory management system.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the first and second validation procedures execute concurrently in separate threads.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the first and second portions of inventory information are provided in a common output format, and wherein the reports of invalid information are received in a common input format.