Computer system instrumentation information

• US 20050182843A1
• Filed: 08/12/2004
• Published: 08/18/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Geller, Alan S., McCollum, Raymond W., Reistad, Brian J., Allen, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 7,676,562 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0233 Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning

Abstract

To maintain and manage a computer network, a system administrator may monitor a large number and variety of components, each component comprising a variety of resources. The instrumentation of a resource may be monitored and/or manipulated by receiving a Simple Object Accessing Protocol (SOAP) message comprising an operation identifier for accessing instrumentation information and a resource identifier associated with a computer system resource. The management system may resolve the resource identifier into an address for a local handler associated with the resource, and may send a local request to the local handler at the resolved address.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

(a) receiving a first Simple Object Accessing Protocol (SOAP) message comprising a first operation identifier for accessing instrumentation information and a first resource identifier associated with a first computer system resource;

(b) resolving the first resource identifier into an address for a local handler associated with the first resource; and

(c) sending a local request to the local handler at the resolved address.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first resource identifier includes a Uniform Resource Identifier.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first resource identifier includes a CIM.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising determining a schema for communicating with the local handler, and generating the local request from the SOAP message and the accessed schema.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising receiving the instrumentation information from the local handler, and sending to a client manager a SOAP response comprising the instrumentation information.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising authenticating the first SOAP message using hypertext transport protocol secure (HTTPS).

7. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first operation identifier includes at least one of a group consisting of a get identifier, a put identifier, a create resource identifier, a delete resource identifier, an enumerate identifier, a pull identifier, a release identifier, an open shell identifier, a close shell identifier, a control shell identifier, a command result identifier, a subscribe identifier, an unsubscribe identifier, a renew subscription identifier, a event batch identifier, and a trap identifier.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising receiving a second SOAP message comprising a second operation identifier for accessing instrumentation information and a second resource identifier associated with a second computer system resource, wherein the first operation identifier includes at least one of the a group consisting of a get request, a put request, a delete request, and a create request, and the second operation identifier includes at least one of a group consisting of a subscribe identifier, an unsubscribe identifier, an event batch identifier, and a trap identifier.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8, further comprising authenticating the first SOAP message and the second SOAP message with a consistent authentication scheme.

10. A computer readable medium having stored thereon a data structure comprising:

(a) a first data field containing data representing a Simple Object Accessing Protocol (SOAP) envelope element;

(b) a second data field containing data representing an address for a resource agent;

(c) a third data field containing data representing a resource indicator indicating a resource associated with the resource agent; and

(d) a fourth data field containing data representing an operation identifier for accessing instrumentation information of the resource; and

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein at least a portion of at least one of the first data field, the second data field, the third data field, and the fourth data field is encrypted.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the resource indicator includes a uniform resource identifier (URI).

13. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the operation identifier includes an XML namespace.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the operation identifier includes a namespace of a governing standard and a name of the operation.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the operation identifier includes at least one of a group consisting of a get identifier, a put identifier, a create resource identifier, a delete resource identifier, an enumerate identifier, a pull identifier, a release identifier, an open shell identifier, a close shell identifier, a control shell identifier, a command result identifier, a subscribe identifier, an unsubscribe identifier, a renew subscription identifier, a event batch identifier, and a trap identifier.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 10, further comprising a sixth data field containing data representing an input parameter of the operation indicated by the operation identifier.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the input parameter includes an input data stream.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the operation identifier is contained in an Action header element.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the resource identifier is contained in a ResourceURI element.

20. A method comprising:

(a) receiving a Simple Object Accessing Protocol (SOAP) request from a client manager;

(b) in response to the request, sending a list of at least one resource identifier;

(c) receiving an indication of a selection of a resource identifier from the list;

(d) sending instrumentation information from the resource to the client manager.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein sending instrumentation information includes wrapping the instrumentation information in a SOAP envelope element.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising sending an indication of instrumentation information associated with at least one resource identifier.

23. The method of claim 20, further comprising sending an indication of available operation indicators associated with at least one resource identifier.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein receiving an indication of a selection of a resource identifier includes receiving a SOAP request message.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the SOAP request message includes a resource identifier and an operation identifier.

26. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

(a) sending to a resource agent a first Simple Object Accessing Protocol (SOAP) request comprising an first operation identifier for retrieving instrumentation information and a resource identifier indicating a resource that is the source of the instrumentation information;

(b) receiving a first SOAP response comprising a first value of the instrumentation information of the resource;

(c) sending a second SOAP request comprising a second operation identifier for correcting instrumentation information, the resource identifier, and a second value of the instrumentation information.

27. The computer readable medium of claim 26, further comprising receiving a second SOAP response verifying that the first value has been replaced by the second value in the resource associated with the resource identifier.

28. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the resource identifier includes a uniform resource identifier (URI).

29. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the first value is a singleton value.

30. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the first value is an enumeration sequence.

31. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the first operation identifier includes a namespace of a governing standard and a name of the operation.

32. The computer readable medium of claim 26, further comprising determining the type of instrumentation information of the second value.

33. The computer readable medium of claim 32, further comprising sending a fault response if the type of instrumentation information is not read-write accessible.

34. A computer readable medium having computer executable components comprising:

(a) a data store component for storing a first resource identifier and a second resource identifier, the first resource identifier being associated with a first address for a first local handler of a first resource, and the second resource identifier being associated with a second address for a second local handler;

(b) a first resource agent component for receiving from a client manager a first Simple Object Accessing Protocol (SOAP) message comprising the first resource identifier and a first operation identifier for accessing instrumentation information from the first resource; and

(c) a second resource agent component for receiving from the client manager a second SOAP message comprising the second resource identifier and a second operation identifier for accessing instrumentation information from the second resource.

35. The computer readable medium of claim 34, wherein the data store component stores the first resource identifier associated with a first schema for communicating with the first local handler, and stores the second resource identifier associated with a second schema for communicating with the second local handler.

36. The computer readable medium of claim 34, wherein the first resource and the second resource reside on a single component.

37. The computer readable medium of claim 34, wherein the first resource identifier includes a uniform resource identifier, and the second resource identifier includes an other uniform resource identifier.

38. The computer readable medium of claim 34, wherein the first resource agent verifies that the client manager is authorized to access the first resource.

39. The computer readable medium of claim 35, wherein the first resource agent verifies that the client manager is authorized to request an operation of the first resource indicated by the first operation indicator.

40. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

(a) receiving a request message comprising an operation identifier for accessing instrumentation information, an address of a resource agent, and a uniform resource identifier identifying a computer system resource associated with the resource agent;

(b) resolving the uniform resource identifier into an address for a local handler associated with the resource;

(c) sending a local request to the local handler at the resolved address; and

(d) receiving resource instrumentation information.