Dissolving network resource monitor

• US 20050251572A1
• Filed: 05/05/2004
• Published: 11/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: McMahan, Paul F., Leah, Robert C., Guido, Patrick R., Hayes, Kent F. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 7,809,825 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0823 Errors, e.g. transmission errors
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring

Abstract

A network monitoring application deploys conventional monitor applications to network nodes and receives diagnostic events from the monitors. In response to a monitor reporting a high severity event or condition, the monitor application automatically deploys a dissolving monitor to the network node that automatically ceases operation at the conclusion of a predetermined lifespan. The dissolving monitor automatically reports verbose diagnostic events to the monitoring application, including diagnostic events not reported by the conventional monitor. The dissolving monitor removes itself from the node at the end of its lifespan by freeing all resources of said node that it consumed. In some embodiments, the dissolving monitor reports diagnostic events with decreasing frequency prior to its dissolution. The dissolution of the dissolving monitor may be triggered by time since its deployment, performance and status of the monitored node, error or anomaly counts, or combinations thereof.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring a node in a network by a monitoring application, comprising:

monitoring information about said node automatically reported to said monitoring application by a first monitor running on said node;

in response to information reported by said first monitor, automatically transmitting to said node a second monitor that automatically ceases operation at the conclusion of a predetermined lifespan; and

during the lifespan of said second monitor, monitoring information about said node automatically reported to said monitoring application by said second monitor, including information that is not reported by said first monitor.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said second monitor is transmitted to said node in response to said first monitor reporting a high severity event or condition at said node.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein upon said second monitor ceasing operation, it removes itself from said node by freeing all resources of said node that it consumed.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein information about said node automatically reported to said monitoring application by said second monitor includes verbose diagnostic events not reported by said first monitor.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said second monitor automatically reports information about said node to said monitoring application with decreasing frequency.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said second monitor automatically ceases reporting information about said node to said monitoring application at the end of said predetermined lifespan.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said predetermined lifespan is a predetermined temporal duration.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said predetermined lifespan is a predetermined count of events occurring at said node.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said predetermined lifespan is a predetermined level of performance of said node.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said predetermined lifespan is a predetermined operational status of said node.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said second monitor is in the form of a device-independent computer program.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said second monitor is in the form of a JAVA applet.

13. A network, comprising:

a plurality of nodes, at least one said node having a first monitor running thereon;

a monitoring application automatically receiving information about said node from said first monitor; and

a second monitor that automatically ceases operation at the conclusion of a predetermined lifespan, automatically deployed from said monitoring application to said node in response to information received from said first monitor, said second monitor automatically transmitting, during said lifespan, information about said node to said monitoring application, including information that is not reported by said first monitor;

14. The network of claim 13 wherein said second monitor automatically transmits said information with decreasing frequency prior to automatically ceases operation.

15. The network of claim 13 wherein said predetermined lifespan is determined by at least one parameter set by a user in said monitoring application prior to said second monitor being automatically deployed to said node.

16. The network of claim 13 wherein said predetermined lifespan is determined by at least one parameter set by a user via said monitoring application after said second monitor is automatically deployed to said node.

17. A computer-readable medium that stores computer-executable process steps for monitoring a network comprising a plurality of nodes, at least one said node having a first monitor running thereon, said computer-executable process steps causing a computer to perform the steps of:

monitoring at least one said node by automatically receiving information about said node from said first monitor running on said node;

in response to information reported by said first monitor, automatically transmitting to said node a second monitor that automatically ceases operation at the conclusion of a predetermined lifespan; and

during the lifespan of said second monitor, monitoring information about said node automatically reported to said monitoring application by said second monitor, including information that is not reported by said first monitor.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein monitoring information about said node automatically reported to said monitoring application by said second monitor comprises monitoring information about said node automatically reported with decreasing frequency by said second monitor prior to said second monitor ceasing operation.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, said computer-executable process steps further causing a computer to perform the step of automatically generating a second monitor that automatically ceases operation at the conclusion of a predetermined lifespan, according to predetermined criteria, prior to transmitting said second monitor to said node.