Agile information technology infrastructure management system

• US 20060112175A1
• Filed: 09/15/2005
• Published: 05/25/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Atkins, Nathan W., Guillot, Jeffrey, Carter, Gregory H., Young, Paul T., Engle, Matthew R., Herrneckar, Adam D., Sellers, Russell E., Pausback, Nicholas J., Ballard, William H., Roffers, Craig R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,725,853 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/022 Multivendor or multi-standard integration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0604 using filtering, e.g. reduction of information by using priority, element types, position or time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/069 using logs of notifications; Post-processing of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5074 Handling of user complaints or trouble tickets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/06 Generation of reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/106 using time related information in packets, e.g. by adding timestamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

The agile information technology infrastructure management system and related methods and processes provide a solution with the required flexibility to effectively and efficiently monitor and manage a wide-variety of disparate information technology and network infrastructure deployed in businesses and enterprises throughout a region or the world.

Claims

1. A computer system for use in monitoring and managing elements of a disparate information technology infrastructure, the system comprising:

a scheduler operable to receive and process a plurality of management descriptors to generate commands associated with the polling of the elements of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the management descriptors include profiles that define information needed for monitoring the elements of the information technology infrastructure;

a plurality of data providers that include at least a first data provider that defines a first protocol for use in communicating management information with a first type of element, a second data provider that defines a second protocol for use in communicating management information with a second type of element, and a poller operable to communicate with the elements of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the plurality of data providers is operable to receive a query, to poll an element of the information technology infrastructure using one of the plurality of data providers in response to the query, and to receive a result of the query from the element; and

a protocol independent command processor operable to receive a command associated with the polling of the element of the information technology infrastructure from the scheduler, to generate a query in response, to communicate the query to the plurality of data providers, to receive the result of the query from the element from the plurality of data providers, and to take an action based upon the command and the result of the query.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, further comprising a repository configured to store any of a Common Interface Model data model of the network elements of the IT infrastructure being monitored and managed, management descriptors, profiles and attributes of the managed elements, and event information.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, further comprising a root cause analysis engine configured to receive and correlate a plurality of events from a plurality of network elements in the information technology infrastructure and to determine the likely cause of an event based on availability algorithms and using the CIM data model of the IT infrastructure.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, further comprising an event processor configured to receive, log, and act upon unscheduled or unsolicited events as defined by the management descriptors.

5. The system as recited in claim 4, wherein unsolicited events comprise any of traps and syslog messages.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, further comprising a ticketing system.

7. The system as recited in claim 1, further comprising a reporting system.

8. The system as recited in claim 7, wherein the reporting system is a CIO Dashboard, as shown and described.

9. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the information technology infrastructure comprises at least two infrastructures selected from the group consisting of WAN infrastructure, LAN infrastructure, IP telephony infrastructure, server infrastructure, and security infrastructure, and wherein the system further comprises a reporting system configured to generate a combined infrastructure health value, a combined infrastructure reliability value, and a combined security risk value for all of the at least two infrastructures respectively representing combined infrastructure health, reliability, and security of all of the at least two infrastructures.

10. A method, comprising:

receiving a plurality of fault events from a plurality of network elements, wherein the fault events are received from;

a plurality of data providers that include at least a first data provider that defines a first protocol for use in communicating management information with a first type of element, a second data provider that defines a second protocol for use in communicating management information with a second type of element, and a poller operable to communicate with the elements of the information technology infrastructure, wherein the plurality of data providers is operable to receive a query, to poll an element of the information technology infrastructure using one of the plurality of data providers in response to the query, and to receive a result of the query from the element; and

a protocol independent command processor operable to receive a command associated with the polling of the element of the information technology infrastructure from the scheduler, to generate a query in response, to communicate the query to the plurality of data providers, to receive the result of the query from the element from the plurality of data providers, and to take an action based upon the command and the result of the query;

generating and displaying, based on the plurality of fault events, a graphical user interface display that comprises an infrastructure health value, a reliability value, and a security value;

wherein the infrastructure health value, reliability value, and security value are calculated based upon the plurality of fault events.

11. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein the infrastructure health value, a reliability value, and a security value represent combined measures of infrastructure health, reliability, and security for a combined information technology infrastructure that comprises at least two infrastructures selected from the group consisting of WAN infrastructure, LAN infrastructure, IP telephony infrastructure, server infrastructure, and security infrastructure.

12. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein the graphical user interface display comprises a first graphical icon representing a reliability trend for the combined information technology infrastructure.

13. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein the first graphical icon is displayed using a shape and a color that are selected based upon a combination of a trend in infrastructure reliability in combination with a current average reliability value.

14. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein the graphical user interface display comprises a second graphical icon representing a security trend for the combined information technology infrastructure.

15. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein the second graphical icon is displayed using a shape and a color that are selected based upon a combination of a trend in infrastructure security in combination with a current average security value.

16. A method for managing a network, the method comprising:

performing an auto-discovery of elements of an IT infrastructure to be monitored to generate element data models;

determining if profiles exist for all of the elements of the IT infrastructure;

performing a profile plan manager to generate management descriptors by combining the profiles and the element data models;

adjusting the profiles of the management descriptors; and

monitoring the elements of an IT infrastructure.

17. A method as recited in claim 16, wherein the profiles comprise one or more attributes that comprise questions to poll, interrogate or ask an element being monitored, and may also include other profiles.

18. A method as recited in claim 16, wherein the profiles comprise actions to take if certain conditions occur at the elements as reported back after being polled or queried.

19. A method of fault processing in a network, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of fault events from network elements, wherein the network elements are within an information technology infrastructure that comprises at least two infrastructures selected from the group consisting of WAN infrastructure, LAN infrastructure, IP telephony infrastructure, server infrastructure, and security infrastructure;

correlating a subset of the fault events based on determining that a particular sub-plurality of the fault events originate with a known fault of a particular network element; and

determining a likely cause of the known fault based on availability algorithms and using the CIM data model of the IT infrastructure.

20. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein correlating is performed based on any one or more of:

a single fault, multiple faults, a single protocol, multiple protocols, a single source for known errors and multiple sources of known errors.

21. A method as recited in claim 19, further comprising generating a combined infrastructure health value, a combined infrastructure reliability value, and a combined security risk value for all of the at least two infrastructures respectively representing combined infrastructure health, reliability, and security of all of the at least two infrastructures.