Method and system for discovery of remote agents

• US 7,506,044 B2
• Filed: 01/14/2005
• Issued: 03/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shankaranarayanan, Kartik, Mohapatra, Saurav, Doshi, Rutvik
• Primary Examiner(s): Donaghue; Larry D
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pollack; Melvin H
• Application Number:
  US11/035,900
• Publication Number:
  US 20060041612A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,523 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 709/223, 709/224, 709/249, 726/11, 726/12, 707/3, 719315-317
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• 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 41/0273 using web services for network management, e.g. simple object access protocol [SOAP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0286 for search or classification or discovery of web services providing management functionalities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A method for discovering remote agents includes providing at least one web service. At least one remote agent may be discovered based on the at least one web service. The at least one web service may include an agent metadata service and/or an agent managed object query service running on the one or more remote agents. The agent managed object query service may provide information regarding managed objects found on one or more remote agents and the results of the discovery may be displayed to a user.

Claims

1. A method for discovering remote agents, comprising:

providing at least one web service;

discovering one or more remote agents based on the at least one web service;

identifying a schema of the one or more remote agents;

wherein the least one web service comprises;

an agent metadata service running on the one or more remote agents;

an agent managed object query service running on the one or more remote agents; and

wherein the agent managed object query service provides information regarding managed objects found on the one or more remote agents; and

displaying the results of the discovery to a user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more remote agents comprises one or more managed objects, one or more clustered managed objects, one or more managed object groups, and one or more clustered managed object groups.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein one or more managed objects includes one or more managed object paths.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more managed object paths are obtained from the agent metadata service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one web service and discovery can be launched from a graphical user interface.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the schema comprises a layout and hierarchy of the managed objects found on the one or more remote agents as arranged on the one or more remote agents.

27. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the at least one web service is provided on the one or more remote agents;

the one or more remote agents reside between a management application and the managed objects, the one or more remote agents configured to monitor the managed objects and deliver an alert to the management application when a change occurs regarding a status of one of the managed object to notify the management application of the change;

the agent metadata service is configured to retrieve metadata information regarding the managed objects in response to queries from the management application regarding the managed objects; and

further comprising;

enabling a user to configure the at least one remote agent using the management application; and

receiving, at the management application, the metadata information from the one or more remote agents at a predefined interval specified by the user.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

enabling the user to define a threshold priority level;

receiving the alert;

determining whether to display the alert to the user by comparing a priority level of the alert with the threshold priority value; and

displaying the alert to the user if the priority level of the alert exceeds the threshold priority level.

6. A system for discovering remote agents, comprising:

one or more processors coupled to a memory, the memory comprising instruction executable by the one or more processors, the one or more processors operable when executing the instructions to provide at least one management console residing on a computer;

one or more remote agents, wherein the at least one management console is configured to discovers one or more remote agents based on at least one web service and identify a schema of the one or more remote agents;

wherein the least one web service comprises;

an agent metadata service running on the one or more remote agents;

an agent managed object query service running on the one or more remote agents;

wherein the agent managed object query service provides information regarding managed objects found on the one or more remote agents; and

a user interface operable to display the results of the discovery to a user.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein one or more remote agents comprises one or more managed objects, one or more clustered managed objects, one or more managed object groups, and one or more clustered managed object groups.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein one or more managed objects includes one or more managed object paths.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein one or more managed object paths are obtained from the agent metadata service.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein at least one web service and discovery can be launched from a graphical user interface.

11. A computer readable storage medium including computer executable code for discovering remote agents, comprising:

code for providing at least one web service; and

code for discovering one or more remote agents based on the at least one web service;

code for identifying a schema of the one or more remote agents;

wherein the least one web service comprises;

an agent metadata service running on the one or more remote agents;

an agent managed object query service running on the one or more remote agents;

wherein the agent managed object query service provides information regarding managed objects found on the one or more remote agents; and

code for displaying the results of the discovery to a user.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein one or more remote agents comprises one or more managed objects, one or more clustered managed objects, one or more managed object groups, and one or more clustered managed object groups.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein one or more managed objects includes one or more managed object paths.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein one or more managed object paths are obtained from the agent metadata service.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein at least one web service and discovery can be launched from a graphical user interface.

16. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more web-based agents operable to collect data from a plurality of managed objects;

a web-based manager operable to;

discover the one or more agents;

identify a schema of the one or more remote agents;

register with the one or more agents;

collect the data from the one or more agents; and

a user interface operable to display the data.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the web-based manager is separated from one of the one or more web-based agents by barrier.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the barrier is selected from the group consisting of a firewall, a Virtual Private Network (“

VPN”

), or a proxy server.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the web-based manager is configured to communicate with the one or more web-based agents across the barrier.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the web-based manager is operable to communicate with the one or more web-based agents using Simple Object Access Protocol (“

SOAP”

).

21. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the web-based manager is further operable to configure the one or more web-based agents.

22. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the plurality of managed objects comprises a compilation of hardware components and software components.

23. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the web-based agent is operable to send the web-based manager an unsolicited alert when a change occurs regarding a status of one of the plurality of managed object to notify the management application of the change.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the web-based manager is operable to automatically initiate data collection of updated data from the one or more web-based agents upon receiving the unsolicited alert.

25. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the web-based manager is operable to automatically initiate data collection of updated data from the one or more agents on a predetermined interval.