Remote system administration using command line environment

• US 7,698,359 B2
• Filed: 01/16/2004
• Issued: 04/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chandrashekaran, Rajesh, Wray, Daryl W., Shastry M.C., Shankara, Snover, Jeffrey P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bahta; Kidest
• Application Number:
  US10/759,738
• Publication Number:
  US 20050198648A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,279 Days
• Field of Search: 700/90, 709/319, 709/320, 709/224, 709/223, 709/200, 705/64, 395/200.57, 719/315, 719/320, 717/147
• US Class Current: 709/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45512 Command shells
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence
• 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: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A command line environment is configured to receive a command line that implicates a plurality of remote nodes. The command line environment is configured to establish a session, which may be persistent, to each implicated remote node, and to initiate execution of the remote command on those nodes. The session may be assigned to a variable, and the remote execution may be performed concurrently. Results of the remote execution are received and may be aggregated into an array. The command line environment may distribute the task of establishing sessions to other systems to improve performance.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions thereon which, when executed by a computer enable remote execution of a command, the instructions comprising:

receiving a command line instruction including a remote command, the remote command identifying a task of execution to be performed on a remote system;

initiating a session with at least two remote systems;

assigning each session to a command line environment variable configured such that a plurality of commands can concurrently use the session by referring to the environment variable, wherein a command line environment receiving the command line environment variable is configured to execute commands on a local system and the remote system; and

causing the remote command to be executed concurrently on each of the at least two remote systems, including issuing the remote command to the environment variable, wherein the environment variable is a variable maintained by a local command line environment and the environment variable is further configured such that the variable is used to share information between processes or applications.

2. The computer-readable storage at medium recited in claim 1, wherein the session comprises a connection between a system on which the command line instruction is received.

3. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 1, wherein the session is initiated as a persistent session that is available to perform subsequent remote commands.

4. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 3, further comprising receiving a second command line instruction including a second remote command and causing the second remote command to be executed using the persistent session.

5. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises a remote agent configured to return information to the local system wherein the information comprises at least one of a result of the execution, meta information, and information about the remote system from which the result originated.

6. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises an alternate process.

7. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 1, wherein the remote system comprises an alternate application domain located on a local computing system.

8. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 1, wherein causing the remote command to be executed comprises delegating the step of causing the remote command to be executed to a controller associated with a subset of the at least two remote systems.

9. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 8, wherein each of the at least two remote systems comprises a node in a hierarchical network topology and the controller holds a position in the hierarchy between the subset of the at least two remote systems and a system receiving the command line instruction.

10. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 1, wherein the remote command is concurrently executed on each of the at least two remote systems.

11. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 1, further comprising aggregating results of executing each remote command.

12. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 11, wherein the results are aggregated into an array.

13. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 11, wherein the results include information that identifies on which remote system the results originated.

14. A computer-executable method of remote execution of a command, the method implemented on a computing device by a processor configured to execute instructions that, when executed, direct the computing device to perform acts comprising:

receiving at a local system a first command line that identifies a remote system;

causing a session to be created between the local system and the remote system, the session including a connection to a remote process resident on the remote system;

assigning the session to a command line environment variable configured such that a plurality of commands can concurrently use the session by referring to the environment variable, wherein a command line environment receiving the command line environment variable is configured to execute commands on a local system and the remote system;

issuing a remote command to the environment variable to cause the remote command to be executed in the remote process; and

storing results of the remote command in an environment variable associated with the session, wherein the environment variable is a variable maintained by a local command line environment and the environment variable is further configured such that the variable is used to share information between processes or applications.

15. The computer-executable method recited in claim 14, further comprising:

causing a second remote command to the environment variable to cause the second remote command to be concurrently executed in the remote process and storing results of the second remote command in the environment variable.

16. The computer-executable method recited in claim 14, wherein causing the session to be created comprises creating the environment variable and making the variable available to other tasks.

17. The computer-executable method recited in claim 16, wherein the first command line further comprises a parameter that identifies the environment variable associated with the session.

18. The computer-executable method recited in claim 14, wherein causing a session to be created further comprises distributing the task of launching the connection to a computing device other than the local system.

19. The computer-executable method recited in claim 14, wherein the command line further identifies credentials for use in creating the session between the local system and the remote system.

20. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the method recited in claim 14.

21. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable components thereon which, when executed by a computer, implement a system comprising:

a session manager configured to;

create and maintain sessions between a local system and one or more remote systems, each session being capable of hosting a plurality of connections between the local system and remote systems;

assign each session to a command line environment variable configured such that a plurality of commands can concurrently use each session by referring to the environment variable, wherein the environment variable is a variable maintained by a local command line environment and the environment variable is further configured such that the variable is used to share information between processes or applications and a command line environment receiving the command line environment variable is configured to execute commands on a local system and the remote system;

store the environment variable in a memory; and

issue a remote command to the environment variable to cause the remote command to be executed on the one or more remote systems;

an aggregator configured to receive results of remote execution of a command, the results being each associated with a remote system, the aggregator being further configured to aggregate the results into an array; and

a throttler configured to, upon request, limit a number of active connections within each session.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein each of the results in the array is associated with the remote system on which the results originated.

23. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the aggregator is further configured to make the results available in a disaggregated fashion.

24. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 21, wherein the aggregator is further configured to aggregate the results into an environment variable associated with a session created by the session manager.

25. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 21, wherein the throttler is further configured to interact with interact with other performance-based mechanisms to regulate a performance impact of a remote command execution.

26. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 25, wherein the other performance-based mechanisms comprises a Quality Of Service mechanism.

27. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 25, wherein the other performance-based mechanisms comprises an agent on a remote system that is configured to regulate an impact on resources on the remote system.

28. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 21, further comprising a core engine configured to manage a flow of information among each of the several components.

29. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 28, wherein the core engine is further configured to delegate a task of initiating a session to another system in a hierarchy of remote systems.

30. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 21, wherein the remote system comprises a remote agent configured to return information to the local system wherein the information comprises at least one of a result of the execution, meta information, and information about the remote system from which the result originated.

31. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 21, wherein the remote system comprises an alternate process.

32. The computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 21, wherein the remote system comprises an alternate application domain.