System and method for dynamically grouping devices based on present device conditions

• US 9,491,071 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2014
• Issued: 11/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PTC Inc.
• Original Assignee: PTC Inc.
• Inventors: Hart, David Patrick, Taylor, John Louis
• Primary Examiner(s): Shepperd, Eric W
• Application Number:
  US14/317,151
• Publication Number:
  US 20150032882A1
• Time in Patent Office: 865 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A method to dynamically group devices based on device information, which is associated with a system for monitoring the device information that communicates information between a device and an enterprise. Information is collected from a device information source to obtain an actual status of a device. The actual status of the device is compared to a stored status of the device. The stored status is stored on a server of the enterprise. The enterprise determines if the actual status has been changed from the stored status. When a change is detected, the method performs at least one of the acts of automatically disassociating the device from a group that reflects the stored status and automatically associating the device with a new group to reflect the actual status.

Claims

1. A method that is performed on an enterprise system comprising a server computer, the method comprising:

establishing, on the server computer, one or more group rules for grouping devices based on status;

obtaining an actual status of a device from a monitoring agent that monitors and collects information from the device, including the actual status at a given time;

comparing the actual status of the device to a prior status of the device, the device initially being associated with a first group that corresponds to the prior status;

determining that the actual status is different from the prior status based on the comparing;

on the server computer, consulting a rule to determine to create a second group that corresponds to the actual status of the device, the rule to determine to create the second group being among the one or more group rules;

creating the second group automatically in accordance with the rule, the second group being associated with a group hierarchy comprised of multiple groups at different levels in the group hierarchy; and

associating the device with the second group.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending notifications when the actual status of the device corresponds to a predefined condition.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising, in response to an additional change in the status of the device, associating the device with one or more other groups and/or disassociating the device from the second group.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein a second notification is sent based on failure to receive acknowledgement of a first notification within a defined time limit.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the second notification is sent to a next higher-level group in the group hierarchy than the group to which the first notification was sent.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the first group is empty after the device is disassociated from the first group; and

deleting the first group.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

disassociating the device from the first group;

disassociating first group-based business logic from the device when the device is disassociated from the first group; and

associating second group-based business logic with the device when the device is associated with the second group.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the group hierarchy comprises a static root group and one or more sub-groups, the second group being among the one or more sub-groups.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the static root group is defined manually, and the one or more sub-groups are defined dynamically.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the group hierarchy comprises at least one statically-defined group and at least one dynamically-defined group.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending successive notifications to progressively higher-level groups in the group hierarchy until acknowledgement of one of the successive notifications is received.

12. Non-transitory machine-readable storage storing instructions that are executable to perform operations comprising:

establishing, on a server computer, one or more group rules for grouping devices based on status;

obtaining an actual status of a device from a monitoring agent that monitors and collects information from the device, including the actual status at a given time;

comparing the actual status of the device to a prior status of the device, the device initially being associated with a first group that corresponds to the prior status;

determining that the actual status is different from the prior status based on the comparing;

on the server computer, consulting a rule to determine to create a second group that corresponds to the actual status of the device, the rule to determine to create the second group being among the one or more group rules;

creating the second group automatically in accordance with the rule, the second group being associated with a group hierarchy comprised of multiple groups at different levels in the group hierarchy; and

associating the device with the second group.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable storage of claim 12, wherein the operations comprise sending notifications when the actual status of the device corresponds to a predefined condition.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable storage of claim 13, wherein the operations comprise, in response to an additional change in the status of the device, associating the device with one or more other groups and/or disassociating the device from the second group.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable storage of claim 12, wherein the operations comprise:

determining that the first group is empty after the device is disassociated from the first group; and

deleting the first group.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage of claim 12, wherein the operations comprise:

disassociating the device from the first group;

disassociating first group-based business logic from the device when the device is disassociated from the first group; and

associating second group-based business logic with the device when the device is associated with the second group.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage of claim 12, wherein the group hierarchy comprises a static root group and one or more sub-groups, the second group being among the one or more sub-groups.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage of claim 17, wherein the static root group is defined manually, and the one or more sub-groups are defined dynamically.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage of claim 12, wherein the group hierarchy comprises at least one statically-defined group and at least one dynamically-defined group.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage of claim 13, wherein the operations comprise sending a second notification based on failure to receive acknowledgement of a first notification within a defined time limit.

21. The non-transitory machine-readable storage of claim 20, wherein the second notification is sent to a next higher-level group in the group hierarchy than the group to which the first notification was sent.

22. The non-transitory machine-readable storage of claim 12, further comprising:

sending successive notifications to progressively higher-level groups in the group hierarchy until acknowledgement of one of the successive notifications is received.

23. A system comprising:

a monitoring agent to monitor and to collect information from a device, including an actual status at a given time; and

a server computer to execute instructions to perform operations comprising;

on the server computer, establishing one or more group rules for grouping devices based on status;

obtaining the actual status of the device from the monitoring agent;

comparing the actual status of the device to a prior status of the device, the device initially being associated with a first group that corresponds to the prior status;

determining that the actual status is different from the prior status based on the comparing;

on the server computer, consulting a rule to determine to create a second group that corresponds to the actual status of the device, the rule to determine to create the second group being among the one or more group rules;

creating the second group automatically in accordance with the rule, the second group being associated with a group hierarchy comprised of multiple groups at different levels in the group hierarchy; and

associating the device with the second group.