System and method to control and administer distributed object servers using first class distributed objects

A computer implemented method of embedding an object within a server to provide runtime information about a server process executing the server, comprising the steps of:

• defining an object interface definition language file for a first class object, the file specifying:
• an interface to a first attribute or operation for obtaining a process identification number for a server process not separately existing as a first class object;
• an interface to a second attribute or operating for obtaining a host name for a computer executing the server process;
• defining an implementation file specifying source code of the first class object for implementing the first and second attributes or operations, respectively;
• compiling at least one object for performing a function of the server, the object incorporated into the server, to produce a server file;
• compiling the interface definition language file of the first class object to produce a set of source code files for interfacing the interface definition language file of the first class object to the implementation file of the first class object;
• compiling the source code files and implementation file of the first class object to produce a first class object file;
• linking the first class object file to the compiled server file to produce an executable server file;
• and
• executing the server file to create a server process containing an instance of a first class object.

A computer implemented method for determining current state information about a server executing as a server process in a distributed object environment, the server not separately existing as a first class object, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving in a first object external to the server a request from a client object to determine current state information for a server;
• invoking from the first object an operation on a second object known to be embedded in the server, the operation determining the current state information of the server;
• executing the operation of the second object as part of the server process without interrupting the server process to determine the current state information;
• and
• providing the current state information to the first object.