Remote alert monitoring and trend analysis

A method comprising:

• providing a modifiable static tree structure representing a general computer system;
• extracting component information indicating hardware and software components of the computer system, from diagnostic data of the computer system;
• generating a host state, representing a state of a computer system, according to the static tree structure and the component information, wherein the static tree structure includes element types in a fixed hierarchical relationship, the element types representing the hardware and software components of the computer system;
• determining if predetermined conditions exist in the computer system by comparing respective definitions of the predetermined conditions to the host state;
• and
• generating an alert if one of the predetermined conditions is determined to exist.

A monitoring computer system for generating alerts indicating predetermined conditions exist in a monitored computer system, comprising:

• a first data storage area storing a plurality of alert definitions defining respective predetermined conditions in the monitored computer system;
• a second data storage area storing at least a first host state of the monitored computer system, the first host state being represented as a modifiable tree structure including elements in a fixed hierarchical relationship, the elements being given value by associated token values indicating respective software and hardware components of the monitored computer system;
• and
• a monitoring computer, coupled to the first and second data storage areas;
• and
• wherein the monitoring computer generates alerts when a condition defined in one of the alert definitions is determined to be present in the first host state.