US 6,393,386 B1 · Dynamic modeling of complex networks and prediction of impacts of faults therein

Abstract

A method and system are provided for use in administering a complex system, such as a distributed computing ensemble. A model of the system being administered is prepared, preferably during runtime of the invention, by a combination of autodiscovery processes and manual input of information as needed. The model represents not only the resources found in the administered system, but also the service-relationships among those resources. The system administrator also can define elements in the model corresponding to arbitrary groupings of already-existing parts of the model. Software agents, which can be reconfigured, started and terminated as desired during runtime, report changes in state of the managed resources to the model, which updates itself and explores portions of the model adjacent (in terms of the service relationships) to the affected resource(s). Clusters of neighboring state-changes that have a logical relation to each other are grouped together as an alarm, and are preferably represented in a graphical display. Any root-cause event of this type is marked as such, and any portions of the modeled system being (or logically likely to be) affected by the changes are also identified and displayed.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A modeling system for modeling an external system that has plural components at least some of which are providing services to others of the components, the modeling system comprising a software model of the external system, and a server for the model;

the model comprising software objects instantiated based on respective portions of the system, wherein each software object includes first information defining any services that a corresponding component of the system is providing or receiving, and second information identifying the software object(s) corresponding to the component(s) of the system to/from which that component is providing/receiving the services, and
wherein, responsive to occurrence of a predefined condition relating to either of a first and a second of the software objects one of which is providing at least one service to the other, the model server determines, based on the first and the second information, at least one path between the first and second objects along which that service can be provided.

A method of generating an interaction history of a portion of a system, by using a software model of the system that is a mathematical directed graph having nodes corresponding to respective components of the system and edges corresponding to services that are currently being provided by one component to another;

said method comprising the steps of:
the model receiving information relating to an event occurring in a given component of the portion of the system and generating an indicator of degraded state in a software object corresponding to that component;
and
performing graph-traversal, said graph-traversal further comprising at least one of:
traversing the graph rootward, along at least one graph edge from that component in a first direction, from edge-head to edge-tail until edge of the graph is reached or until an object is reached for which a root-cause event has already been declared or until no further traversal in said first direction is possible, and
traversing the graph leafward, along at least one graph edge in a second direction, from edge-tail to edge-head until no further traversal in said first direction is possible or until the traversal reaches a node already traversed, and
said method being capable of both such rootward and such leafward traversal.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Dynamic modeling of complex networks and prediction of impacts of faults therein

Life of this patent

Dynamic modeling of complex networks and prediction of impacts of faults therein

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims17