Method and apparatus for monitoring and controlling programs in a network

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising: receiving an alert by a management console in response to an event; identifying at least one procedure stored in said management console in response to said event; sending said at least one procedure including a plurality of stored triggers from said management console to an agent module resident on a workstation over a network, said plurality of stored triggers including at least one trigger chosen from a trigger library including at least one trigger selected from the group consisting of add a line to an AUTOEXEC batch file, install a driver, check a disk for bad sectors, send a SNMP trap, send an alert via modem, send an alert via email, send an alert via pager, run a program on a local workstation, generate a NMS alarm, copy files, set a last drive, set a number of disk buffers, stop a program by name, pause, stop a program executing during an alert generation, set a number of network control blocks, copy an alert to a database, copy an alert to a text file, and copy an alert to a printer file; and automatically launching said at least one procedure within said workstation for processing said event by executing the plurality of triggers at scheduled times, each of said plurality of triggers adapted to cause a specific corrective action in response to the event.

2. A method comprising: identifying an event occurring with respect to a program executing on a workstation; sending an alert to a management console which identifies said event; identifying at least one procedure stored in said management console; identifying a plurality of stored triggers in said procedure, said plurality of stored triggers including at least one trigger chosen from a trigger library including at least one trigger selected from the group consisting of add a line to an AUTOEXEC batch file, install a driver, check a disk for bad sectors, send a SNMP trap, send an alert via modem, send an alert via email, send an alert via pager, run a program on a local workstation, generate a NMS alarm, copy files, set a last drive, set a number of disk buffers, stop a program by name, pause, stop a program executing during an alert generation, set a number of network control blocks, copy an alert to a database, copy an alert to a text file, and copy an alert to a printer file; sending said plurality of stored triggers from said management console to an agent module resident on said workstation in response to said alert; and automatically launching at scheduled times said plurality of stored triggers in at least two workstations in response to said event, each of said plurality of triggers adapted to cause a specific corrective action in response to the event.

3. An article of manufacture for use in a digital processing system for allowing an implementation in responsive to execution of a network program, the article of manufacture comprising a digital processing system usable medium having readable program code embodied in the medium, the program code comprising: receiving an alert by a management console in response to an event; identifying at least one procedure stored in said management console in response to said event; sending said at least one procedure including a plurality of stored triggers from said management console to an agent module resident on a workstation in a network, said plurality of stored triggers including at least one trigger chosen from a trigger library including at least one trigger selected from the group consisting of add a line to an AUTOEXEC batch file, install a driver, check a disk for bad sectors, send a SNMP trap, send an alert via modem, send an alert via email, send an alert via pager, run a program on a local workstation, generate a NMS alarm, copy files, set a last drive, set a number of disk buffers, stop a program by name, pause, stop a program executing during an alert generation, set a number of network control blocks, copy an alert to a database, copy an alert to a text file, and copy an alert to a printer file; and automatically launching said at least one procedure within said workstation for processing said event by executing the plurality of triggers at scheduled times, each of said plurality of triggers adapted to cause a specific corrective action in response to the event.

4. A system for monitoring and controlling at least one program being executed on any of at least two workstations in a network, said system comprising: means for identifying an event occurring with respect to a program executing on one of said at least two workstations; means for sending an alert to a management console which identifies said event; means for storing at least one procedure, said at least one procedure including a plurality of stored triggers, said plurality of stored triggers including at least one trigger chosen from a trigger library including at least one trigger selected from the group consisting of add a line to an AUTOEXEC batch file, install a driver, check a disk for bad sectors, send a SNMP trap, send an alert via modem, send an alert via email, send an alert via pager, run a program on a local workstation, generate a NMS alarm, copy files, set a last drive, set a number of disk buffers, stop a program by name, pause, stop a program executing during an alert generation, set a number of network control blocks, copy an alert to a database, copy an alert to a text file, and copy an alert to a printer file; means for sending said at least one procedure from said management console to an agent module resident on said one of said at least two workstations in response to receipt of said alert; and means for automatically launching at scheduled times said plurality of stored triggers in said at least one procedure, each of said plurality of stored triggers adapted to cause a specific corrective action in response to the event.

5. The system according to claim 4, further comprising: means in said management console for scheduling performance of selected ones of said at least one procedure at specific times; and means in said management console for sending said selected ones of said at least one procedure from said management console to at least one of said at least one agent modules at said specific times.

6. The system according to claim 4, wherein one of said plurality of triggers comprises sending at least one keystroke job from said management console to said at least two workstations.

7. The system according to claim 4, further comprising means, in said management console, for providing remote access to said at least two workstations to enable said management console to take and release control of said at least two workstations.

8. The system according to claim 4, wherein one of said plurality of triggers comprises starting programs on said at least two workstations and another of said plurality of triggers comprises stopping executing programs on said at least two workstations.

9. The system according to claim 4, further comprising means for providing mapping integration with a network management system.

10. The system according to claim 4, further comprising an application control means in said management console for launching and executing capture of said at least two workstations in a background operation of said at least two workstations wherein said capture is accomplished without affecting any program executing in a foreground operation of said at least two workstations.

11. A system for monitoring and controlling at least one program in a network, said network comprising at least two workstations and a management console connected to each of said at least two workstations, said system comprising: at least one generic agent means resident on said workstations for transmitting alerts indicating occurrence of an event with a program executing on the workstation; a monitor means resident on said management console for logging alerts transmitted by any of said at least one generic agent; at least one procedure resident on said management console, said procedure including a plurality of stored triggers, said plurality of stored triggers including at least one trigger chosen from a trigger library including at least one trigger selected from the group consisting of add a line to an AUTOEXEC batch file, install a driver, check a disk for bad sectors, send a SNMP trap, send an alert via modem, send an alert via email, send an alert via pager, run a program on a local workstation, generate a NMS alarm, copy files, set a last drive, set a number of disk buffers, stop a program by name, pause, stop a program executing during an alert generation, set a number of network control blocks, copy an alert to a database, copy an alert to a text file, and copy an alert to a printer file; a manager coupled to said at least one generic agent for monitoring and controlling operations of said at least one generic agent, said manager further configured to send at least one procedure to said at least one generic agent in response to an alert; and said one of said at least two workstations configured to automatically launch at schedule times said plurality of stored triggers in said at least one procedure, each of said plurality of triggers adapted to cause a specific corrective action in response to the event.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein said plurality of triggers comprise a plurality of predefined triggers and user defined triggers.

13. The system according to claim 11, further comprising means in one of said at least two workstations for sending a heartbeat to said manager means from said at least one generic agent means at a predetermined frequency signifying that said at least one generic agent means is active.

14. The system according to claim 11, further comprising: means in said manager means for scheduling performance of selected ones of said at least one procedure at desired times; and means in said manager means for sending said selected ones of said at least one procedure from said monitor means to at least one of said at least one generic agent means at said desired times.

15. The system according to claim 11, wherein one of said plurality of triggers comprises sending at least one keystroke job from said manager means to said at least two workstations.

16. The system according to claim 11, further comprising means, in said manager means, for providing remote access to said at least two workstations to enable said manager means take and release control of said at least two workstations.

17. The system according to claim 11, wherein one of said plurality of triggers comprises starting programs on said at least two workstations and another of said plurality of triggers comprises stopping executing programs on said at least two workstations.

18. The system according to claim 11, further comprising means in said manager means for providing mapping integration with a network management system.

19. The system according to claim 11, further comprising receiver and transmitter means for connecting said at least one generic agent means with said network using one of a plurality of network communication protocols.

20. The system according to claim 11, wherein said monitor means comprises means in said manager means for maintaining statistical views for displaying information concerning alert statistics.

21. The system according to claim 11, further comprising an application control means in said manager means for launching and executing capture of said at least two workstations in a background operation of said at least two workstations wherein said capture is accomplished without affecting any program executing in a foreground operation of said at least two workstations.

22. The system according to claim 13, wherein said predetermined frequency is determined by a configurable parameter which ranges from 1 to 80 seconds, with a default of 40 seconds.

23. The method according to claim 21, further comprising providing mapping integration with a network management system.

24. A method for monitoring and controlling at least one program capable of being executed on any of at least two workstations in a network, said network comprising at least one agent module resident on each of said at least two workstations and a management console connected to each of said at least two workstations, said method comprising: storing in said management console at least one procedure, said at least one procedure comprising a plurality of stored triggers, said plurality of stored triggers including at least one trigger chosen from a trigger library including at least one trigger selected from the group consisting of add a line to an AUTOEXEC batch file, install a driver, check a disk for bad sectors, send a SNMP trap, send an alert via modem, send an alert via email, send an alert via pager, run a program on a local workstation, generate a NMS alarm, copy files, set a last drive, set a number of disk buffers, stop a program by name, pause, stop a program executing during an alert generation, set a number of network control blocks, copy an alert to a database, copy an alert to a text file, and copy an alert to a printer file; identifying an event occurring on one of said at least two workstations; sending an alert to said management console which identifies said event; sending at least one of said procedures from said management console to said agent module resident on said one of said at least two workstations in response to receipt of said alert; and automatically launching at scheduled times, in said one of said at least two workstations, said plurality of stored triggers in said at least one procedure, each of said plurality of triggers adapted to cause a specific corrective action in response to the event.

25. The method according to claim 24, further comprising: scheduling in said management console performance of selected ones of said at least one procedure at desired times; and sending said selected ones of said at least one procedure from said management console to at least one of said at least one agent modules at said desired times.

26. The method according to claim 24, wherein one of said plurality of triggers in said management console comprises sending at least one keystroke job from said management console to said at least two workstations.

27. The method according to claim 24, further comprising providing remote access by said management console to said at least two workstations to enable said management console to take and release control of said at least two workstations.

28. The method according to claim 24, wherein one of said plurality of triggers in said management console comprises starting programs on said at least two workstations and another of said plurality of triggers comprises stopping executing programs on said at least two workstations.

BACKGROUND

The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for controlling programs in a network. In particular, the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus which automatically detects and corrects error conditions occurring in programs running on network workstations.

Today's networks are expanding in size and complexity. A network administrator is typically in charge of planning, organizing and maintaining the network. His responsibilities include trobleshooting not only network hardware and software problems, but hardware and software problems on each of the workstations in the network. As much as eighty percent of his time can be spent on troubleshooting problems on the workstations, including problems specific to each program that the users may be running. Until the network administrator can fix the problem for a user, the workstation may be down. Such downtime can be costly for any organization whose operations depend upon proper functioning of the network and its workstations. Further, because the network administrator must be able to diagnose and fix any problem that can occur with all the programs that are running on the network, he must be a highly skilled individual with at least a working knowledge of all network programs.

The present invention relates to a system for assisting the network administrator in solving the problems encountered in the network. A number of earlier versions of the program according to the present invention have been available in the marketplace for more than one year which will detect network problems and report them. The newest of these versions, released November 1992, is AlertVIEW.TM., Version 2.0, available from Shany, Inc., Mountain View, Calif. These earlier versions can inform the network administrator that a problem exists with a particular application program running on one of the network workstations. However, the prior versions have only a limited capability in that they can only send a single command, or trigger, to the workstations in response to the detection of the problem, that is, upon receipt of an alert at a management console. In particular, the management console sends a trigger causing one of the following actions to occur: freeze, unfreeze, or reboot a workstation, start and stop a program running in the foreground, send a message, or send any single command in the form of a custom trigger, that the user indicates should be performed in response to specific alerts.

SUMMARY

It is accordingly an object of the present invention to improve upon the earlier versions of the above-noted program in a manner which offers increased flexibility in the handling of problems that occur at workstations.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a network maintenance system which can identify failures of programs running on network workstations and take the appropriate corrective action to correct the problems that led to those failures.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a system which can correct problems occurring on workstations within the network by sending procedures to agents active on the workstations, each procedure consisting of one or more actions to be taken.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a network maintenance system which allows integrated remote access and control of the network workstations by the network administrator.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a system which allows the network administrator to schedule the automatic performance of network administration and maintenance tasks.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a system which allows the network administrator to automatically send keystroke jobs to the workstations in the network.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a system which allows automatic discovery of agents.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a system which provides specific agents which are developed so as to be tailored to specific applications.

According to one embodiment, a system is provided for controlling at least one program capable of being executed on any of at least two workstations in a network. The network includes at least one agent module resident on each of the workstations and a management console connected to each of the workstations. The system comprises means for identifying an event occurring with respect to a program executing on one of the workstations, means for sending an alert to the management console which identifies the event, and means for storing a plurality of triggers. Each of the triggers is adapted to cause an action to be taken within the network. The system further comprises means for storing at least one procedure, the procedure comprising at least one of the triggers, and means for sending at least one of the procedures from the management console to the agent module resident on the one of the workstations in response to receipt of the alert.

According to another embodiment, a system for monitoring and controlling at least one program in a network is provided. The network comprises at least two workstations and a management console connected to each of the workstations. The system comprises at least one generic agent means resident on each of the workstations for transmitting alerts indicating occurrence of an event with a program executing on the workstation, and monitor means resident on the management console for logging alerts transmitted by any of the agent means. The system further includes means for storing a plurality of triggers to be sent from the monitor means to the agent means, the triggers comprising commands which cause actions to be taken by the agent means in response to the event, means for defining at least one procedure, the procedure including at least one of the stored triggers, and manager means for monitoring and controlling operations of the agent means, the manager means comprising means for sending the procedure to the agent means in response to an alert.

According to another embodiment, a method is provided for monitoring and controlling at least one program capable of being executed on any of at least two workstations in a network. The network comprises at least one agent module resident on each of the workstations and a management console connected to each of the workstations. The method comprises the steps of storing a plurality of triggers, each of the triggers adapted to cause an action to be taken within the network, storing at least one procedure, the procedure comprising at least one of the plurality of triggers, identifying an event occurring on one of the workstations, sending an alert to the management console which identifies the event, and sending at least one of the procedures from the management console to the agent module resident on the workstation in response to receipt of the alert.

Still other objects, features and attendant advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a reading of the following detailed description of the embodiments constructed in accordance therewith, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention of the present application will now be described in more detail with reference to the preferred embodiments of the system, given only by way of example, and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the network system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a computer system in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the generic agent used in the system of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the monitor used in the system of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the manager used in the system of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a routine for the initialization phase of the generic agent used in the system of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of a routine for the operation phase of the generic agent used in the system of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of a routine for the fault management phase of the generic agent used in the system of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of a routine for the controlling and management phase of the generic agent used in the system of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of a routine for the operation phase of the monitor used in the system of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of a routine for the operation phase of the manager used in the system of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of the network system for a specific agent in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of a routine for the operation of the specific