Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L41/00—Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
  • H04L41/04—Network management architectures or arrangements
  • H04L41/042—Network management architectures or arrangements comprising distributed management centres cooperatively managing the network
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L41/00—Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
  • H04L41/50—Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements
  • H04L41/5061—Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements characterised by the interaction between service providers and their network customers, e.g. customer relationship management
  • H04L41/5074—Handling of user complaints or trouble tickets

Definitions

• a method of managing administration, maintenance and maintenance operations, management entity, and corresponding computer program product is a method of managing administration, maintenance and maintenance operations, management entity, and corresponding computer program product.
• the invention relates to a method for executing management and maintenance operations on a plurality of computers, as well as a device for implementing it.
• One field of application of the invention relates to outsourcing, including international, computer parks installed in large entities, such as large companies.
• Such outsourcing includes administration, maintenance and operational maintenance of computers in the park.
• Outsourcing a computer park consists of remote management of computers that make up the computer park. Management is most often carried out through so-called "help desk” platforms or management platforms. Such platforms allow administrators to interact remotely on some machines that make up the computer park.
• VNC Virtual Network Computing
• a disadvantage of this technique of the prior art is that the implementation of management solutions as described above, also called “Help Desk” services, is resource-intensive, both at the human level, by the mobilization of many skills , at the computer level by a significant use of bandwidth and resources at the level of communication networks.
• MIB of the English “Management Information Base” for “Management Information Base”
• MIB database is used to store hardware information, configuration parameters, performance statistics.
• each system to be monitored implements an SNMP agent that continuously monitors events that occur and allows a central system to retrieve the information contained in the MIB.
• the agents therefore transmit the events to the central system in accordance with the SNMP protocol.
• this protocol especially in its versions 1 and 2, includes many security vulnerabilities that make the information transmitted vulnerable.
• Another disadvantage of using this SNMP protocol is that the agents must handle both receiving commands from the management server while retrieving events that occur on the workstation or the server. .
• an SNMP agent runs continuously and is responsible for executing a large number of tasks autonomously and preprogrammed by the administrator.
• administrative agents such as SNMP agents implement "scheduler" (English for "scheduler") that can manage the tasks to be executed; Such agents are complex to program and require resources within the machines that house them.
• the solution proposed by the invention does not have these disadvantages of the prior art. It relates in fact to a process method for managing administration and maintenance operations of a computer connected to a communication network. According to the invention, such a method comprises: a phase of receiving a request for at least one command to be executed from said computer; a programmed sequential distribution phase of said at least one command previously stored in an operations database, for said computer; a phase of recording, within a data collection database associated with said computer, at least one result of implementation of said at least one sequentially distributed command.
• the invention overcomes the disadvantages of the techniques of the prior art by proposing a solution that does not require the introduction of a screening agent. task and scheduling management at the level of the computer in which it is desired to perform the operations in question.
• the computer sends a request for interrogation of at least one command to be executed to an entity that implements the method of the invention.
• a sequential (and) scheduled distribution of commands to the computer is then implemented in order to supply the computer with administrative or maintenance commands.
• the computer executes these commands and sends the results of these executions to be recorded in a result collection database.
• the invention thus overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art related to the programming, within computers, of administration and maintenance operations, because the programming of operations is not done within the computer itself. but centralized.
• the results of the execution of the orders that make up the operations are also centralized so that it becomes easy to process these results.
• an agent that is implemented within the computer does not perform any action permanently (monitoring or task scheduling). It is content to ask the entity that implements the process of the invention, what it must do.
• the distribution is programmed, it means that it is the entity that implements the distribution that controls the distribution of control in not the computer that requests it.
• said method comprises: a phase of automatic construction of a set of commands to be executed during a next maintenance operation according to said at least one implementation result; a recording phase, within said operation database, said set of commands to execute.
• the invention makes it possible to automatically manage maintenance operations based on the results of previously executed commands for programming future operations.
• an administrator defines, for a given computer, a first series of commands to be executed.
• the computer inquires about this series of commands by a command query request. These commands are then distributed to him and the computer returns the result of their executions.
• the invention thus allows maintenance in the operating condition of the computer.
• the maintenance in operational condition can be defined as the set of means and procedures necessary for a device (such as the computer) to remain, throughout its duration of use, fit for the job assigned to it. Indeed, the execution of a command, such as an inspection command of a hard disk surface produces a result that can be analyzed (for example, a discovery of bad sectors). A fault correction command can then be programmed (recovery of bad sectors) to prevent the machine from stopping.
• This implementation of the method of the invention to predict anomalies that could happen in the days to follow ensures that the computer is always in optimal operating conditions.
• the techniques of the prior art do not allow this maintenance in operational condition in an automated manner. Indeed, it is necessary, in the techniques of the prior art, for the administrator to manually execute (and preferably in the presence of the station to be administered) commands to correct problems that occur. The techniques of the prior art do not make it possible to overcome problems before their appearances.
• the method according to the invention then makes it possible to construct a second series of commands which takes into account the results of execution of the first series of commands.
• said method comprises, within said computer: a phase of execution of said at least one command previously distributed during the distribution phase; a transmission phase of said at least one result of implementation of said at least one command.
• said programmed distribution phase of at least one previously recorded command comprises: a step of searching, within said operations database, for a command to be transmitted to said computer according to a command distribution schedule providing command presence information; and a step of transmitting, to said computer, said command to be transmitted when said presence information is positive; a step of transmitting a command for stopping said computer, when said presence information is negative;
• the invention makes it possible to take into account the absence of commands to be transmitted to the computer. Indeed, the invention makes it possible to ensure that the computer does not interrogate permanently to obtain a list of commands to execute. Such an effect is obtained by transmitting a computer standby command which allows the computer not to solicit the management entity for a specified time.
• the invention thus makes it possible to save the resources of the communication network, unlike, for example, prior art techniques based on SNMP, which require the intensive use of the communication network.
• said execution phase comprises: a step of executing said at least one command; a step of formatting said at least one result of implementation of said at least one command; a step of transmitting said at least one implementation result;
• said execution phase further comprises a first step of displaying a presentation interface comprising said at least one result of implementing said at least one command.
• the invention makes it possible to present the result of the execution of the order so that it is known to the administrator, when this display is intended for him or the user of the computer so that the user can take a proactive approach to the maintenance of their computer.
• said execution phase further comprises a second step of displaying a presentation interface comprising a warning intended for a user of said computer.
• the invention makes it possible to present information on current or potentially future problems that the computer may encounter.
• This signaling can be either for the administrator, when this display is intended for him, or for the user of the computer so that this user can have a proactive approach vis-à-vis the maintenance of his computer.
• said recording phase comprises, when said at least one command has failed: - a step of sending an electronic message to an intervener in charge of an incident handling; a step of automatically programming an execution of a corrective command, when said corrective command exists; a step of automatically programming a new execution of said at least one command when said corrective command has been executed; a step of creating an incident ticket in an incident management system.
• the invention makes it possible to simply and efficiently centralize the corrective actions and a new execution of the commands that have failed, which allows both to relieve the work of the administrators while allowing an increased efficiency of the corrective treatments that can be executed. automatically and immediately following receipt of the incident without outside intervention.
• the invention also relates to an entity for managing administration and maintenance operations of a computer connected to a communication network.
• such an entity comprises: means for receiving an interrogation request for at least one command to be executed from said computer; programmed sequential distribution means of said at least one command previously recorded within an operations database, for said computer; means for recording, in a database for collecting results associated with said computer, at least one result of implementing said at least one sequentially distributed command.
• such an entity comprises means for implementing the management method as described above.
• the invention also relates to a product computer program downloadable from a communication network and / or stored on a computer-readable and / or executable medium by a microprocessor, and comprising program code instructions for executing the transmission method as described above. 4 LIST OF FIGURES
• FIG. 1 shows an architecture of a system for implementing the method of the invention
• FIG. 2 illustrates in detail a concatenation allowing the execution of a command in the system architecture of FIG. 1
• Figure 3 describes the main phases of the process of the invention
• FIG. 4 describes the physical architecture of a management entity according to the invention.
• the invention offers the advantage of centralizing the executions of administration and maintenance tasks of computers and computer servers at the level of a computer park. This centralization is performed at the level of a specific entity of the communication network which distributes the maintenance operations, according to previously determined administration and maintenance strategies.
• entity that implements a method according to the invention can be made in companies that wish to provide an irreproachable quality of service to their users or who wish to keep a workstation park in a state of use. while avoiding the loss of productivity of users and preventing the occurrence of incidents in advance. It also allows companies to check the use of workstations by checking for example the presence of software or types of data prohibited in the company. Any technical task executable on a computer can thus be controlled from a system implementing the method of the invention.
• the solution provided by the invention can be used in companies without limit of the number of computers. It can also be used by the outsourcers who operate several parks of workstations or servers.
• the general principle of the invention is based on a centralization of the distribution of administrative tasks, maintenance and maintenance in operational condition to a plurality of computers that make up a computer park.
• the invention makes it possible to avoid the drawbacks of the techniques of the prior art, in particular the drawbacks associated with the programming of the agents.
• the invention does not require the establishment of an agent with a strong "intelligence".
• the agent that can be implemented when the method according to the invention is used is simpler and less resource-intensive, in that: it does not require the implementation of databases local to the computer administered to to keep events; it does not perform any tasks at all times (such as monitoring tasks); it does not require scheduler implementation ("scheduler" in
• the implementation of such an agent is made possible according to the invention insofar as the maintenance and administration operations are managed centrally and automatically. Indeed, according to the invention, the maintenance operations are ordered sequences of scenarios that take place over a period of time defined in advance (for example a month, a week).
• the method according to the invention comprises the following phases, described with reference to FIG. 3: a reception phase (1) of an interrogation request 311 of at least one command to be executed, coming from the computer 31 for example via a software agent installed there.
• the agent requires commands from an entity that implements the method.
• the entity 30 for implementing the method of the invention verifies 313 the existence of a command previously recorded and to be processed by the computer 31. If a programming of such a command is present in the database, the entity distributes (delivers) this command to the computer. computer sequentially (that is, one after the other). If no order is programmed (that is, there is no match between the time the computer makes the request and the time an order is scheduled), it is possible to transmit a request. default command.
• a recording phase (3) within a data collection database 33 associated with the computer 31, at least one result 313 implementation of the sequentially distributed control.
• the computer in which the command is implemented sends the result 313 of this command to the management entity 30 which saves it for subsequent uses, and in particular the analysis and construction of a next maintenance operation. .
• command distributions are carried out by administrators via man / machine interfaces that make it possible to send commands to a computer (using the SNMP protocol) commands to be executed.
• the invention makes it possible to overcome this disadvantage by centralizing the management of the programming of the maintenance tasks, thus ensuring that if an order has to be executed (because the time or the execution date is reached or exceeded) it will be executed immediately. when sending a request from the administered computer.
• the maintenance and administration operations make it possible to define different maintenance configurations (that is to say different scenarios) as a function of computer profiles.
• These profiles may correspond to machines that embark any particular type of processor or such or such type of memory space.
• the maintenance operations also make it possible to program certain particular maintenance types.
• a maintenance operation may be dedicated to checking the hardware components of a computer while another may relate to corrections in a file system.
• a maintenance scenario is a succession of commands of which only the first is time stamped, the following ones being executed as soon as the last one has ended.
• a scenario makes it possible to execute a succession of commands that have a connection link between them. It is therefore possible, according to the invention to schedule the execution of a task (and therefore of a scenario) at a predefined time and not to program the following tasks. Thus, if a task is long to perform, the other tasks will not be launched until the previous task is completed. This ensures a logical continuity of basic tasks and the validity of the scenario executed.
• a "programming of the execution of a scenario” according to the invention does not consist in programming an agent to perform a certain number of tasks at a given time, but to perform such programming at the level of the maintenance management and administration entity.
• a command can be considered as a basic job to run on a computer.
• the invention implements a concept of indeterminate temporal programming of tasks.
• a maintenance operation may for example consist of hardware and software verification of a computer.
• Such an operation must, according to the invention, be performed over a month for example (the sequential distribution of the commands therefore makes it possible to spread the operation over a predetermined period of time).
• It includes, in our example, two scenarios: a hardware verification scenario and a software verification scenario.
• the method of the invention is implemented for this operation which must be executed over a month.
• a scenario is a succession of commands, only the first of which is time stamped, it is not possible to know the end time of a scenario.
• the management entity that implements the invention can, depending on the end time of a scenario, schedule the execution of the second scenario of the operation only when it has knowledge. from the end of the first.
• Such an implementation allows not to overload the computers with maintenance commands and to take into account the results produced by the first scenario to adapt, if necessary, the second scenario.
• the management entity can cleverly take this result into account to program in a second scenario to be executed immediately (that is to say upon receipt of a new request from the computer), the execution of a repair order for these defective sectors.
• a programming operation is automated using the method of the invention.
• the implementation of the method of the invention is presented via an application server.
• a database server 10 is connected to a plurality of web servers (11, 12).
• the database server 10 contains a database 100 grouping the transaction data (101) the command implementation result data (102) (which is archived). These two data sources can also be implemented in two separate databases.
• the web servers (11, 12) are connected to the computers (13 to 18) via the HTTP and / or HTTPS protocols. Agents (13a-18a), responsible for implementing the commands they receive from the web servers (11, 12) are installed on the computers (13-18).
• the principle adopted to offer the service described is based on an ad hoc set of tasks which is responsible for communicating with the computer to be supervised to ask it to perform a particular technical task.
• Each workstation has agent software that periodically polls the central server (s) through the web servers. This or these central servers then provide the computer, if necessary, the command to be executed, via the HTTP or HTTPS connection previously established. The result of each basic check command is then provided by the computer to the central server, in the form of an http request or
• the result of a command may be an error, a warning, or a success.
• this embodiment it follows the occurrence of a result by specific actions such as: - the transmission of an electronic message to a team responsible for handling the incident (an administrator for example) or to the user of the computer itself or any other person known to the system or not (such as for example a hierarchical manager of the user, which can be searched in an LDAP directory) or any computer system capable to analyze this e-mail; displaying a window on the computer to inform the user of the result of the task; displaying a window asking the user about a decision to be made based on the event that occurred (for example when a command could not be executed); the execution of a corrective command, decided by the central server; the programming of the restart of the task after correction of an incriminated element having, for example, failed a previous command; creating an incident ticket in an incident management system.
• specific actions such as: - the transmission of an electronic message to a team responsible for handling the incident (an administrator for example) or to the user of the computer itself or any other person known to the system or not (such as for
• each event (result of execution of a command) is visible on a supervision console allowing for example the support teams to control, computer by computer, the operating status of the latter .
• the system has: - a network for communicating the workstations and servers; a set of servers capable of interacting with the workstations in a defined protocol (http, https) on configurable ports; an administration tool describing the orders to be made, their potential results and the actions that may result from them, as well as the decisions to be made if necessary; a tool for defining operations and scenarios, where the elements making it possible to identify a computer to communicate the commands to be executed are defined; a scheduler (command set programming tools in the form of operation and scenarios) for describing when a command (or a set of commands) is executing on a given workstation; a software agent installed on each workstation; - a communication system between the server and the computers; a software solution for displaying the status of actions for all or part of the workstation park
• the process of implementing the invention in this embodiment of the invention comprises the following steps: 1. an administrator, part of a service responsible for defining the operations of administration, maintenance and operational maintenance described in the database the steps, their periodicity, the potential results and the actions to be undertaken in function of the results of the execution of the orders;
• a service responsible for guaranteeing the operation of the workstation to the users then records, for each machine, the sequence of tasks corresponding to it or corresponding to the user of the workstation. Maintenance operations and their parameters are stored in the database;
• An agent installed on the computer periodically polls the central server to know, if at the time of the interrogation, it has an action to perform on the computer.
• the server then consults its database and searches whether the station name is stored in the database and communicates, if an order is available, the workstation the name of the command to be launched and any necessary parameters;
• the agent returns the result to the server.
• the server performs an action on an external system (sending message for example), asks the station to display a window on the workstation or to perform a corrective action;
• the result of the command is specifically marked to identify, subsequently within an appropriate verification system, the commands that caused the errors;
• the computer agent then waits for a configurable period of time (based on an indication provided by the server) before querying the server again for new commands to execute (step 3 ).
• the computer queries the server. The latter, noting that no new command must be executed by the computer, sends him a waiting command, which means that the computer receiving this command must wait for a certain time before requesting again on the computer. server.
• This waiting time can cleverly be close to the time that separates the interrogation by the customer of the day or time scheduled for the next order.
• the server archives the results and then generates a new operation for this station, which is a function of the results of the previous operation.
• Computers connected to a management entity that implements the method of the invention receives from the latter commands to be executed either individually (that is to say that each command is sent one after the other) or by series of commands (that is, several commands are sent together to the computer, which must execute them one after the other).
• the advantage of sending only one command at a time is to allow the management entity, as and when the order results are received: to automatically build a set of commands to be executed when a next maintenance operation depending on the implementation result; record, within the operation database, the set of commands to be executed; and possibly, to modify the operation in progress or to decide to start a new operation, in the case where the errors raised by the previous command are extremely serious.
• the responsiveness of the management entity is thus improved since it does not have to wait for the end of the series of orders to know the results.
• the command to be executed and the associated parameters which further include information to know:
• command parameters and some actions are specific to particular scenarios. For example, for the following two scenarios, specific parameters will be used and available within the operation database:
• Scenario 1 Checking the available space on the disk: This scenario includes a task that identifies: - What is the minimum space below which an intervention is needed?
• Scenario 2 Mandatory Software Verification: Each task in this scenario identifies: What is the name of the software
• the invention allows, for each command to be executed and for each scenario defined within the base of operations, to modify the execution parameters.
• Action sending an email to support teams;
• Command Checking the logs of events. Some events are characterized as "Error”, others as “Warning”; - Action: sending an email to support teams, when errors or warnings are detected;
• Command Clean event traces (which are automatically recorded by the operating system that is used on the computer);
• - Action none Command: Compression of hard disk data (Scenario that can only run at night);
• Action None, except the action does not proceed correctly: sending an email to support teams; - Command: Backup of "user" data;
• Command Removes shortcuts that point to the same file and are in the same directory; - Action: None; Command: Analysis of trace files with specific script that goes back the error or the warning;
• Command Detection of forbidden extensions (".divx" for example); - Action: Opening a warning window for the user to ask them to delete these files; Command: Check the status of the hard disk (or any other media connected to the computer);
• Action on error Immediate programming of a command to correct bad sectors
• the agent 20, installed on the station requires (201) the server 22 a command to run (the agent 20 is started at the same time as the computer 21); 2. the server 22 inspects (202) the database 23 to see if: a. the station exists in its base; if not (N), the server 22 responds (203) to the agent 20 "no action to be performed”; b. if a command to execute is present for this machine and must be executed in the instant (that is, it is programmed to a time T less than or equal to the instant when the request of the agent 20 has reached the server 22); if not (N), the server 22 responds (203) to the agent 20 "no action to be performed”; 3. The server 22 inspects (204) the database 23 for the command and the parameters to be provided to the agent 20;
• the server 22 provides (205) to the agent 20 the name of the command to execute and the associated parameters;
• Agent 20 launches (206) on station 21 the command with the provided parameters: a. if the command is not present (207); i. the agent 20 informs (208) the server 22 in the form of a coded "warning" event 2081, that is to say a specific warning indicating the absence of the command; ii. the server 22 inspects (209) the database 23 in search of an action to be performed for the received coded event 2081; iii. the server 22 executes (210) the action corresponding to the code received (sending e-mail for example), and requests (211) a possible record in the database 23; b. if the command is present (212); i. the agent 20 informs (213) the server 22 that the command is initiated; ii.
• the agent supervises (214) the execution of the command; iii. at the end of the command, the agent 20 returns (215) to the server 22 the result 2151 of the command executed; iv. if the execution (206) of the command is a failure (216), the server 22 analyzes (217) error code and search (218) an action to be performed for the code of this command; Such an implementation makes it possible to maintain the operating condition of the computer. The corrective action to be executed will make it possible to ensure the proper functioning of the computer or at the very least (if the error is not recoverable), a backup of the data of the user for example. v. if the execution (206) of the command is a success (219), the server 22 advances (220) the scheduler of a task (i.e. it proceeds to the next task in setting implementation of the scenario);
• the agent 20 goes to sleep (221) for a defined periodicity and the process executes again (222) from step 1 (new request
• the server 22 archives (224) the information concerning all the tasks performed and regenerates an empty instance of the operation for the station.
• the method of the invention through the regular communication of the computer with the management entity, allows to take into account the occurrence of events that are not programmed in advance, and through the Task mechanism, which includes a command and a plurality of actions associated with this command, makes it possible to perform corrective actions as a result of errors.
• the management entity following the receipt of a request to obtain an order from the service provider. computer, provide the latter with a hold command rather than a response of the "no action to perform" type.
• a hold command rather than a response of the "no action to perform" type.
• Such an entity comprises a memory 41 consisting of a buffer memory, a processing unit 42, equipped for example with a microprocessor ⁇ P, and driven by the computer program 43, implementing the management method according to the invention .
• the code instructions of the computer program 43 are for example loaded into a RAM before being executed by the processor of the processing unit 42.
• the processing unit 42 receives as input at least an information I to be processed (such as a query request or a result of execution of a command).
• the microprocessor of the processing unit 42 implements the steps of the method described above, according to the instructions of the computer program 43, to deliver a processed information T (such as a command to execute or a result to be recorded in the database).
• the device comprises, in addition to the buffer memory 41, query and response formulation means, and information processing means, in particular allowing the execution of the method according to the invention. These means are controlled by the microprocessor of the processing unit 42.

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