Method and System for Importing an Application and Server Map to a Business Systems Manager Display

Abstract

An automated system displays enables a user to observe the activities in a system based on information in the display. From this display, the user can quickly identify the source of problems for the purpose of troubleshooting without the need to manually determine the source and nature of the problem. In this system, data about the system is gathered through a plurality of agents positioned throughout the network. This data is analyzed and a system monitor deployment configuration is developed. This monitor deployment information along with information about the various devices in the system and any relationships of devices in the system are imported to the display system. The display system then displays this information showing the present relationships of the devices in the system.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The invention relates generally displaying computer system applications on a business manager display and more particularly to a method and system for automatically creating an application and server map and importing that created application and server to a business systems manager display. This displayed application and server map will assist a help desk person that is attempting to solve a customer's problem with a computer application.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]A “help desk” is well known today, and typically comprises a skilled person with a telephone to receive calls from customers regarding computer related problems, and a (computer) workstation to assist in resolving the problems. The workstation typically includes a web browser or other portal program to access the applications for which the customers often have problems. Both the help desk workstation and the customer may access the applications from remote servers. The help desk workstati...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention is a system and method for automatically guiding a help desk person in troubleshooting and correcting customer problems with an application. The system includes a server configuration for a computing system, a relational database for storing data containing relationship information between servers, a server management program, and a server configurations display. The server manager program gathers data about the servers in the computing system by automatically sending hardware, software, and network status queries to the various server devices in the system and analyzes the data to generate a deployment configuration for monitors in the system. The monitors track activities of the servers and transmit server status information for display. The technical effects of the invention include improved troubleshooting efficiency, monitoring of server activities, and improved customer satisfaction.

Problems solved by technology

Sometimes, even the second level support people cannot solve the problem.

In such a case, the help desk will incur the cost of only one person.

During server and application development and deployment, the development and deployment personnel often neglect to document critical aspects of the architecture and implementation for the application support documentation.

Also, developers and steady state support personnel often modify the application and servers over time to include new backend databases, new connectivity and new uses, and fail to update the application support documentation.

This causes additional deficiencies and inaccuracies in the application support documentation.

Consequently, many applications and servers lack documentation to guide the help desk people to perform test procedures required to troubleshoot and correct the customers' problems.

Such deficiencies and inaccuracies in application support documentation may prolong outages and cause excessive numbers of calls from the first level support person to the second level support people and technical experts.

Also, the lack of application support documentation compounds the effort and cost required to solve a customer's problem.

However, the help desk personnel may be prevented from accessing or understanding configuration information in a server.

For example, access to configuration files within the server may be limited to people with “super user”, “root” or “administrator” privilege level.

The help desk people typically lack such a high privilege level.

Even when a help desk person has permission to (remotely) access configuration information within a server, the help desk person may not understand the format of the information because it may be designed for an application to read.

Also, the helpdesk person may cause additional damage if the help desk person is not properly trained or follows an improper procedure.

Because help desk people (first and second level) may not be familiar with the server architecture, including the backend databases, they may erroneously think the application or the server on which the application is running is malfunctioning whereas the problem is actually with the backend database or its connection to the application.

In such a case, the help desk people will not be able to correct the problem, and may even call a developer of the application or the server on which it is running for technical support.

Typically, the developer of the application or server on which it is running will not know the identity or state of the backend databases, and cannot solve the problem.

In such a case, the time and effort of first and second level support people and one or more technical experts will be wasted.

Without identifying the backend database as the problem, the support people may not even know the proper systems administrator to call to trouble shoot the problem.

A help desk operator may be unaware of the availability of this diagnostic data, unable to properly initiate the queries required to access it, or unable to properly interpret the results of such a query.

In such a case, the help desk operator may not be able to determine if, or where, a problem exists and will need to call in technical experts to properly initiate status queries and interpret the results of such queries.

However, the current systems do not automated and do not provide details about the nature of the alert or system location where the event occurred that triggered the alert.

Images