Self-Propagating Maintenance Agents for IT Infrastructure
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Solution Overview
Problem
In IT infrastructure, computing devices can be overlooked during maintenance, leading to undetectable vulnerabilities and potential catastrophic failures, resulting in significant financial losses and service level agreement breaches due to the complexity and scale of the systems, as well as the difficulty in tracking and managing heterogeneous devices.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method for targeted maintenance that assesses maintenance requests, selects appropriate propagation mechanisms, generates agents, and deploys them to specific classes of computing devices, allowing for self-propagation and self-destruction after a defined lifespan, without requiring prior knowledge of the system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If agent-based maintenance is used, then maintenance coverage can be improved, but prior knowledge of the system is required which increases complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-propagating agents that automatically discover and deploy to computing devices without requiring prior system knowledge. The agents autonomously navigate the network, identify target devices, and execute maintenance tasks, eliminating the need for manual configuration and pre-existing system understanding while maintaining comprehensive maintenance coverage
Solution Approach 2:
The patent pre-configures agent templates with maintenance logic and propagation capabilities before deployment. These templates contain predefined instructions for device discovery, maintenance task execution, and self-replication, allowing the system to prepare maintenance actions in advance without requiring real-time system knowledge
2Device complexity
If agent-less management is used, then system complexity is reduced, but the ability to locate and manage all workstations and servers is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces lightweight agents as intermediaries between the management system and computing devices. These agents reside on target devices and enable bidirectional communication, allowing the management system to locate and control devices without complex direct networking, thus maintaining simplicity while restoring full device visibility and management capability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent divides the management function into separate components: lightweight agents on individual devices and a central management system. This segmentation allows each component to remain simple while the distributed system as a whole achieves comprehensive device location and management capabilities across the entire network
3Loss of information
If manual tracking of computing devices is used, then system knowledge can be maintained, but the scale and complexity of heterogeneous devices make tracking difficult and devices can be overlooked
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where agents continuously report device status, location, and maintenance completion to the management system. This real-time feedback loop ensures accurate tracking of all computing devices, preventing oversight even in large-scale heterogeneous environments, while the automated nature of feedback collection keeps tracking complexity manageable
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques, an apparatus and an article of manufacture for targeted maintenance of computing devices in a system. A method includes assessing a maintenance request to determine a class of computing devices to which the request applies, selecting a propagation mechanism applicable to the class of computing devices, generating an agent based on the propagation mechanism to carry out the maintenance request on the class of computing devices, deploying the agent on at least one computing device in the class of computing devices, and propagating the agent to additional devices in the class of computing devices.