Interactive Topological Views of Hardware Software Systems
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Solution Overview
Problem
Complex enterprise-level server systems pose challenges in monitoring interactions between hardware and software components due to their complexity, making it difficult to locate communication-related problems.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising a model engine and a graphing engine that generates a topology model object to visualize relationships between hardware and software components, allowing for the creation of a topology graph that includes nodes and links, enabling interactive exploration and visualization of system relationships.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If system administrators manually monitor interactions between hardware and software components, then they can identify communication problems, but the complexity of the system makes it difficult to locate and track interactions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a virtual topology model that copies and represents the physical system's hardware and software components along with their interactions. This virtual model allows administrators to monitor and analyze system relationships without directly navigating the complex physical system, thereby easing monitoring operations while managing the inherent system complexity.
2Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If administrators try to track all component interactions in complex systems, then communication problems can be located, but the volume of data and relationships becomes overwhelming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the complex system into discrete topology objects representing individual hardware and software components, along with their relationships. This segmentation allows administrators to examine specific components and interactions independently rather than being overwhelmed by the entire system at once, making communication problem detection more manageable.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a new dimensional representation by creating a virtual topology model that maps system relationships in a different space. This dimensional transformation allows complex multi-component interactions to be visualized and analyzed in a structured topology graph, reducing the cognitive load of tracking numerous components and their relationships.
3Loss of information
If a comprehensive model of all hardware and software components is created, then complete system visibility is achieved, but the complexity of managing and visualizing the model increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal topology object model that can represent both hardware and software components using a common structure. This multi-functional model allows the same framework to handle diverse component types and their relationships, achieving comprehensive system information while managing model complexity through standardization.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and system for visualizing a system. The method includes obtaining a context managed entity from a client system, wherein the context managed entity corresponds to software executing on a computer system, querying a managed entity repository to obtain a plurality of managed entities linked to the context managed entity, wherein the plurality of managed entities comprises a software managed entity and a hardware managed entity, and generating a node in a topology model object for each of the plurality of managed entities. The method further includes generating a link object in the topology model object for each link between managed entities in the plurality of managed entities and rendering a topology graph comprising each node and each link object in the topology model object.