text:
|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|Feb 9, 2010
|Filing date
|Aug 10, 2004
|Priority date
|Aug 10, 2004
|Fee status
|Also published as
|Publication number
|Stephen A. Byrd, Steven Czerwinski, J. Kristofer Fox, Bruce Light Hillsberg, Bernhard Julius Klingenberg, Rajesh Francisco Krishnan, Balaji Thirumalai
|Original Assignee
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Export Citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (96), Non-Patent Citations (20), Referenced by (14), Classifications (8), Legal Events (5)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to computer systems. Specifically, the invention relates to apparatus, systems, and methods for gathering trace data indicative of resource activity on a computer system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer and information technology continues to progress and grow in its capabilities and complexity. In particular, software applications have evolved from single monolithic programs to many hundreds or thousands of object-oriented components that can execute on a single machine or distributed across many computer systems on a network.
Computer software and its associated data is generally stored in persistent storage organized according to some format such as a file. Generally, the file is stored in persistent storage such as a Direct Access Storage Device (DASD, i.e., a number of hard drives). Even large database management systems employ some form of files to store the data and potentially the object code for executing the database management system.
Business owners, executives, managers, administrators, and the like concentrate on providing products and/or services in a cost-effective and efficient manner. These business executives recognize the efficiency and advantages software applications can provide. Consequently, business people factor in the business software applications in long range planning and policy making to ensure that the business remains competitive in the market place.
Instead of concerning themselves with details such as the architecture and files defining a software application, business people are concerned with business processes. Business processes are internal and external services provided by the business. More and more of these business processes are provided at least in part by one or more software applications. One example of a business process is internal communication among employees. Often this business process is implemented largely by an email software application. The email software application may include a plurality of separate executable software components such as clients, a server, a Database Management System (DBMS), and the like.
Generally, business people manage and lead most effectively when they focus on business processes instead of working with confusing and complicated details about how a business process is implemented. Unfortunately, the relationship between a business process policy and its implementation is often undefined, particularly in large corporations. Consequently, the affects of the business policy must be researched and explained so that the burden imposed by the business process policy can be accurately compared against the expected benefit. This may mean that computer systems, files, and services affected by the business policy must be identified.
Generally, a business process is simple and clearly defined. Often, however, the business process is implemented using a variety of cooperating software applications comprising various executable files, data files, clients, servers, agents, daemons/services, and the like from a variety of vendors. These software applications are generally distributed across multiple computer platforms.
In the example system 100, an E-commerce website is illustrated with components executing on a client 102, a web server 104, an application server 106, and a DBMS 108. To meet system 100 requirements, developers write a servlet 110 and applet 112 provided by the web server 104, one or more business objects 114 on the application server 106, and one or more database tables 116 in the DBMS 108. These separate software components interact to provide the E-commerce website.
As mentioned above, each software component originates from, or uses, one or more files 118 that store executable object code. Similarly, data files 120 store data used by the software components. The data files 120 may store configuration settings, user data, system data, database rows and columns, or the like.
Together, these files 118, 120 constitute resources required to implement the business process. In addition, resources may include Graphical User Interface (GUI) icons and graphics, static web pages, web services, web servers, general servers, and other resources accessible on other computer systems (networked or independent) using Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) or other addressing methods. Collectively, all of these various resources are required in order to implement all aspects of the business process. As used herein, "resource(s)" refers to all files containing object code or data as well as software modules used by the one or more software applications and components to perform the functions of the business process.
Generally, each of the files 118, 120 is stored on a storage device 122 a-c identified by either a physical or virtual device or volume. The files 118, 120 are managed by separate file systems (FS) 124 a-c corresponding to each of the platforms 104, 106, 108.
Suppose a business manager wants to implement a business level policy 126 regarding the E-commerce website. The policy 126 may simply state: "Backup the E-commerce site once a week." Of course, other business level policies may also be implemented with regard to the E-commerce website. For example, a load balancing policy, a software migration policy, a software upgrade policy, and other similar business policies can be defined for the business process at the business process level.
Such business level policies are clear and concise. However, implementing the policies can be very labor intensive, error prone, and difficult. Generally, there are two approaches for implementing the backup policy 126. The first is to backup all the data on each device or volume 122 a-c. However, such an approach backs up files unrelated to the particular business process when the device 122 a-c is shared among a plurality of business processes. Certain other business policies may require more frequent backups for other files on the volume 122 a-c related to other business processes. Consequently, the policies conflict and may result in wasted backup storage space and/or duplicate backup data. In addition, the time required to perform a full copy of the devices 122 a-c may interfere with other business processes and unnecessarily prolong the process.
The second approach is to identify which files on the devices 122 a-c are used by, affiliated with, or otherwise comprise the business process. Unfortunately, there is not an automatic process for determining what all the resources are that are used by the business process, especially business processes that are distributed across multiple systems. Certain logical rules can be defined to assist in this manual process. But, these rules are often rigid and limited in their ability to accurately identify all the resources. For example, such rules will likely miss references to a file on a remote server by a URL during execution of an infrequent feature of the business process. Alternatively, devices 122 a-c may be dedicated to software and data files for a particular process. This approach, however, may result in wasted unused space on the devices 122 a-c and may be unworkable in a distributed system.
Generally, a computer system administrator must interpret the business level policy 126 and determine which files 118, 120 must be included to implement the policy 126. The administrator may browse the various file systems 124 a-c, consult user manuals, search registry databases, and rely on his/her own experience and knowledge to generate a list of the appropriate files 118, 120.
The implementation 128 includes both object code files 118 (i.e., e-commerce.exe. Also referred to as executables) and data files 120 (i.e., e-comdata1.db). However, due to the manual nature of the process and storage space concerns, efforts may be concentrated on the data files 120 and data specific resources. The data files 120 may be further limited to strictly critical data files 120 such as database files. Consequently, other important files, such as executables and user configuration and system-specific setting files, may not be included in the implementation 128. Alternatively, user data, such as word processing documents, may also be missed because the data is stored in an unknown or unpredictable location on the devices 122 a-c.
Other solutions for grouping resources used by a business process have limitations. One solution is for each software application that is installed to report to a central repository which resources the application uses. However, this places the burden of tracking and listing the resources on the developers who write and maintain the software applications. Again, the developers may accidentally exclude certain files. In addition, such reporting is generally done only during the installation. Consequently, data files created after that time may be stored in unpredictable locations on a device 122 a-c.
Information regarding activities and computing operations performed by resources of a computer processing system is useful for identifying a business process as well as other purposes. For example, it is desirable to determine comprehensively what short term and long term (historical) activities have been conducted on a target computer system. In addition, it is desirable to know which resources conducted certain types of resource activities. Unfortunately, conventional systems and methods fail to provide these benefits.
From the foregoing discussion, it should be apparent that a need exists for an apparatus, system, and method that gathers trace data indicative of resource activity. Beneficially, such an apparatus, system, and method would gather the trace data automatically and make the trace data accessible to other software processes by way of an Application Programming Interface and/or use of a standard data exchange format for the trace data. Furthermore, the apparatus, system, and method would allow for modular gathering of trace data such that different types of trace data may be gathered without significantly altering the apparatus, system, and/or method.
The present invention has been developed in response to the present state of the art, and in particular, in response to the problems and needs in the art that have not yet been met for gathering trace data indicative of resource activity. Accordingly, the present invention has been developed to provide an apparatus, system, and method for gathering trace data indicative of resource activity that overcomes many or all of the above-discussed shortcomings in the art.
An apparatus according to the present invention includes a monitoring module, a determination module, and a collection module. The monitoring module initiates one or more activity monitors on a target computer system. Each activity monitor may be configured to detect a specific type of resource activity. Alternatively, a single activity monitor may detect a plurality of resource activity types. Preferably, each activity monitor detects resource activities of all resources associated with the target computer system.
The determination module determines activity indicators involving resources of the target computer system using the one or more activity monitors. Preferably, the determination module is closely coupled with the target computer system such that substantially all resource activities can be monitored if a particular activity monitor requires low-level access to resource activities conducted on the target computer system. For example, certain activity monitors may monitor all I/O communication regarding a class of peripheral devices of the target computer system such as disk drives. Preferably, the determination module determines substantially all the activity indicators that are available from the hardware and software components of the target computer system.
The activity indicators may comprise a variety of information useful in identifying one or more separate resource activities. A non-exhaustive list of activity indicators may include remote procedure calls, file I/O operations, process spawning operations, peripheral I/O operations, network I/O operations, and the like. In addition to events indicative of resource activity, activity indicators also include data generated before, during, or after a resource activity and data made available by conventional modules of the target computer system that indicates specific types of resource activities being conducted on the target computer system.
The collection module organizes the activity indicators into trace data representative of the resource activity. The trace data may include metadata regarding when the trace data is collected and organized. Preferably, the monitoring module, determination module, and collection module operate continuously on the target computer system. In this manner, the trace data include an accurate set of both current activity indicators as well as historical activity indicators. As used herein, "historical activity indicators" refers to activity indicators collected over an extended period of time such as, but not limited to, days or weeks. The extended period of time may or may not be a continuous time period. Historical activity indicators may also be referred to herein as long term.
In one embodiment, the trace data is organized into a standard data exchange format. A storage module may store the trace data in a central repository. The apparatus may include an Application Programming Interface (API) that provides a set of con trace data in response to a request from a third party computer process. The apparatus may also include a launch module that initiates selected activity monitors according to a user-defined time criteria (i.e., a schedule) or other activity monitors in response to occurrence of a predefined event on the target computer system.
A method of the present invention is also presented for gathering trace data indicative of resource activity on a computer system. In one embodiment, the method includes initiating one or more activity monitors on a target computer system. Preferably, the activity monitors are modular and operate independent of each other. Next, activity indicators involving resources of the target computer system are determined using one or more of the activity monitors. Finally, activity indicators are organized into trace data representative of various types of resource activity. Certain trace data can include both current activity indicators and historical activity indicators.
The present invention also includes other embodiments arranged as a system, machine-readable instructions, and an apparatus that comprise substantially the same functionality as the components and steps described above in relation to the apparatus and method. The features and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth hereinafter.
In order that the advantages of the invention will be readily understood, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments that are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings, in which:
It will be readily understood that the components of the present invention, as generally described and illustrated in the figures herein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the following more detailed description of the embodiments of the apparatus, system, and method of the present invention, as presented in the Figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the invention, as claimed, but is merely representative of selected embodiments of the invention.
Many of the functional units described in this specification have been labeled as modules, in order to more particularly emphasize their implementation independence. For example, a module may be implemented as a hardware circuit comprising custom VLSI circuits or gate arrays, off-the-shelf semiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or other discrete components. A module may also be implemented in programmable hardware devices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable array logic, programmable logic devices or the like.
Modules may also be implemented in software for execution by various types of processors. An identified module of executable code may, for instance, comprise one or more physical or logical blocks of computer instructions which may, for instance, be organized as an object, procedure, function, or other construct. Nevertheless, the executables of an identified module need not be physically located together, but may comprise disparate instructions stored in different locations which, when joined logically together, comprise the module and achieve the stated purpose for the module.
Indeed, a module of executable code could be a single instruction, or many instructions, and may even be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs, and across several memory devices. Similarly, operational data may be identified and illustrated herein within modules, and may be embodied in any suitable form and organized within any suitable type of data structure. The operational data may be collected as a single data set, or may be distributed over different locations including over different storage devices, and may exist, at least partially, merely as electronic signals on a system or network.
Reference throughout this specification to "a select embodiment," "one embodiment," or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases "a select embodiment," "in one embodiment," or "in an embodiment" in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.
Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the following description, numerous specific details are provided, such as examples of programming, software modules, user selections, user interfaces, network transactions, database queries, database structures, hardware modules, hardware circuits, hardware chips, etc., to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the invention. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the invention can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, etc. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the invention.
The illustrated embodiments of the invention will be best understood by reference to the drawings, wherein like parts are designated by like numerals throughout. The following description is intended only by way of example, and simply illustrates certain selected embodiments of devices, systems, and processes that are consistent with the invention as claimed herein.
The apparatus 200 may include an operating system 202 that provides general computing services through a file I/O module 204, network I/O module 206, and process manager 208. The file I/O module 204 manages low-level reading and writing of data to and from files 210 stored on a storage device 212, such as a hard drive. Of course, the storage device 212 may also comprise a storage subsystem such as various types of DASD systems. The network module 206 manages network communications between processes 214 executing on the apparatus 200 and external computer systems accessible via a network (not shown). Preferably, the file I/O module 204 and network module 206 are modules provided by the operating system 202 for use by all processes 214 a-c. Alternatively, custom file I/O module 204 and network modules 206 may be written where an operating system 202 does not provide these modules.
The operating system 202 includes a process manager 208 that schedules use of one or more processors (not shown) by the processes 214 a-c. The process manager 208 includes certain information about the executing processes 214 a-c. In one embodiment, the information includes a process ID, a process name, a process owner (the user that initiated the process), process relation (how a process relates to other executing processes, i.e., child, parent, sibling), other resources in use (open files or network ports), and the like.
Typically, the business process is defined by one or more currently executing processes 214 a-c. Each process 214 includes either an executable file 210 or a parent process which initially creates the process 214. Information provided by the process manager 208 enables identification of the original files 210 for the executing processes 214 a-c, discussed in more detail below.
In certain embodiments, the apparatus 200 includes a monitoring module 216, analysis module 218, and determination module 220. These modules 216, 218, 220 cooperate to dynamically identify the resources that comprise a logical application that corresponds to the business process. Typically, these resources are files 210. Alternatively, the resources may be other software resources (servers, daemons, etc.) identifiable by a network address such as a URL or IP address.
In this manner, operations can be performed on the files 210 and other resources of a logical application (business process) without the tedious, labor intensive, error prone process of manually identifying these resources. These operations include implementing business level policies such as policies for backup, recovery, server load management, migration, and the like.
The monitoring module 216 communicates with the process manager 208, file I/O module 204, and network I/O module 206 to collect trace data. The trace data is any data indicative of operational behavior of a software application (as used herein "application" refers to a single process and "logical application" refers to a collection of one or more processes that together implement a business process). Trace data may be identifiable both during execution of a software application or after initial execution of a software application. Certain trace data may also be identifiable after the initial installation of a software application. For example, software applications referred to as installation programs can create trace data simply by creating new files in a specific directory.
Preferably, the monitoring module 216 collects trace data for all processes 214 a-c. In one embodiment, the monitoring module 216 collects trace data based on an identifier (discussed in more detail below) known to directly relate to a resource implementing the business process. Alternatively, the monitoring module 216 may collect trace data for all the resources of an apparatus 200 without distinguishing based on an identifier.
In one embodiment, the monitoring module 216 communicates with the process manager 208 to collect trace data relating to processes 214 currently executing. The trace data collected represents processes 214 a-c executing at a specific point in time. Because the set of executing processes 214 a-c can change relatively frequently, the monitoring module 216 may periodically collect trace data from the process manager 208. Preferably, a user-configurable setting determines when the monitoring module 216 collects trace data from the process manager 208.
The monitoring module 216 also communicates with the file I/O module 204 and network module 206 to collect trace data. The file I/O module 204 maintains information about file access operations including reads, writes, and updates. From the file I/O module, the monitoring module 216 collects trace data relating to current execution of processes 214 as well as historical operation of processes 214.
Trace data collected from the file I/O module 204 may include information such as file name, file directory structure, file size, file owner/creator, file access rights, file creation date, file modification date, file type, file access timestamp, what type of file operation was performed (read, write, update), and the like. In one embodiment, the monitoring module 216 may also determine which files 210 are currently open by executing processes 214. In certain embodiments, the monitoring module 216 collects trace data from a file I/O module 204 for one or more file systems across a plurality of storage devices 212.
As mentioned above, the monitoring module 216 may collect trace data for all files 210 of a file system or only files and directories clearly related to an identifier. The identifier and/or resources presently included in a logical application may be used to determine which trace data is collected from a file system.
The monitoring module 216 collects trace data from the network I/O module 206 relating to network activity by the processes 214 a-c. Certain network activity may be clearly related to specific processes 214 and/or files 210. Preferably, the network I/O module 206 provides trace data that associates one or more processes 214 with specific network activity. A process 214 conducting network activity is identified, and the resource that initiated the process 214 is thereby also identified.
Trace data from the network I/O module 206 may indicate which process 214 has opened specific ports for conducting network communications. The monitoring module 216 may collect trace data for well-known ports which are used by processes 214 to perform standard network communications. The trace data may identify the port number and the process 214 that opened the port. Often only a single, unique process uses a particular network port.
For example, communications over port eighty may be used to identify a web server on the apparatus 200. From the trace data, the web server process and executable file may be identified. Other well-known ports include twenty for FTP data, twenty-one for FTP control messages, twenty-three for telnet, fifty-three for a Domain Name Server, one hundred and ten for POP3 email, etc.
In certain operating systems 202, such as UNIX and LINUX, network I/O trace data is stored in a separate directory. In other operating systems 202 the trace data is collected using services or daemons executing in the background managing the network ports.
In one embodiment, the monitoring module 216 autonomously communicates with the process manager 208, file I/O module 204, and network I/O module 206 to collect trace data. As mentioned, the monitoring module 216 may collect different types of trace data according to different user-configurable periodic cycles. When not collecting trace data, the monitoring module 216 may "sleep" as an executing process until the time comes to resume trace data collection. Alternatively, the monitoring module 216 may execute in response to a user command or command from another process.
The monitoring module 216 collects and preferably formats the trace data into a common format. In one embodiment, the format is in one or more XML files. The trace data may be stored on the storage device 212 or sent to a central repository such as a database for subsequent review.
The analysis module 218 analyzes the trace data to discover resources that are affiliated with a business process. Because the trace data is collected according to operations of software components implementing the business process, the trace data directly or indirectly identifies resources required to perform the services of the business process. By identifying the resources that comprise a business process, business management policies can be implemented for the business process as a whole. In this way, business policies are much simpler to implement and more cost effective.
In one embodiment, the analysis module 218 applies a plurality of heuristic routines to determine which resources are most likely associated with a particular logical application and the business process represented by the logical application. The heuristic routines are discussed in more detail below. Certain heuristic routines establish an association between a resource and the logical application with more certainty than others. In one embodiment, a user may adjust the confidence level used to determine whether a candidate resource is included within the logical application. This confidence level may be adjusted for each heuristic routine individually and/or for the analysis module 218 as a whole.
The analysis module 218 provides the discovered resources to a determination module 220 which defines a logical application comprising the discovered resources. Preferably, the determination module 220 defines a structure 222 such as a list, table, software object, database, a text eXtended Markup Language (XML) file, or the like for recording associations between discovered resources and a particular logical application. As mentioned above, a logical application is a collection of resources required to implement all aspects of a particular business process.
The structure 222 includes a name for the logical application and a listing of all the discovered resources. Preferably, sufficient attributes about each discovered resource are included such that business policies can be implemented with the resources. Attributes such as the name, location, and type of resource are provided.
In addition, the structure 222 may include a frequency rating indicative of how often the resource is employed by the business process. In certain business processes this frequency rating may be indicative of the importance of the resource. In addition, a confidence value determined by the analysis module 218 may be stored for each resource.
The confidence level may indicate how likely the analysis module 218 has determined that this resource is properly associated with the given logical application. In one embodiment, this confidence level is represented by a probability percentage. For certain resources, the structure 222 may include information such as a URL or server name that includes resources used by the business process but not directly accessible to the analysis module 218.
Preferably, the analysis module 218 cooperates with the determination module 220 to define a logical application based on an identifier for the business process. In this manner, the analysis module 218 can use the identifier to filter the trace data to a set more likely to include resources directly related to a business process of interest. Alternatively, the analysis module 218 may employ certain routines or algorithms to propose certain logical applications based on clear evidence of relatedness from the trace data as a whole without a pre-defined identifier.
A user interface (UI) 224 may be provided so that a user can provide the identifier to the analysis module 218. The identifier 226 may comprise one of several types of identifiers including a file name for an executable or data file, file name or process ID for an executing process, a port number, a directory, and the like. The resource identified by the identifier 226 may be considered a seed resource for the logical application, as the resource identified by the identifier 226 is included in the logical application by default and is used to add additional resources discovered by searching the trace data.
For example, a user may desire to create a logical application according to which processes accessed the data base file "Users.db." In the UI 224, the user enters the file name users.db. The analysis module 218 then searches the trace data for processes that opened or closed the users.db file. Heuristic routines are applied to any candidate resources identified, and the result set of resources is presented to the user in the UI 224.
The result set includes the same information as in the structure 222. The UI 224 may also allow the user to modify the contents of the logical application by adding or removing certain resources. The user may then store a revised logical application in a human readable XML structure 222. In addition, the user may adjust confidence levels for the heuristic routines and the analysis module 218 overall.
In this manner, the apparatus 200 allows for creation of logical applications which correspond to business processes. The logical applications track information about resources that implement the business process to a sufficient level of detail that business level policies, such as backup, recovery, migration, and the like, may be easily implemented. Furthermore, logical application definitions can be readily adjusted and adapted as subsystems implementing a business process are upgraded, replaced, and modified. The logical application tracks business data as well as the processes/executables that operate on that business data. In this manner, business data is fully archivable for later use without costly conversion and data extraction procedures.
In one embodiment, the monitoring module 216 collects trace data 310 as a business process is executing. In other words, the monitoring module 216 collects trace data as applications implementing the business process are executing. However, the monitoring module 216 may also collect sufficient trace data 310 when a business process is not being executed/operated. In addition, the interface 308 may receive an identifier that directly relates a resource implementing a business process to the business process. Preferably, the identifier is unique to the business process, although uniqueness may not always be required. This identifier may be used by the analysis module 218 in analyzing the trace data 310.
The monitoring module 216 includes a launch module 312, a controller 314, a storage module 316, and a scanner 318. The launch module 312 initiates one or more activity monitors 320. The launch module 312 may launch activity monitors 320 when the monitoring module 216 starts, or periodically according to monitoring schedules defined for each activity monitor 320 or for the monitoring module 216 as a whole.
An activity monitor 320 is a software function, thread, process, driver, or application configured, in one embodiment, to trace a specific type of activity relating to a resource. The activity monitor may gather the trace data by monitoring the activity directly or indirectly by gathering trace data from other modules such as the process manager 208, file I/O module 204, and network I/O module 206 described in relation to
In one embodiment, each activity monitor 320 collects trace data for a specific type of activity. For example, a file I/O activity monitor 320 may communicate with a file I/O module 204 and capture all file I/O operations as well as contextual information, such as which process made the file I/O request, what type of request was made and when. One example of an activity monitor 320 that may be used with the present invention is a file filter module described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/681,557, filed on Oct. 7, 2003, entitled "Method, System, and Program for Processing a File Request," hereby incorporated by reference. Of course, various other types of activity monitors may be initiated depending on the nature of the activities performed by the business process. Certain activity monitors may trace Remote Procedure Calls (RPC).
The controller 314 controls the operation of the activity monitors 320 in one embodiment. The controller 314 may adjust the priorities for scheduling of the activity monitors 320 for use of a monitored system's processor(s). In this manner, the controller 314 allows monitoring to continue and the impact of monitoring to be dynamically adjusted as needed. The control and affect of the controller 314 on overall system performance is preferably user configurable.
The storage module 316 interacts with the activity monitors 320 to collect and store the trace data collected by each individual activity monitor 320. In certain embodiments, when an activity monitor 320 detects a resource (executable file, data file, or software module) conducting a specific type of activity, the activity monitor 320 provides the activity specific trace data to the storage module 316 for storage.
The storage module 316 may perform certain general formatting and organization to the trace data before storing the trace data. Preferably, trace data for all the activity monitors 320 is stored in a central repository. The central repository may be implemented using well known data structures including ASCII text file(s), extensible Markup Language (XML) files, databases, and the like.
Typically, activity monitors 320 monitor dynamic activities performed during operation of a business process while the scanner 318 collects trace data from relatively static system information such as file system information, processes information, networking information, I/O information, and the like. The scanner 318 scans the system information for a specific type of activity performed by the business process or any process on the computer system.
For example, the scanner 318 may scan one or more file system directories for files created/owned by a particular resource. The name resource may correspond to the identifier such that it is clear that the resource belongs to the logical application 319 that implements the business process. Consequently, the scanner 318 may provide any trace data found to the storage module 316 for storage.
In one embodiment, the monitoring module 216 produces a set or batch of trace data 310 that the analysis module 218 examines at a later time (batch mode). Alternatively, the monitoring module 216 may provide a stream of trace data 310 to the analysis module 218 which analyzes the trace data 310 as the trace data 310 is provided (streaming mode). Both modes are considered within the scope of the present invention.
The analysis module 218 may include a query module 322, an evaluation module 324, a discovery module 326, and a modification module 328. The evaluation module 324 and discovery module 326 work closely together to identify candidate resources to be associated with a logical application 319.
The evaluation module 324 applies one or more heuristic routines 330 a-f to a set of trace data 310. Preferably, the query module 322 filters the trace data 310 to a smaller result set. Alternatively, the heuristic routines 330 a-f are applied to all available trace data 310.
The filter may comprise an identifier directly associated with a business process. The identifier may be a resource name such as a file name. Alternatively, the filter may be based on time, activity, type, or other suitable criteria to reduce the size of the trace data 310. The filter may be generic or based on specific requirements of a particular heuristic routine 330 a-f.
In one embodiment, the evaluation module 324 applies the heuristic routines 330 a-f based on an identifier. The identifier provides a starting point for conducting the analysis of trace data. In one embodiment, an identifier known to be associated with the business process is automatically associated with the corresponding logical application 319. The identifier is a seed for determining which other resources are also associated with the logical application 319. The identifier may be a file name for a key executable file known to be involved in a particular business process.
Each heuristic routine 330 a-f analyzes the trace data based on the identifier or a characteristic of a software application represented by the identifier. For example, the characteristic may comprise the fact that this software application always conducts network I/O over port 80. An example identifier may be the inventorystartup.exe which is the first application started when an inventory control system is initiated.
A heuristic routine 330 a-f is an algorithm that examines trace data 310 in relation to an identifier and determines whether a resource found in the trace data 310 should be associated with a logical application. This determination is very complex and difficult because the single identifier provides such little information about the logical application 319. Consequently, heuristics are applied to provide as accurate of a determination as possible.
As used herein, the term "heuristic" means "a technique designed to solve a problem that ignores whether the solution is probably correct, but which usually produces a good solution or solves a simpler problem that contains or intersects with the solution of the more complex problem." (See definition on the website www wikipedia org.).
In a preferred embodiment, an initial set of heuristic routines 330 a-f is provided, and a user is permitted to add his/her own heuristic routines 330 a-f. The heuristic routines 330 a-f cooperate with the discovery module 326. Once a heuristic routine 330 a-f identifies a resource associated with the logical application, the discovery module 326 discovers the resources and creates the association of the resource to the logical application.
One heuristic routine 330 a identifies all resources that are used by child applications of the application identified by the identifier. Another heuristic routine 330 b identifies all resources in the same directory as a resource identified by the identifier. Another heuristic routine 330 c analyzes usage behavior of a directory and parent directories that store the resource identified by the identifier to identify whether the sub or parent directories and all their contents are associated with the logical application.
One heuristic routine 330 d determines whether the resource identified by the identifier belongs to an installation package, and if so, all resources in the installation package are deemed to satisfy the heuristic routine 330 d. Another heuristic routine 330 e examines resources used in a time window centered on the start time for execution of a resource identified by the identifier. Resources used within the time window satisfy the heuristic routine 330 e. Finally, one heuristic routine 330 f may be satisfied by resources which meet user-defined rules. These rules may include or exclude certain resources based on site-specific procedures that exist at a computer facility.
In one embodiment, the evaluation module 324 cooperates with the discovery module 326 to discover resources according to two distinct methodologies. The first methodology is referred to as a build-up scheme. Under this methodology, the heuristic routines 330 a-f are applied to augment the set of resources currently within a set defining the logical application. In this manner, the initial resource identified by the identifier, the seed, grows into a network of associated resources as the heuristic routines 330 a-f are applied. Use of this scheme represents confidence that the heuristic routines will not miss relevant resources, but runs the risk that some resources may be missed. However, this scheme may exclude unnecessary resources.
The second methodology, referred to as the whittle-down scheme, is more conservative but may include resources that are not actually associated with the logical application. The whittle-down scheme begins with a logical application comprising a pre-defined superset representing all resources that are accessible to the computer system(s) implementing the logical application, business process. The heuristic routines 330 a-f are then applied using an inverse operation, meaning resources that satisfy a heuristic routine 330 a-f are removed from the pre-defined superset.
Regardless of the methodology used, the evaluation module 324 produces a set of candidate resources which are communicated to the modification module 328. The modification module 328 communicates the candidate resources to the determination module 220 which adds or removes the candidate resources from the set defined in the logical application 319. The determination module 220 defines and re-defines the logical application 319 as indicated by the modification module 328.
Preferably, the evaluation module 324 is configured to apply the heuristic routines 330 a-f for each resource presently included in the logical application 319. Consequently, the modification module 328 may also determine whether to re-run the evaluation module 324 against the logical application 319. In one embodiment, the modification module 328 may make such a determination based on a user-configurable percentage of change in the logical application 319 between running iterations of the evaluation module 324. Alternatively, a user-configurable setting may determine a predefined number of iterations.
In this manner, the logical application 319 continues to grow or shrink based on relationships between recently added resources and resources already present in the logical application 319. Once the logical application 319 changes very little between iterations, the logical application may be said to be stable.
Once the modification module 328 determines that the logical application 319 is complete (stable or the required number of iterations have been completed), the determination module 220 provides the logical application 319 to the interface 308. Preferably, the interface 308 allows a user to interact with the logical application 319 using either a Graphical User Interface 332 (GUI) or an Application Programming Interface 334 (API).
The monitoring module 216 may include a launch module 312 configured to initiate one or more activity monitors 320 a-n. Alternatively, the monitoring module 216 and/or controller 314 (See
In one embodiment, the launch module 312 starts the activity monitors 320 a-n according to a user-configurable schedule. Certain activity monitors 320 a-n may operate continuously until a stop command is issued. Preferably, activity monitors 320 a-n execute until a specific type of monitoring task is completed. Once the monitoring task is completed, an activity monitor 320 may terminate or enter a suspended ("Sleep") mode until an internal timer causes the activity monitor 320 to resume its monitoring task.
The launch module 312 may start other activity monitors 320 a-n according to user-defined time criteria maintained either by the launch module 312 or by the activity monitors 320 a-n individually. The user-defined time criteria may be configurable. The launch module 312 may start certain activity monitors 320 a-n in response to a predefined event occurring on the target computer system. A predefined event may include the starting or stopping of a certain process, mounting of a peripheral device, an error condition, or the like.
Each activity monitor 320 a-n may detect a specific type of resource activity. Alternatively, one or more activity monitors detect a plurality of types of resource activities. The types of resource activities may cover a wide range and is open to new types of resource activities as computing operations on a target system change over time. Examples of types of resource activities include executing processes, file I/O activity, network I/O activity, and peripheral I/O activity.
Preferably, each activity monitor 320 a-n is a separate module independent of the other activity monitors 320 a-n. The activity monitors 320 a-n are configured according to a modular design such that certain activity monitors 320 may be added, modified, or replaced without affecting operation of the other activity monitors 320 a-n. In this manner, the monitoring module 216 may change and adapt to different monitoring requirements for a target computer system. In addition, the monitoring module 216 can readily be changed to monitor new types of resource activity as technology changes and adapts.
Preferably, the activity monitors 320 a-n are implemented as software objects using an object oriented programming language such as JAVA, C++, or the like. These software objects may include inherited data and methods that allow the activity monitor 320 a-n to be readily adapted to a specific type of resource activity. In addition, the software objects may include a common interface to the launch module 312 and monitoring module 216 to facilitate management of the activity monitor 320 a-n.
Each activity monitor 320 a-n comprises a set of attributes 402. The attributes 402 define characteristics about the activity monitor 320 a-n. Those of skill in the art will recognize a variety of attributes 402 that may be included. Certain attributes 402 may include a name for the activity monitor 320 a-n, a label or description of the type of resource activity that is detected, a start time schedule, a stop time interval, an output location for trace data, and the like. Certain attributes 402 may be user-configurable.
In keeping with the modular design, in one embodiment, each activity monitor includes sufficient functionality to determine and collect activity indicators. Specifically, each activity monitor 320 a-n may include a determination module 404 and a collection module 406. The determination module 404 determines activity indicators generated or caused by resources of the target computer system. Preferably, each determination module 404 determines a specific type of activity indicators. The type of activity indicators correspond to the type of resource activity the activity monitor 320 a-n is configured to detect.
The collection module 406 organizes the activity indicators determined by the determination module 404 into trace data 310 (See
In one example, suppose activity monitor 320 a is configured to detect and determine resource activities related to executing processes on the target computer system. Consequently, the determination module 404 may periodically determine which processes are executing, which resources are the source of the processes, what relationships exist between executing processes, as well as all statistics available about the executing processes and the resources (executable files) used to generate the processes. This information comprises a few examples of activity indicators.
Next, the collection module 406 may organize the activity indicators into trace data records having a field for each activity indicator. In one embodiment, the collection module 406 may compute some fields of the trace data record. In the above example, an execution time value may be computed based on a start time and an end time for a process. In addition, the collection module 406 may include a timestamp in the trace data record indicating when the activity indicators were gathered and recorded.
The collection modules 406 may independently communicate with the storage module 316 (See
Preferably, all trace data collected is stored for future use. No trace data is deleted or overwritten. As mentioned above, the trace data includes activity indicators. As activity monitors 320 a-n continue to collect and record trace data, activity indicators that were current activity indicators age to become historical activity indicators. Preferably, the activity monitors 320 a-n continuously collect and record trace data. Consequently, an unbroken historical record of trace data can be generated. The unbroken historical record may provide information that may otherwise be lost. For example, analysis of the unbroken historical record may be done to determine the frequency of execution of a specific process and its corresponding resource. Those of skill in the art will recognize other information that may be learned from an unbroken historical record of resource activity.
The system 500 may include a plurality of file systems (FS) 508 a-n that use corresponding storage devices 510 a-n. The I/O module 506 may provide file information for all the file systems 508 a-n. Preferably, the I/O module 506 and process manager 504 provide information regarding resource activity in both a real-time and point-in-time manner. Those of skill in the art will recognize that various other modules may be included in the system 500 which may provide relevant resource activity information. For example, storage subsystem modules, memory modules, multimedia modules, and the like may also provide resource activity information.
A monitoring module 512 collects trace data 310 during execution of processes by the operating system 502. The monitoring module 512 operates in substantially the same manner as the monitoring module 216 illustrated in
The monitoring module 512 may interact with the process manager 504, I/O module 506, and file systems 508 a-n to collect trace data 310. As described in relation to
By way of example, each type of monitor 516, 518, 520, 522 illustrated will be described. Each of the monitors 516, 518, 520, 522 may include a determination module 404 and collection module 406 configured to function in similar manner to the corresponding modules 404,406 described in relation to
The process monitor 516 interacts with the process manager 504 to gather resource activity relating to executing processes on the system 500. This type of resource activity includes which resources are executing, which resources have been spawned by other resources and how the resources are related. Preferably, this type of resource activity comprises all operations related to execution of a process on the target computer system 500.
Preferably, the process monitor 516, as with all the monitors 516, 518, 520, 522, gathers all the activity indicators available from the hardware and software components of the target computer system, the system 500. The activity monitor makes every effort to collect as many activity indicators as possible that relate to the particular type of resource activity. Consequently, the process monitor 516 may interact with other software and hardware components such as the FS 508 a-n to gather resource activity indicators beyond those available from the process manager 504.
For example, activity indicators from the process manager 504 may indicate that Process A executing from object code in File X began executing at 12:00 am and is still running. These pieces of information, "process A began executing from 12:00 am on and comes from object code in File X," are representative examples of resource activity indicators. The resource may be File X. The determination module 404 determines what information from the process manager 504 is an activity indicator. The collection module 406 takes the activity indicators and organizes them into fields for storage as trace data 310.
However, the process manager 504 may not indicate where File X is stored. Consequently, the process monitor 516 may communicate with one or more FS 508 a-n to find the path to where the file, resource, is stored. Whether or not a file path is gathered by the process monitor 516 depends on how the process monitor 516 is configured. In certain embodiments, a user may activate and deactivate gathering of particular activity indicators by an activity monitor 320 a-n (See
The I/O monitor 518 interacts with the I/O module 506 to gather resource activity relating to all file I/O on the target system 500. This type of resource activity may include operations such as file open, file close, file read, file modification, file delete, file create, and the like. The file I/O activities are performed by executable files of the target system 500. Typically, the activity indicators may include information such as the name of the process conducting the file I/O operation, the target file involved in the operation, the timestamp, file size information, the owner of the respective files, and the like. In this manner, trace data 310 collected by the I/O monitor 518 may be used to determine how files of the target computer system are being used.
The network monitor 520 interacts with a network access point such as a network access card 524 or network subsystem (Not Shown). The network monitor 520 gathers resource activity relating to network messages sent to/from resources of the system 500. This type of resource activity may include messages for network resources such as web pages, URLs, web services, and the like. The activity indicators of this type may include the name of the process, a timestamp, the type of message sent, the port used, the socket used, the destination address for the message, etc. In this manner, trace data 310 collected by the network monitor 520 may be used to identify network resources, including third party applications and data that is being used by resources of the target computer system 500. The resources may comprise files or ports used by certain files to communicate over the network.
The File System (FS) monitor 522 interacts with the FSs 508 a-n to gather resource activity relating to files of the target computer system 500. This type of resource activity typically includes all resource activity that may be gathered by scanning information in the FSs 508 a-n. Typically, resources comprise files and the files are stored in the FSs 508 a-n. The activity indicators of this type may include directory names, directory structure, directory creation, modification, and access times, directory ownership, directory access permissions, and the like. Similarly, other activity indicators may include file names, file format, file creation, modification, and access times, file ownership, file access permissions, indirect file links, and the like. In this manner, trace data 310 collected by the FS monitor 522 may be used to identify what file resources are available to the target computer system 500 and how those file resources are related and manipulated over time.
The monitors 516, 518, 520, 522 may communicate with a storage module 316 to store collected trace data 310. Alternatively, each monitor 516, 518, 520, 522 may include functionality to store the trace data 310.
Preferably, the monitoring module 512 initiates the monitors 516, 518, 520, 522 based on the type of resource activity that is being monitored. For example, the process monitor 516 and FS monitor 522 may be executed periodically in order to minimize the impact of the monitors 516, 518, 520, 522 on the performance of the target computer system 500. The process monitor 516 and FS monitor 522 may perform the monitoring task and then terminate or hibernate (sleep) for a time interval. The time interval may be defined in the attributes 402 (See
Consequently, certain monitors 516, 518, 520, 522 may be known as "crawlers" because they periodically resume operation for a period of time and then hibernate once the task is completed or a time interval expires. Such monitors 516, 518, 520, 522 take "snap shots" of the current activity indicators which are indicative of resource activities. Other activity monitors such as the I/O monitor 518 may execute continuously.
Typically, the hardware 604 is managed and controlled by an operating system 606. The operating system 606 manages access to the hardware resources by software resources such as processes and files. Often this means that no processes on the target computer system are permitted to interface directly with the hardware. Instead, all communication with the hardware must pass through the operating system 606.
The operating system 606 may include tools such as a process manager 504 (See
However, the kernel 608 may include a "hook," low-level interface, that allows a special driver to also receive all communications between processes and the hardware 604. Typically, this low-level interface has strict protocols and controls to ensure that these special drivers are unable to compromise the integrity and security of the target computer system. In certain operating systems, these special drivers are referred to as "Filter Drivers." The low-level interface may require the special drivers to specify a certain hardware device or class of hardware devices for which all messages sent to or received from processes of the target computer system are also passed to the driver. The driver may then allow the messages to continue to the destination or filter them out for some reason.
The next level of the software stack 602 illustrates a plurality of activity monitors 320 a-n (See
The filter driver 610 allows the I/O monitor 518 to determine activity indicators for all messages to and from a class of peripheral devices such as storage devices. Of course, other activity monitors and other filter drivers may monitor other classes of devices. In this manner, the filter driver 610 can determine all file I/O activity between processes on the target computer system and the storage devices.
The next level of the software stack 602 illustrates a launcher 312 that operates in substantially the same manner as described in relation to
Preferably, the API 612 includes basic filtering and query capabilities such that generic queries from the third-party process 614 can be satisfied. For example, suppose the third-party process 614 is a backup software product scheduled to daily backup changed files on the storage devices of the target computer system. Ordinarily, the backup software product would conduct a scan of all the files on all the storage devices for files and directories modified in the last twenty-four hours. This operation may take several minutes.
However, the API 612 is configured to allow the backup software product to include a basic query in the request 616 such as "Find all files modified in last 24 hours." The API 612 includes well known software modules that apply the query to the trace data 310. Because the activity monitors 320 a-n are constantly updating the trace data 310, a scan of the storage devices is not necessary. Instead, the trace data 310 filtered based on the query criteria and the result set is passed to the backup software product 614.
In this manner, the API 612 maybe considered a service or daemon process for the target computer system. Of course, the API 612 may include a variety of well known functions that utilize the trace data 310 for the third-party processes 614. The API 612 allows the third-party processes 614 to be more efficient and leverage the collection and monitoring work previously performed by the activity monitors 320 a-n.
In addition, the third-party processes 614 need not include scanning or probing functionality to discover data that is readily available in the trace data 310 through the API 612. Consequently, the third-party processes 614 can be developed using less software code and development time but provide similar functionality more efficiently. Furthermore, in certain embodiments, the third-party processes 614 may search the trace data 310 to find information of interest concerning resource activity. Such independent searching is facilitated by the present invention organizing the trace data 310 according to a standard data exchange format such as XML.
Certain activity monitor 320 a-n may operate continuously while others may scan information about the target computer system (such as a process manager 504) to collect trace data 310 and then terminate or suspend operation until certain time criteria are satisfied. Other activity monitors 320 a-n may be so closely coupled to the target computer system that the occurrence of certain events causes the activity monitor 320 to be activated to record activity indicators related to the event as trace data 310. Still other activity monitors 320 a-n may operate for a predetermined time period.
Next, a determination 704 is made whether time criteria are satisfied or a predefined event has occurred. If so, the method 700 initiates or re-initiates another activity monitor 320 a-n. In one embodiment, the time criteria and/or events are defined using a configurable schedule. The schedule and/or events may be defined in a user-configurable attribute for at least one activity monitor 320 a-n.
In one embodiment, if the determination 704 is made that no additional activity monitors 320 a-n need to be initiated at this time, a second determination 706 may be made. A monitoring module 512 (See
If no third party requests 616 have been received 706, each activity monitor 320 a-n independently determines 710 activity indicators relevant to the type of resource activity the activity monitor 320 a-n is configured to detect and monitor. As discussed above, the activity indicators are any information/characteristics about the target computer and its resources indicative of a particular resource activity (file I/O, network I/O, etc.) Examples of activity indicators include currently executing processes, open files, closed files, active network sockets, and the like.
Next, activity indicators are organized 712 into trace data 310. Preferably, each activity monitor 320 organizes activity indicators independently. Organization of activity indicators may include formatting and data type conversion or encoding as well as determination of metadata related to the activity indicators. The metadata may comprise information such as time stamps, device identifiers, activity monitoring intervals, and the like. Preferably, the trace data 310 is organized into a standard data exchange format such as XML. Finally, the trace data 310 is stored 714 for subsequent use and analysis and the method 700 ends. Preferably, the trace data 310 is stored in a central repository.
In one embodiment, the activity monitors 320 are initiated and managed automatically over an extended continuous period of time (several days). Consequently, the trace data 310 includes current activity indicators and historical activity indicators. Having both current activity indicators and historical activity indicators allows for subsequent data mining to be performed on the trace data 310. The data mining may provide additional information beyond the raw data within the trace data 310.
For example, certain activity indicators may be correlated with others over time to provide efficiency information about a particular resource used on the target computer system. As another example, the trace data 310 may be analyzed to identify all the resources (i.e., executable files, data files, etc.) employed to implement a business process such as inventory control. These identified resources may be from disparate software packages and cooperate to perform the desired business process. With the resources identified, business level policies may be readily implemented for the business process as a whole.
In summary, the present invention provides an apparatus, system, and method for gathering trace data indicative of resource activity on a target computer system. The present invention provides activity indicators that may be used by a variety of processes through the API. The trace data collected is comprehensive such that activity indicators discovered to have high significance in the future are available even if the target computer system or its configuration becomes unavailable. In addition, the trace data is collected automatically and continuously such that both current activity indicators and historical activity indicators are available. Resources that conducted the activities are also identified. The trace data is provided in a standard data exchange format such that third party processes can access the trace data directly or through the API. In this manner, less software coding is required for third party processes. The present invention allows the trace data to be gathered in a modular manner such that different types of trace data may be gathered without altering the present invention except to plug-in a different activity monitor. Consequently, the present invention may be modified to accommodate upgrades and changes to gather different types of trace data over time.
The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.
|Cited Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Mar 2, 1990
|Nov 24, 1992
|Micro Technology, Inc.
|Data storage apparatus and method
|Sep 25, 1990
|Nov 22, 1994
|International Business Machines Corp.
|System for accessing extended object attribute (EA) data through file name or EA handle linkages in path tables
|Aug 20, 1993
|Jul 11, 1995
|Next Computer, Inc.
|Method and apparatus for architecture independent executable files
|Mar 22, 1995
|Oct 10, 1995
|Forte Software, Inc.
|Flexible multi-platform partitioning for computer applications
|Sep 8, 1995
|Feb 4, 1997
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Graphical resource editor for software customization
|Mar 18, 1994
|Apr 22, 1997
|Minnesota Mining And Manufacturing Company
|System and method for producing schedules of resource requests having uncertain durations
|Dec 29, 1993
|Nov 18, 1997
|Microsoft Corporation
|Unification of directory service with file system services
|Feb 12, 1997
|Jun 9, 1998
|Hitachi, Ltd.
|Management system for updating network managed by physical manager to match changed relation between logical objects in conformity with changed content notified by logical manager
|Sep 29, 1995
|Aug 11, 1998
|Yufik; Yan M.
|Probabilistic resource allocation system with self-adaptive capability
|Dec 17, 1996
|Oct 20, 1998
|Hewlett-Packard Company
|Distributed workflow resource management system and method
|Mar 26, 1997
|Dec 1, 1998
|Microsoft Corporation
|Method and system of associating, synchronizing and reconciling computer files in an operating system
|Nov 26, 1996
|Jan 19, 1999
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Visualization tool for graphically displaying trace data
|Jun 14, 1996
|Mar 30, 1999
|Electronic Data Systems Corporation
|Associating a physical application to a business operation
|Aug 28, 1997
|Jul 27, 1999
|International Business Machines Corporation
|System and method for discovering similar time sequences in databases
|Jul 11, 1997
|Sep 7, 1999
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Parallel file system and method for granting byte range tokens
|Feb 21, 1996
|Sep 28, 1999
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Method and computer system for improving the response time of a computer system to a user request
|Aug 1, 1997
|Jun 13, 2000
|Hewlett-Packard Corp.
|Distributed resource and project management
|Apr 15, 1998
|Jun 20, 2000
|Travelhost, Inc.
|Computer-based system and method for resource determination and management
|Feb 10, 1998
|Aug 1, 2000
|First Usa Bank, N.A.
|Credit card collection strategy model
|Oct 29, 1997
|Aug 1, 2000
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Storage management system with file aggregation
|Jun 7, 1996
|Sep 5, 2000
|Media Metrix, Inc.
|Computer use meter and analyzer
|Dec 12, 1997
|Sep 26, 2000
|Maves International Software, Inc.
|Method, system and data structures for computer software application development and execution
|Mar 26, 1997
|Jan 30, 2001
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Precaching data at an intermediate server based on historical data requests by users of the intermediate server
|Jan 15, 1998
|Feb 27, 2001
|Microsoft Corporation
|Methods and apparatus for building attribute transition probability models for use in pre-fetching resources
|Jan 29, 1998
|Jul 3, 2001
|At&T Corp.
|System and method for selecting and displaying hyperlinked information resources
|Jun 3, 1998
|Jul 10, 2001
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Resource model configuration and deployment in a distributed computer network
|Dec 7, 1998
|Aug 14, 2001
|Hitachi, Ltd.
|Application cooperation method and apparatus
|Dec 29, 1998
|Oct 9, 2001
|Cisco Technology, Inc.
|Method and system for adaptive network security using network vulnerability assessment
|Sep 30, 1998
|Oct 23, 2001
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Method for monitoring network distributed computing resources using distributed cellular agents
|Apr 21, 1999
|Feb 26, 2002
|Nippon Telegraph And Telephone Corp.
|Method and device for acquiring usage data of application
|Mar 26, 1998
|May 21, 2002
|Visual Networks Technologies, Inc.
|Dynamic modeling of complex networks and prediction of impacts of faults therein
|Jan 13, 2000
|Nov 19, 2002
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Data management interoperability methods for heterogeneous directory structures
|Jul 7, 1998
|Feb 25, 2003
|Compaq Information Technologies Group, L.P.
|Programmable operational system for managing devices participating in a network
|Jul 10, 1997
|Jul 29, 2003
|At&T Corp.
|Methods for dynamically predicting workflow completion times and workflow escalations
|Apr 27, 2000
|Sep 2, 2003
|International Business Machines Corporation
|System and method for relating files in a distributed data storage environment
|Apr 7, 1999
|Feb 10, 2004
|Bmc Software, Inc.
|Enterprise management system and method which includes statistical recreation of system resource usage for more accurate monitoring, prediction, and performance workload characterization
|Jul 25, 2000
|Mar 9, 2004
|Sri International, Inc.
|Network-based alert management
|Apr 25, 2002
|Aug 9, 2005
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Dynamic end user specific customization of an application's physical data layer through a data repository abstraction layer
|May 24, 2001
|May 23, 2006
|United States Of America As Represented By The Secretary Of The Navy
|System for monitoring and reporting performance of hosts and applications and selectively configuring applications in a resource managed system
|Jan 10, 2002
|Jun 6, 2006
|Cisco Technology, Inc.
|Computer security and management system
|Mar 30, 2001
|Jun 20, 2006
|Tonic Software, Inc.
|System and method for business systems transactions and infrastructure management
|Sep 24, 2002
|Jun 20, 2006
|Emc Corporation
|System and method for determining workload characteristics for one or more applications operating in a data storage environment with ability to control grouping
|Mar 29, 2001
|Oct 10, 2006
|Ishikawa Mark M
|System, method and apparatus for detecting, identifying and responding to fraudulent requests on a network
|Nov 19, 2002
|Oct 17, 2006
|Rockwell Software Inc.
|System and methodology providing audit recording and tracking in real time industrial controller environment
|May 25, 2001
|Apr 10, 2007
|Overture Services Inc.
|Load balancing system and method in a multiprocessor system
|Dec 23, 2003
|Sep 25, 2007
|Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
|Method and system for testing a computer system by applying a load
|Jan 8, 2002
|Jul 29, 2008
|British Telecommunications Public Limited Company
|Software tool for heuristic search methods
|Apr 5, 2001
|Feb 28, 2002
|Kuiper Wilko Juurt Jan
|Knowledge system and methods of business alerting and business analysis
|Oct 17, 2001
|Jun 6, 2002
|Sun Microsystems, Inc.
|Methods and systems for providing resources adapted to a user environment
|May 15, 2001
|Jun 20, 2002
|Ali Sheikh
|Scalable system for monitoring network system and components and methodology therefore
|Jan 29, 2002
|Sep 26, 2002
|Ulrich Thomas R.
|Dynamically distributed file system
|Apr 9, 2001
|Oct 10, 2002
|Intra Inc.
|Method and system for optimizing file loading in a data communication network
|May 15, 2001
|Nov 21, 2002
|Katz Steven Bruce
|Method for managing a workflow process that assists users in procurement, sourcing, and decision-support for strategic sourcing
|May 25, 2001
|Nov 28, 2002
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Method and apparatus for the automatic discovery of the relationships between applications and their associated data and configuration files
|Jun 11, 2001
|Dec 12, 2002
|Storage Technology Corporation
|Outboard data storage management system and method
|Dec 5, 2001
|Dec 12, 2002
|Atul Adya
|Serverless distributed file system
|May 15, 2001
|Dec 12, 2002
|Kevin Collins
|Method and apparatus to manage transactions at a network storage device
|Jul 1, 2002
|Jan 30, 2003
|Slater Alastair Michael
|Monitoring appliance for data storage arrays, and a method of monitoring usage
|Jun 27, 2002
|Jan 30, 2003
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Storage administration
|Sep 25, 2001
|Mar 27, 2003
|Stephen Todd
|Mediation device for scalable storage service
|Oct 23, 2002
|Jun 12, 2003
|Avraham Shillo
|Managing storage resources attached to a data network
|Dec 6, 2001
|Jun 12, 2003
|Plourde Harold J.
|Controlling substantially constant buffer capacity for personal video recording with consistent user interface of available disk space
|Nov 20, 2002
|Jul 3, 2003
|Ashar Aziz
|Request queue management
|May 8, 2002
|Aug 7, 2003
|David Grieve
|Configuration management method and system
|Oct 5, 2001
|Aug 7, 2003
|Baldwin Duane Mark
|Storage area network methods and apparatus using event notifications with data
|Oct 5, 2001
|Aug 7, 2003
|Delaire Brian Augustine
|Storage area network methods and apparatus with file system extension
|Aug 12, 2002
|Aug 14, 2003
|Murphy Michael J.
|Peer to peer enterprise storage system with lexical recovery sub-system
|Feb 21, 2003
|Oct 2, 2003
|Panasas, Inc.
|Using whole-file and dual-mode locks to reduce locking traffic in data storage systems
|Apr 2, 2003
|Oct 9, 2003
|Powerquest Corporation
|Using disassociated images for computer and storage resource management
|Apr 29, 2002
|Oct 30, 2003
|Gwan-Hwan Hwang
|System and process for roaming thin clients in a wide area network with transparent working environment
|Jul 31, 2002
|Feb 5, 2004
|Fisk David C.
|Data storage management system and method
|Jan 15, 2003
|Feb 19, 2004
|Koninklijke Ahold Nv
|Methodology to design, construct, and implement human resources business procedures and processes
|Sep 18, 2002
|Mar 18, 2004
|Fisk David C.
|Context sensitive storage management
|Nov 1, 2002
|May 6, 2004
|Sethi Bhupinder S.
|Method for prefetching Web pages to improve response time networking
|Jun 26, 2003
|May 20, 2004
|Brett Error
|Efficient click-stream data collection
|Nov 21, 2002
|May 27, 2004
|Fabio Casati
|Platform and method for monitoring and analyzing data
|Oct 1, 2003
|Jun 3, 2004
|Youval Bronicki
|Method, a language and a system for the definition and implementation of software solutions
|May 16, 2003
|Jun 10, 2004
|Matheson William L.
|Resource schedule for scheduling rail way train resources
|Aug 25, 2003
|Oct 28, 2004
|Computer Associates Think, Inc.
|Web services apparatus and methods
|Oct 7, 2003
|Apr 7, 2005
|Access control listing mechanism for routers
|Mar 23, 2004
|May 5, 2005
|Fujitsu Limited
|System and method for determination of load monitoring condition and load monitoring program
|Jul 9, 2004
|Jun 2, 2005
|Wai Wong
|Modeling of applications and business process services through auto discovery analysis
|Dec 30, 2003
|Jun 30, 2005
|Wilson Thomas W.
|Method and system for analyzing resource allocation
|Jun 24, 2004
|Jun 30, 2005
|Perkowski Thomas J.
|Internet-based brand management and marketing communication instrumentation network for deploying, installing and remotely programming brand-building server-side driven multi-mode virtual kiosks on the World Wide Web (WWW), and methods of brand marketing communication between brand marketers and consumers using the same
|Mar 19, 2004
|Sep 22, 2005
|Jerry Rolia
|Computing utility policing system and method using entitlement profiles
|Mar 25, 2004
|Sep 29, 2005
|International Business Machines Corporation
|System and method for business object discovery
|May 3, 2004
|Nov 17, 2005
|Nils Haustein
|Apparatus, system, and method for resource group backup
|Jun 9, 2005
|Dec 14, 2006
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Application error dampening of dynamic request distribution
|Dec 17, 2003
|May 10, 2007
|Gianluca Cangini
|Method and apparatus for monitoring operation of processing systems, related network and computer program product therefor
|Jul 18, 2006
|Jan 24, 2008
|Dahl Austin D
|Searching for transient streaming multimedia resources
|Jul 25, 2006
|Jan 31, 2008
|Ludmila Cherkasova
|System and method for determining allocation of resource access demands to different classes of service based at least in part on permitted degraded performance
|Nov 30, 2000
|Jun 5, 2002
|Hewlett-Packard Company, A Delaware Corporation
|Process and apparatus for automatically monitoring the hardware resources of a computer
|Title not available
|Aug 31, 2000
|Apr 19, 2001
|I2 Technologies, Inc.
|Computer-implemented system and method for monitoring and managing business processes and associated resources
|Dec 15, 2000
|Jun 28, 2001
|Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (Publ)
|Resource tracking and display in a communications system
|Jul 5, 2002
|Jan 16, 2003
|Computer Associates Think, Inc.
|System and method for identifying and generating business events
|"Automated Resource Management", Technology Brief Aug. 2002, The Enterprise Storage Group, pp. 1-3.
|"Event Tracker For Windows-Details", http://www.eventlogmanager.com/details.htm.
|"Event Tracker For Windows-Feature List", http://www.eventlogmanager.com/feature-list.htm.
|"Filter Drivers", Kernel-Mode Driver Architecture: Windows DDK; http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/kmarch/hh/kmarch/wdmintro-7dpj.asp?frame=true.
|"Novator Open File Manager", http://www.hallogram.com/novastoropen.
|"Types of WDM Drivers", Kernel-Mode Driver Architecture: Windows DDK; http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/kmarch/hh/kmarch/wdmintro-3ep3.asp?frame=true.
|"Filter Drivers", Kernel-Mode Driver Architecture: Windows DDK; http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/kmarch/hh/kmarch/wdmintro—7dpj.asp?frame=true.
|"Types of WDM Drivers", Kernel-Mode Driver Architecture: Windows DDK; http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/kmarch/hh/kmarch/wdmintro—3ep3.asp?frame=true.
|Ed Frauenheim, "HP unveils data management effort",Sep. 16, 2003, http://news.com.com/2102-1011-3-5077651.html.
|Ed Frauenheim, "HP unveils data management effort",Sep. 16, 2003, http://news.com.com/2102-1011—3-5077651.html.
|Experiences in designing a modular resource monitoring system Ciuffoletti, A.; Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises, 2004. Wet Ice 2004. 13th IEEE International Workshops on, Jun. 14-16, 2004 pp. 260-265 Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ENABL.2004.29.
|HP OpenView for Windows(R) User's Guide For Transcend Management Software Version 6.1 for Windows(R) and '97 for Windows NT Oct. 1997, pp. 14-21.
|HP OpenView for Windows® User's Guide For Transcend Management Software Version 6.1 for Windows® and '97 for Windows NT Oct. 1997, pp. 14-21.
|Jeong, Il-Jun, "On-board Task Scheduling Algorithm for Spacecraft," Proceedings of the 2000 IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation, San Francisco CA, Apr. 2000.
|Johan Moe et al., "Using execution trace data to improve distribute systems", The ACM Digital Library, http://portal.acm.org/.
|Operating System Concepts, 6th Edition/Windows XP Update Abraham Silberschatz, Yale University, Greg Gagne, Westminster College Peter Baer Galvin, Corporate Technologies, ISBN: 978-0-471-25060-9 (C) 2003.
|Operating System Concepts, 6th Edition/Windows XP Update Abraham Silberschatz, Yale University, Greg Gagne, Westminster College Peter Baer Galvin, Corporate Technologies, ISBN: 978-0-471-25060-9 © 2003.
|Raut, Ashutosh, "Enterprise Business Process Integration," IEEE, c 2003.
|Representing Dynamic Performance Information in Grid Environments with the Network Weather Service Swany, M.; Wolski, R.; Cluster Computing and the Grid, 2002. 2nd IEEE/ACM International Symposium on May 21-24, 2002 pp. 48-48 Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/CCGRID.2002.1017111.
|Semantics and knowledge grids: building the next-generation grid Cannataro, M.; Talia, D.; Intelligent Systems, IEEE [see also IEEE Intelligent Systems and Their Applications] vol. 19, Issue 1, Jan.-Feb. 2004 pp. 56-63 Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MIS.2004.1265886.
|Citing Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Mar 17, 2010
|May 3, 2011
|Emc Corporation
|Snapshot indexing
|Mar 18, 2005
|Sep 4, 2012
|Emc Corporation
|Backup information management
|Mar 18, 2005
|Mar 18, 2014
|Emc Corporation
|Information management
|Sep 21, 2011
|Dec 23, 2014
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Selective trace facility
|Feb 12, 2013
|Apr 28, 2015
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Cache prefetching based on non-sequential lagging cache affinity
|Aug 18, 2005
|May 5, 2015
|Emc Corporation
|Data object search and retrieval
|Mar 24, 2015
|Oct 6, 2015
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Cache prefetching based on non-sequential lagging cache affinity
|Sep 17, 2015
|May 17, 2016
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Cache prefetching based on non-sequential lagging cache affinity
|Mar 18, 2005
|Sep 27, 2016
|Emc Corporation
|Versatile information management
|Mar 18, 2005
|Jul 6, 2006
|Emc Corporation
|Backup information management
|Aug 18, 2005
|Feb 22, 2007
|Emc Corporation
|Data object search and retrieval
|Mar 18, 2005
|Jul 3, 2008
|Emc Corporation
|Versatile information management
|Mar 17, 2010
|Jul 22, 2010
|Emc Corporation
|Snapshot indexing
|Sep 21, 2011
|Mar 21, 2013
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Selective trace facility
|U.S. Classification
|726/22, 726/11
|International Classification
|Cooperative Classification
|European Classification
|Oct 15, 2004
Owner name: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION, NEW Y
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:BYRD, STEPHEN A.;CZERWINSKI, STEVEN;FOX, J. KRISTOFER;AND OTHERS;REEL/FRAME:015250/0661;SIGNING DATES FROM 20040629 TO 20040723
Owner name: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION,NEW YO
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:BYRD, STEPHEN A.;CZERWINSKI, STEVEN;FOX, J. KRISTOFER;AND OTHERS;SIGNING DATES FROM 20040629 TO 20040723;REEL/FRAME:015250/0661
|Nov 30, 2010
|Certificate of correction
|Sep 20, 2013
|Maintenance fee reminder mailed
|Feb 9, 2014
|Lapse for failure to pay maintenance fees
|Apr 1, 2014
|Expired due to failure to pay maintenance fee
Effective date: 20140209


text:
Parkour in Ancient Persia? Why not. Check out two new clips from "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time", one featuring Jake Gyllenhaal's character, Prince Dastan as he flees some soldiers using the rooftops of Ancient Persia as his personal obstacle course and the other has him getting too intimate with a sand trap. Gyllenhaal sure looks to be in good shape for the movie. Then again, if someone paid me millions to work out, I'd do it, too. Just sayin'. Anyways, check out the clips below, plus some new images.
Set in medieval Persia, the story of an adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world. Which is why after the prince was tricked by a dying Vizier to unleash the Sands of Time that turns out to destroy a kingdom and transforms its populace into ferocious demons. In his effort to save his own kingdom and redeem his fatal mistake, it's up to the prince and the princess to return the sands to the hourglass by using the Dagger of Time, which also gives him a limited control over the flow of time.
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley, Gemma Arterton, Toby Kebbell, Alfred Molina, Reece Ritchie, Richard Coyle, Gísli Örn Garðarsson, Steve Toussaint, and directed by Mike Newell.
Jump for your life May 28, 2010.
Get more images and videos at our "Prince of Persia" preview page.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Recently Australis added to their popular Velourlips range with 4 new shades.
I knew from the sneak peeks that Oh-Saka! which is described as a dusty rose would be coming home with me.
If you haven't tried out the Australis Velourlips formula, I suggest you give it a go. The formula is quite moussey similar to the NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams but I find they last a little longer on the lips, just try and keep the application light, so it doesn't crumble. At only $10.49AUD a pop they are one of the better and cheaper liquid lipstick formulas on the market and also one of the most readily available. Plus they smell like blackcurrant lollies… yummmm
When I first swatched this I thought it was quite similar to a few other liquid lipsticks I own, I thought i'd do a bit of comparison showing it with Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipstick in Androgyny and Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Lolita.
As you can see above, this isn't really a dupe for either of those shades but they are in a similar shade range. Oh-Saka! is definitely much more rosey than the other 2. I'm kind of glad it makes me justify the purchase more! lol!
I did look at it a bit further though and also have compared it with Colourpop Lippie Stix in Lumiere, which i've shown below. This is definitely a closer match shade wise; with Oh-Saka! being just that bit deeper and again more rosey. Lumiere being a lipstick formula (even though it is a matte) is a also little more hydrating. However, Colourpop shipping to Australia is RIDICULOUS! So if you've had your eye on Lumiere this is a great and cheap alternative.
Have you tried the Australis Velourlips? Is there another shade I must own? (help me buy the things!).


text:
Operating skiffs with powerful outboard engines, GPS systems and satellite phones, the Somali pirates who seized a Saudi supertanker have left officials open-mouthed in astonishment at their audacity.
"Both the size of the vessel and the distance from the coast where the hijackers struck is unprecedented," Commander Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the US Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, is quoted in the Guardian as saying. "It shows how quickly the pirates are adapting."
The Independent says Somalia's breakaway region of Puntland is at the centre of an explosion of piracy. The authorities there say they can do little to stop the pirates and blamed shipowners for causing the crisis by paying ransoms, estimated to be more than $30m (£20m) this year.
The authorities pay up, Frank Pope writes in the Times, because the last thing shipowners want is to change a monetary relationship into a gunfight. Only three hostages have been killed so far (all in accidents), while the pirates have tens of millions of pounds in profit. At least 12 ships, with more than 250 crew, are currently being held while negotiations take place.
The actions of the pirates could hurt consumers worldwide, Roger Middleton, an author who studies piracy in Somalia, writes, also in the Times. If international shipping reacts by avoiding the route via the Gulf of Aden and the Suez canal and taking the longer way around the Cape of Good Hope, someone will have to pay – very probably the consumer.
The latest act of piracy prompts reflection on Somalia's parlous state. Simon Tisdall in the Guardian reminds us that Somalia is arguably the world's biggest single humanitarian disaster; more serious than Darfur, Zimbabwe and eastern Congo. Yet, he says, leading countries and their navies seem more exercised about safeguarding sea lanes than helping the 3.25 million Somalis – 43% of the population – who are dependent on food aid.
The Bush administration bears much responsibility for Somalia's state of anarchy, Martin Fletcher argues in the Times. Because of the "war on terror", the US backed an invasion of Somalia by Ethiopia to throw out the Islamic courts movement which had brought a semblance of stability. Fletcher says the intervention helped destroy Somalia's best chance of peace for a generation and, far from stamping out militancy, turned Somalia into a breeding ground for Islamist extremists and gave al-Qaida a valuable foothold in the Horn of Africa.
Based on an extract from the Wrap, theguardian.com's digest of the day's news.


text:
View Larger Image
Email this product to a friend
Specs will vary slightly from piece to piece.
Dome Head Riveted Mail Code 6
This style of mail is reasonably authentic to the early medieval period, particularly in the European flat ring (EFR) version. In steel this construction style has the advantage of strength, allowing it to be used for supervised weapons contact re-enactment. More economical than wedge-riveted mail, the domed-head riveted style is available in stainless steel. Riveted stainless steel rings will maintain their integrity better than mild steel or aluminum. Construction is in the 4 in 1 pattern.
Email Address
First Name


text:
Onyx Webb: Book One: Episodes 1, 2, 3
Today's Free Kindle eBook: Onyx Webb: Book One: Episodes 1, 2, & 3
Delectably Creepy. Gripping. Fascinating. Get Entangled in Onyx Webb: An Addictive New Paranormal Suspense SeriesOnyx Webb is a multi-genre mash-up that combines supernatural suspense, crime, horror, romance, and more.Onyx Webb is a ghost. Billionaire playboy Koda Mulvaney becomes obsessed with a girl he sees inside a mirror. Juniper Cole is on her way to the prom and… well, we don't want to spoil anything – we've probably told you too much already. How all these events are related is part of the mystery that is, Onyx Webb. The Onyx Webb series follows the unusual life of Onyx Webb along with a central group of characters in various locations and times. The billionaire Mulvaney family, piano prodigy Juniper Cole and her brother Quinn, paranormal show hosts Cryer and Fudge, and a few others make up the core of the series. Written like a book version of a supernatural soap opera (think: American Horror Story) each character's story moves forward with most every episode. It may appear that the characters are entirely unrelated and yet episode by episode, the connections will become clearer. Like being an inch away from a spider web, with each book, the web will move further and further away revealing the full story of every character and most importantly, the stunning conclusion for Onyx Webb herself.˃˃˃ Interested in Knowing More? Rose says…"This story had danger, intrigue, love, betrayal, and a graphic novel sensibility that appealed to me, personally, on every level. Honestly, I couldn't put it down, and my dismay at reaching the last page quickly turned to determination as I found my way to Amazon to download the second book. In conclusion, I can only say that as an author, I wish I'd written Onyx Webb, and give Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz major kudos for a job extremely well done." – Rose Shababy, Author & Book Blogger˃˃˃ Jeanette at HorrorMade.com says…"… this book is stunningly well written. The characters quickly capture your attention and compassion, even when they're not the shiniest of souls. They are all complex and interesting people stepping unwittingly into the bigger picture this book is starting to weave. I also really enjoyed the poetic moments sprinkled into the story. Some of those moments, made me pause, reread, and just think on what they were sharing before continuing with the story. If you like season 1 of American Horror Story, then the twisted and macabre horror and historic elements that are blended into this story is going to be a literary feast for you. "Scroll Up and Grab Book One Today!
To get the freebie please click on this link:
Onyx Webb: Book One: Episodes 1, 2, 3
The linked site is not operated or owned by FreebieSelect!


text:
March 7, 2011
Mexico has asked the US for detailed information on a law enforcement operation that allegedly allowed guns to be smuggled across the border.
The request follows media reports that US federal agents allowed hundreds of guns to be smuggled into Mexico in the hope of tracking the weapons to drug cartel leaders.
Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)
Some of the guns were reportedly later used in crimes including murder.


text:
ACParadise Network: American Cosplay Paradise American Cosplay Experience American Cosplay Snapshots
Cosplayer 2DLogic > Costume of Alucard (Hellsing)
- Most Recent Photo
- 09-19-2012
- Series
- Hellsing
- Character
- Alucard
- Year Completed:
- 2012
- Construction Difficulty:
- Easy
- Costume made by
- ElderPanda
- Wig styled by
- ElderPanda
- Costume worn at:
- Anime Weekend Atlanta 2012
About this Costume
- Construction Details:
As with all of our costumes my girlfriend acted as seamstress and I the prop-master.
Joshua and Jackal, Alucard's guns, are made primarily from MDF. Thinner sheets of fiberboard and polystyrene were used to sculpt the smaller details. Other bits baubles and screws are also present.
Harkonnen, Seras' cannon, is made primarily from MDF and PVC pipe, once again with thinner sheets making up smaller details. The barrel was fit with a screw attachment to allow for easier transportation.
Wig Details
- Wig Brand
- Cosplay-Wig
- Wig Name
- Code Geass Lelouch
- Original Color:
- Black
- Styling Time
- Approximately 1 hour
- Wig Quality Rating
- 4 / 5.00
- Styling Notes
- Keep it shaggy and natural, don't "over style".
- Wig Review
- A nice versatile black, shaggy, mid-length wig. Would use/order from the company again.
Add a Comment


text:
Douglas W. Maynard eBooks
eBooks found: 1
Communication in Medical Care
John Heritage & Douglas W. Maynard
Cambridge University Press, July 2002
Format: PDF
eBookMall is a recognized leader in eBooks. eBook downloads in PDF and ePub formats.
Choose from 600,000+ eBooks and get a Free eBook download now!
Copyright © 2000-2017 eBookMall.com This website is subject to copyright laws and may be covered by other intellectual property.
All rights reserved.