Abstract: A method for migrating virtual machines between hypervisors is disclosed. Initially, metadata describing a virtual machine are automatically scanned and parsed. The structure of the metadata of a source virtual machine are automatically analyzed. Elements of this structure are mapped to corresponding entries of a target virtual machine. A target metadata descriptor to be used as part of the target virtual machine is generated. A predefined layout description of the data stored in a file system image of the source virtual machine read. A predefined layout description of the data to be stored in a file system image to be used at the target virtual machine is also read. The data are extracted from the source virtual machine. A template of a file system image for the target virtual system is generated. Storage space corresponding to the target virtual machine is allocated, and the extracted data are inserted into the allocated storage space.

Abstract: A method and system for automated error handling in system management flows by enhancing workflow engines by an error handling component and by adding a supportive error handling layer to invoked system management tasks which serves m the counterpart to the workflow engine's error handling component. The additional functionality of the task-provided, error handling layer is accessible for the workflow engine via extended Web services interfaces. The workflow engine's error handling component and the task-provided error handling layer allow for the definition of a standard protocol between the workflow engine and invoked tasks for automated error handling. Furthermore, an interface and method of communication between the enhanced workflow engine and an external error resolving device (such as an expert system) is defined with the purpose of using the external error resolving device for automatic error recovery.

Abstract: Media Distribution within the Internet is done with the help of Application-Servers, Content-Servers and distributed Edge Servers where the clients are connected to Media Distribution Services. A computer system is provided comprising a client having a Web browser with a media player, a Web Application Server, content Edge Servers ES1 to ES4 and a Media Request Broker. After the client has selected a media for streaming, the Media Request Broker makes a determination concerning an appropriate Edge Server to perform the streaming operation. This determination is made based on an extension of the client's http request made by the Edge Server and passed from the Application Server to the Media Request Broker.

Abstract: A data processing method is disclosed. The data processing method comprises the step of receiving a request for a service interface description of a service from a client at a server, wherein the service is implemented via a first service endpoint at the server, and wherein the first service endpoint is associated with a first service endpoint interface description. In a further step, a given set of correlations is employed for the determination of service endpoints correlated with the first service endpoint with respect to the service, wherein each of the correlated service endpoints is associated with a service endpoint interface description. Furthermore the service interface description is generated by aggregating the first service endpoint interface description with the service endpoint interface descriptions of the correlated service endpoints and the service interface description is provided to the client.

Abstract: A method of collecting usage data of an on-demand service provided to a subscriber is disclosed. The method comprises provisioning of a first manageable resource in order to provide the on-demand service to the subscriber, the first manageable resource being associated with at least a first underlying resource, the first underlying resource comprising a first collector for collecting first usage data of the first underlying resource while the on-demand service is provided. Further, a first metering component is instantiated for the first manageable resource and the first metering component is instructed to initiate the retrieval of the first usage data from the first collector prior to the termination of the first metering component and the de-provisioning of the first manageable resource. Additionally, the retrieved first usage data is stored for further evaluation.

Abstract: The present invention replaces the prior art Systems Management Flow execution environments with a new Order Processing Environment. The Order Processing Environment consists of an Order Processing Container (“Container” in short), a Relationship Registry, and a Factory Registry. The Factory Registry supports creation of new resource instances. The Relationship Registry stores relationships between resources. The Container gets as input an Order and a start point address for the first resource. The Order is a document (e.g., XML) which includes a number of Tasks for each involved resource without arranging those tasks in a sequence. This differentiates Orders from workflow descriptions used by standard workflow engines. Each Task includes at least all input parameters for executing the Task. The sequence of the Task execution is derived by the Container by using the Relationship Registry which reflects all current Resource Topologies.

Abstract: Orders are processed within an Order Processing Environment which includes an Order Processing Container, Relationship Registry, and Factory Registry. The Order Processing Environment is extended by a Reference Resolvement Function Component. The RRFC provides the basic functionality for resolving References defined in the Order Document at runtime and make the referenced data available as a usual input parameter for the resources involved in the Order Processing. Each Task in the Order may contain Resource Property References and Resource Property Relationship References which are pointers to properties of resources. These references are resolved by the RRFC during the Order Processing before the Order Document is delegated from one resource to the next. When resolving a Reference, the value of the referenced Resource Property is determined and the Reference is replaced by this value so that it can be used by the resource having it defined in its Task section as a usual input parameter.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and system for automated handling of resolvable and non-resolvable errors in the execution of system management flows by enhancing Workflow Engines (30) by an Error Handling component (40) and by adding a supportive Error Handling Layer (60,90,100) to invoked system management tasks which serves as the counterpart to the Workflow Engine's Error Handling component (see FIG. 2). The additional functionality of the task-provided Error Handling Layer (90, 70, 100) is accessible for the Workflow Engine via extended web services interfaces (91, 71, 101). The Workflow Engine's Error Handling component (40) and the task-provided Error Handling Layer allow for the definition of a standard protocol between the Workflow Engine and invoked tasks (31) for automated error handling.

Abstract: The invention is based on Orders specifically developed for and processed by an Order Processing Environment for creation or modification of resource topologies. The Order Processing Environment is partly replaced by a combination of an Order Transformation Environment and standard Workflow Engines in order to execute the Order by standard Workflow Engines. The Order Transformation Environment needs to get two inputs. The first input is the resource topology which is retrieved by using the Relationship Registry of the Order Processing Environment. The second input is the Order. Orders are resource topology independent and include resource specific tasks without arranging those in a sequence. Tasks provide actions for creating and/or modifying resource topologies. The transformation is based on above two inputs resulting in a static standard based workflow. The static, standards-based workflow (e.g. BPEL-based) can then be executed by standards-based process/workflow engines.

Abstract: The present invention provides a new management system and a new method for managing distributed resources (61-66), comprising a workflow engine (88) that can execute management workflows in order to actively control the distributed resources (61-66). The new management system is characterized in that autonomic Correlation Services (74-76) are introduced that manage different functional parts of the managed system in cooperation with workflow engine (88), whereby each Correlation Service (74-76) employs a Correlation Engine (174, 175) and a set of rules (184, 185, 186) that describe how underlying resources (61-66) shall be managed, whereby a controller (44) communicates with the Correlation Services (74-76).

Abstract: A method and system for automatically cloning IT resource structure in stateful web services environments by employing a new approach for configuration management. The present new approach models the configurational state of each resource as a stateful web service. Configuration data are provided by this service's resource properties. Relationships between configurations of different resources are modeled as “stateful web services relationships” between web service instances. These relationships can be navigated, which allows exploring the configuration of a whole system in a standards-based way. Additionally a new web service interface is provided by the stateful web service encapsulating the resource. This interface provides two new operations: “getConfiguration” allows an exploiter to take a snapshot of a resource's and related resources' configurational state and “setConfiguration” allows for setting the configurational state of a resource to a previously saved state.

Abstract: The idea of the present invention is to provide a method for automatically transforming a provider offering describing a customer specific service environment in business terms into a machine readable form which can be automatically processed by resource management systems. The input for the transformation is the provider's offering in business terms as well information from the resource catalog. The result of the transformation is a customer specific service environment topology that states all the necessary resource types, their configurations and their dependencies. Based on that customer specific service environment topology and information from the resource management catalog, a customer specific service environment definition (SED) is automatically generated which contains all the configuration information and definitions of the resource management actions in order to instantiate and drive the operation of the service environment.

Abstract: The inventive process for modeling workflows for interacting stateful resources starts with modeling an activity sequence description (ASD) by using keywords. The keywords specify well-defined resource-interaction semantics. Each modification of the ASD automatically triggers a new checking process of the ASD in its current state which is executed by the ASD processor. The ASD processor parses the keyword, evaluates the resource-interaction semantic associated with the keyword, and creates for each modeled activity an updated resource type model and an updated resource instance model based on the information provided by the current resource type model, the current resource instance model, the semantics associated the currently processed keyword and the semantics of the relationship stereotype definition.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method comprising improvements in transferring large data amounts e.g., large files associated with ‘new media’ like audio and video data which are streamed through the network. The present invention comprises basically to decouple the transfer and the rendering of data in a way that combines the strength, i.e., the advantages of the streaming paradigm with the flexibility and usability advantages of the store&forward paradigm. This is basically achieved by separating the application logic from the transport logic. The transfer/transport logic is covered by a novel transfer protocol whereas the player application logic can issue standard file access statements like fread, fseek in order to access and render the streamed data.

Abstract: The present invention provides a system, method, and computer program product to accelerate provisioning by dynamically creating dynamic free pools (DFPs) of pre-provisioned resources that are provisioned in advance, and are ready and free for use. A DFP construct for a resource, and its associated dynamic free pool manager are generated dynamically from a formal description of an aggregated resource structure (e.g. in the form of an XML schema). The present invention also provides a system, method, and computer program product to improve the delivery time of SEs based on the DFP constructs. The methods are extended to deal with special conditions such as contention over resources, or critical delivery time.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and respective system for managing the administration of electronic resources accessible in an electronic-network: A solution is offered, in which grid resources or services are enhanced with a presentation interface that provides an administration user-interface (UI) for configuring them, i.e., the administration UI of a distributed resource is provided by the server hosting the resource, or simply the resource itself. This includes also the resource-located logic required to configure the resource according to the user inputs and actions imparted on user controls, which are sent from a respective resource to a portal server.

Abstract: The present invention describes a new system and method for modeling and dynamically deploying services into a distributed networking architecture, especially in a service-oriented architecture. The service container being part of distributed networking architecture exposes its functionality as services. It provides a registration service for deploying service descriptions. Having created a new service description in any declarative description language (i.e. a description of a (stateful) service e.g. a stateful Web service), the description provider invokes the registration service at the service container that allows to register (i.e. deploy) that new service description during runtime without restarting service container. The service container is responsible to analyze and check the submitted new service description for validity, to store the service description and to make it available for interested services consumers for instantiation.

Abstract: A first aspect addresses a method and device for making a media file accessible via a web page. First, a web design tool receives a media file to be made accessible via a web page. Then, said media file is sent to a streaming service provider. Subsequently, a key generated by said streaming service provider allowing to unambiguously identifying said sent media file is received and an identifier derived from said key is placed into the web page through which the media file should be accessed. A second aspect addresses a method and device installed at the streaming service provider's side for serving a user's request for hosting a media file to be streamed to a visitor's computer on its request.

Abstract: A method and system are provided for replicating data in a network to a plurality of client applications which are associated to at least one server. Network traffic is reduced and an easy-to-do automated data replication is achieved basically by monitoring and storing modification information on server data exploiting XDSM capabilities in order to generate replication data for a subsequent distribution to the clients and by broadcasting said replication data from said server system to said client systems. Further, the replication data can advantageously be streamed to the clients through the network.

Abstract: A method, computer program, computer program product and apparatus for facilitating a user in the creation of a model describing how resources in a service environment are to be managed by a resource management system. A service environment description is received comprising information defining resources that may be managed by the resource management system. Information is then extracted from the description regarding services provided by at least some of the resources and the extracted information is presented to a user. The user is then able to use the extracted information to create the model by defining rules to manage at least some of the resources.