Abstract: A monitoring information reporting system for a client computer, the system provides monitoring information to a server computer which receives monitoring information for analysis. The system provides a framework for a client computer to identify to a server computer the monitoring information it can provide. The server computer then determines, based on the notification, whether monitoring information is to be provided, and if so, the specific monitoring information that will be provided. When monitoring information is to be provided, the server computer sends a response to the client computer with a command to control the client computer to collect monitoring information, which is then provided to the server computer. In this way, the server computer can control the amount and nature of monitoring information collected and transferred.

Abstract: A monitoring information reporting system for a client computer, the system provides monitoring information to a server computer which receives monitoring information for analysis. The system provides a framework for a client computer to identify to a server computer the monitoring information it can provide. The server computer then determines, based on the notification, whether monitoring information is to be provided, and if so, the specific monitoring information that will be provided. When monitoring information is to be provided, the server computer sends a response to the client computer with a command to control the client computer to collect monitoring information, which is then provided to the server computer. In this way, the server computer can control the amount and nature of monitoring information collected and transferred.

Abstract: An incrementally-scalable file system and method. The system architecture enables file systems to be scaled by adding resources, such as additional filers and/or file servers, without requiring that the system be taken offline or being known to client applications. The system also provides for load balancing file accesses by distributing files across the various file storage resources in the system, as dictated by the relative capacities of said storage resources. The system provides one or more “virtual” file system volumes in a manner that makes it appear to client applications that all of the file system's storage space resides on the virtual volume(s), while in reality the files may be stored on many more physical volumes on the filers and/or file servers in the system.

Abstract: Disclosed is a software application reliability and availability tracking and reporting mechanism that collects event data from target computers, analyzes the data, and produces reliability and availability reports. A network administrator specifies target computers for which event data are collected. The collected event data along with a reliability model are provided to a reliability and availability analysis engine. Output from the engine includes reliability and availability data expressed as durations of time spent in each state and as associations with the events. The reliability and availability data are fed to a report generator which computes reliability and availability metrics. The metrics are used to generate reports that can be interpreted by the network administrator without the need for specialized data analysis skills.

Abstract: A virtual file system and method. The system architecture enables a plurality of underlying file systems running on various file servers to be “virtualized” into one or more “virtual volumes” that appear as a local file system to clients that access the virtual volumes. The system also enables the storage spaces of the underlying file systems to be aggregated into a single virtual storage space, which can be dynamically scaled by adding or removing file servers without taking any of the file systems offline and in a manner transparent to the clients. This functionality is enabled through a software “virtualization” filter on the client that intercepts file system requests and a virtual file system driver on each file server. The system also provides for load balancing file accesses by distributing files across the various file servers in the system, through migration of data files between servers.

Abstract: Disclosed is a software application reliability and availability tracking and reporting mechanism that collects event data from target computers, analyzes the data, and produces reliability and availability reports. A network administrator specifies target computers for which event data are collected. The collected event data along with a reliability model are provided to a reliability and availability analysis engine. Output from the engine includes reliability and availability data expressed as durations of time spent in each state and as associations with the events. The reliability and availability data are fed to a report generator which computes reliability and availability metrics. The metrics are used to generate reports that can be interpreted by the network administrator without the need for specialized data analysis skills.

Abstract: A virtual file system and method. The system architecture enables a plurality of underlying file systems running on various file servers to be “virtualized” into one or more “virtual volumes” that appear as a local file system to clients that access the virtual volumes. The system also enables the storage spaces of the underlying file systems to be aggregated into a single virtual storage space, which can be dynamically scaled by adding or removing file servers without taking any of the file systems offline and in a manner transparent to the clients. This functionality is enabled through a software “virtualization” filter on the client that intercepts file system requests and a virtual file system driver on each file server. The system also provides for load balancing file accesses by distributing files across the various file servers in the system, through migration of data files between servers.

Abstract: An incrementally-scalable database system and method. The system architecture enables database servers to be scaled by adding resources, such as additional servers, without requiring that the system be taken offline. Such scaling includes both adding one or more computer servers to a given server cluster, which enables an increase in database read transaction throughput, and adding one or more server clusters to the system configuration, which provides for increased read and write transaction throughput. The system also provides for load balancing read transactions across each server cluster, and load balancing write transactions across a plurality of server clusters.