Computer networks have become commonplace in modern times. There are a variety of network topologies and protocols that permit network servers, terminals and peripheral devices (collectively, xe2x80x9ccomponentsxe2x80x9d) to interoperate and provide coordinated computer services. To support computer networks, firms often employ information technology technicians to monitor the state of the computer networks and maintain network components in an operable state.
To provide the technician with sufficient information to permit the technician to perform its function, individual network components may include xe2x80x9cinstrumentation entitiesxe2x80x9d that can determine the component""s operating condition. The instrumentation entity generates alert messages regarding parameters such as central processing unit (xe2x80x9cCPUxe2x80x9d) utilization, memory usage, and available memory size. The types of parameters that are reported vary widely and depend upon the type of component being used, the operations being performed by the component and the parameters that are relevant to the component""s operation. Some instrumentation entities may generate an alert when parameters indicate a condition that threatens the component""s ability to operate. Other instrumentation entities monitor parameters but do not generate alerts therefrom. The events may be predetermined by a manufacturer of the component and are not defined by the technician or some other user of the computer network.
There are a variety of known instrumentation entities. They include:
The Desktop Management Interface, a known instrument entity described, at the time of this writing at http:  www.dmtf.org;
The Simple Network Management Protocol (xe2x80x9cSNMPxe2x80x9d), a known instrumentation entity described at the time of this writing at http:  www.ietf.org; and
Various operating system instrumentation entities. (For example the NT Performance Monitor is an instrumentation entity for Windows NT, an operation system commercially available from the Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. Other operating system instrumentation entities are known.)
Each of the known instrumentation entities has a set of predetermined component parameters that it monitors.
The instrumentation entities that provide access to component parameters often report parameter information in formats that are unique to the particular instrumentation entity that is being used. If two instrumentation entities were to provide access to CPU utilization of a computer server, for example, the instrumentation entities likely would report CPU utilization information in different ways using different formats. Thus, information technology technicians must be familiar with the different formats and content of information reported by the various instrumentation entities that are used in the network that they service. Such training increases the costs of network maintenance.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a computer network management technique that reduces the variety of formats and content of instrumentation entity alerts and yet provides effective information for use by information technology technicians.
According to an embodiment, the present invention may provide a data collection system for a computer network. The data collection system may include a data collection agent having a harmonization library and a plurality of data sources distributed throughout the computer network. The data collection agent is provided in communication with the data sources via instrumentation entities of the components.