Automatic monitoring method for managed server health

Abstract

A Node Manager monitors the status of multiple servers. The Node Manager detects server failures, periodically monitors server health status, and performs server maintenance. When the Node Manager detects a server failure, it determines whether or not the server should be restarted. While periodically monitoring servers, the Node Manager may determine how often to trigger a health check, how long to wait for a response, and how to proceed if the server is deemed failed. The Node Manager may be controlled by an Administrative Server directly or by an external administrative agent. An administrative agent may control the Node Manager by interfacing with the Administrative Server. The Node Manager and AS may authenticate each other and encode their communications to each other for increased security.

1 . A method for monitoring a server comprising: 
 providing a monitoring instance;    establishing a connection between the monitoring instance and a server to be monitored; and    determining the health status of the server as a result of communications between the monitoring instance and the server.    
     
     
         2 . The method as claimed in  claim 1  wherein said establishing a connection includes establishing an SSL connection.  
     
     
         3 . The method as claimed in  claim 1  wherein said determining the health status of the server includes detecting that the server has experienced server failure.  
     
     
         4 . The method as claimed in  claim 3  wherein detecting that the server has experienced server failure includes detecting that the connection established between the monitoring instance and the server to be monitored has failed.  
     
     
         5 . The method as claimed in  claim 1  further comprising: 
 performing maintenance on the server upon detecting the server has failed.    
     
     
         6 . The method as claimed in  claim 5  wherein performing maintenance includes restarting the server.  
     
     
         7 . The method as claimed in  claim 1  further comprising; 
 determining whether a failed server may be restarted; and    restarting the failed server if it may be restarted.    
     
     
         8 . The method as claimed in  claim 7  wherein determining whether a failed server may be restarted includes determining whether a server has been restarted a maximum number of times within a certain period of time.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the functionality of the monitoring instance may be controlled by an administration server.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9  wherein communication between the monitoring instance and administration server is encoded.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1  wherein said determining the health status of the server includes the monitoring instance automatically determining the health status of the server.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising: 
 automatically performing maintenance upon detecting the server has failed.    
     
     
         13 . The method as claimed in  claim 12  wherein automatically performing maintenance includes automatically restarting the server.  
     
     
         14 . The method as claimed in  claim 1  wherein providing a monitoring instance includes: 
 performing startup by the monitoring instance;    receiving startup information by the monitoring instance from an administrative server, the startup information including instructions to start a server instance on a local machine and a request to provide information on servers previously monitored by the monitoring instance.