Information Processing Apparatus and Method of Operating the Same

Abstract

Using a service server list containing addresses of servers within a service system and an application list containing names of active applications within the service system, addresses of servers on which the active applications are running, and communication source addresses and communication destination addresses of the active applications, the following processes are carried out: specifying applications of a first layer in the service system from among applications lying within the service system; specifying applications of a second or subsequent layer in the service system from the application list and from addresses of servers on which the applications of the first layer are running; and judging applications having the same application name among applications belonging to the same layer as being of the same role for aggregation.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An information processing apparatus communicatively coupled via a network to servers on which a plurality of applications are running for operating a service system, the information processing apparatus comprising:
 a storage unit that stores network addresses of the servers, storing, in a correlated manner, application identification information as information for identifying the applications, active server addresses as network addresses of the servers on which the applications are running, and communication source addresses of the applications; and   an application aggregating unit
 acquiring from the storage unit and comparing the application identification information, the addresses of the servers corresponding thereto, and communication source addresses of the applications, so that when it is judged that the communication source addresses do not coincide with any of the addresses of the servers, the application aggregating unit judges the applications having the application identification information as being applications belonging to a first layer in the service system, 
 acquiring from the storage unit and comparing application identification information of the applications judged as belonging to the first layer, the active server addresses of the applications, and the application identification information and communication source addresses of applications other than the applications judged as belonging to the first layer, so that the application aggregating unit judges applications having the application identification information correlated to the communication source addresses identical to the active server addresses as belonging to a second layer; and 
 continuing acquiring from the storage unit communication source addresses of applications other than the applications judged as belonging to the first and the second layer, to repeat the judgment process to judge the layers of each applications contained in the service system. 
   
     
     
         2 . The information processing apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein
 the information processing apparatus generates and displays a configuration diagram representing a correlation status among the applications based on the judged layers.   
     
     
         3 . The information processing apparatus of  claim 2 , wherein
 the configuration diagram of the applications represents the number of applications contained in the layer for each of the judged layers.   
     
     
         4 . The information processing apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the storage unit stores the name of each of the applications, and
 the application aggregating unit compares the layer and the name of each of the applications and judges the applications belonging to the same layer and having the same name as being of the same role.   
     
     
         5 . The information processing apparatus of  claim 4 , wherein
 the storage unit stores communication destination addresses of the applications, and   the application aggregating unit acquires from the storage unit the communication destination addresses of the applications having been judged as being of the same role, to judge the applications judged as having different communication addresses to be of different roles.   
     
     
         6 . The information processing apparatus of  claim 5 , wherein
 when generating and displaying a configuration diagram representing a correlation status among the applications based on the judged layers, the applications judged as having different roles from each other are displayed as different applications from each other even if they belong to the same layer.   
     
     
         7 . The information processing apparatus of  claim 4 , wherein
 the name of the application is a title contained in a Web page acquired by communicating with the active server of the application.   
     
     
         8 . The information processing apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein
 the storage unit stores communication destination addresses of the applications, and   the application aggregating unit acquires the addresses of the servers, as well as the active server addresses, communication source addresses, and communication destination addresses of the applications from the storage unit, and   when it is judged that the communication source addresses do not coincide with any of the addresses of the servers and that the communication destination addresses coincide with one of the addresses of the servers other than the active server addresses of the applications, the application aggregating unit judges the applications as applications belonging to the first layer.   
     
     
         9 . The information processing apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein
 the storage unit stores, in a correlated manner, the applications and the service system identification information as information for identifying the plurality of service systems, and   the application aggregating unit acquires the service system identification information correlated with the applications judged as belonging to the first layer from the storage unit, and judges the layers of each of the applications for the service system specified by the service system identification information.   
     
     
         10 . The information processing apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein
 the storage unit stores, in a correlated manner, combinations of file names of files stored in the server and identification information of the service systems operated by the server, and   the application aggregating unit communicates with the active servers of the applications to acquire file names of all the files stored in the active servers from the active servers, acquires the combinations of the file names from the storage unit to compare the file names acquired from the active servers with the file names acquired from the storage unit, and if coincidence of the two is judged, then judges that the applications are being used in the service system correlated with the combinations of the file names acquired from the storage unit.   
     
     
         11 . The information processing apparatus of  claim 4 , wherein
 the storage unit stores application identification information as information for identifying applications to be active on the service system and identification information of currently active applications in the service system, and   the application aggregating unit acquires and compares, between the applications judged as being of the same role, identification information of applications to be active and the identification information of currently active applications, and if the two have a difference, judges the activity of the applications having the role as being defective.   
     
     
         12 . The information processing apparatus of  claim 4 , wherein
 the storage unit stores, in a correlated manner, a physical server address as a physical server of the servers and addresses of virtual servers working on the physical server,   the storage unit stores on a role-by-role basis the number of shared applications that are applications running on different servers and information indicative of sharing status of the shared applications, and   the application aggregating unit acquires application identification information of applications running on active servers having the virtual server addresses corresponding to the same physical server address, acquires role information corresponding to the application identification information from the storage unit, and if it is judged that the shared application information is correlated with the role information, increments the number of the shared applications, whereas if it is judged that the shared application information is not correlated therewith, stores the shared information correlated with new role information into the storage unit.   
     
     
         13 . The information processing apparatus of  claim 4 , further comprising:
 a setting change managing unit that accepts setting change contents information indicative of setting change contents of the application and the role identifiers correlated with the applications executing the setting changes,
 acquiring from the storage unit addresses of servers on which the applications correlated with the role identifiers run from the storage unit; and 
 sending setting change contents of the application to the address of the server. 
   
     
     
         14 . The information processing apparatus of  claim 2 , wherein
 display data to display a configuration diagram representing the correlation status among the applications is generated so as to fall within the data size making up one screen of a display device coupled to the information processing apparatus.   
     
     
         15 . A method of operating an information processing apparatus communicatively coupled to servers on which a plurality of applications are running for operating a service system, the apparatus having a storage unit that stores network addresses of the servers, wherein
 storing, in a correlated manner, application identification information as information for identifying the applications, active server addresses as network addresses of the servers on which the applications are running, and communication source addresses of the applications, the method comprising:   acquiring from the storage unit and comparing the application identification information, the addresses of the servers corresponding thereto, and communication source addresses of the applications, so that when it is judged that the communication source addresses do not coincide with any of the addresses of the servers, the applications having the application identification information are judged as being applications belonging to a first layer in the service system;   acquiring from the storage unit and comparing application identification information of the applications judged as belonging to the first layer, the active server addresses of the applications, and application identification information and communication source addresses of applications other than the applications judged as belonging to the first layer, so that applications having the application identification information correlated to the communication source addresses identical to the active server addresses are judged as belonging to a second layer; and   continuing acquiring from the storage unit communication source addresses of applications other than the applications judged as belonging to the first and the second layer, to repeat the judgment process to judge the layers of each applications contained in the service system.