An Approach for Managing Service Dependencies with XML and the Resource Description Framework [Vol. 10, No. 2, 2002]

An Approach for Managing Service Dependencies with XML and the Resource Description Framework

C. Ensel
Munich Network Management Team
University of Munich
Oettingenstr. 67, 80538 Munich, Germany
Email: ensel_AT_nm.informatik.uni-muenchen.de

A. Keller
IBM Research Division,
T.J. Watson Research Center,
P.O. Box 704, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA
Email: alexk_AT_us.ibm.com

Abstract
We describe a novel approach for applying XML, XPath and RDF to the problem of describing, querying and computing the dependencies among services in a distributed computing system. This becomes increasingly important in today's networked environments where applications and services rely on both local and outsourced sub-services. However, service dependencies are not made explicit in today's systems, thus making the task of problem determination particularly difficult. A key contribution of the paper is a web-based architecture for retrieving and handling dependency information from various managed resources. Its core component is a dependency query facility allowing the application of queries and filters to dependency models; its output is a consolidated dependency graph that can then be used by fault management applications to perform additional problem determination tasks or event correlation. The definition of an XML based notation for specifying dependencies facilitates information sharing between the components involved in the process.

Keywords: Web-based Application Management, Dependency Analysis, RDF, XML, XPath

JNSM: Vol. 10, No. 2, 2002 An Approach for Managing Service Dependencies with XML and the Resource Description Framework [Vol. 10, No. 2, 2002]

NOTE: only abstract of paper available on-line; please contact your library or the authors for the full paper

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