Method and apparatus for remotely assessing software with automatic maintenance of a software audit file

摘要

A method and apparatus are disclosed for remotely identifying software and software versions using a maintained software audit file. The disclosed system management tool identifies software installed on each network node by comparing the name and size of installed files to a software audit file. The system management tool performs an inventory scan of the software on each network node and obtains a list of each file and the corresponding file size. The software audit file provides identifying information, such as the file name and corresponding size, for each known file. Known files can be quickly identified using a match criteria based, for example, on the file name and size. The software audit file is maintained by investigating any unknown files with a sample of the user population having the unknown file. In one implementation, a targeted query is automatically transmitted to a sample of the user population having the unknown file requesting header information for the unknown file. In this manner, previously unknown files, once identified, can be added to the software audit file. A technique is disclosed for quickly identifying a network node, in order to retrieve a list of instructions to be executed by the network node.

主权项

1. A method for retrieving an instruction set to be executed by a network node in a distributed computing system, comprising the steps of:
assigning a machine identifier to said network node, wherein said machine identifier is reducible to an integer; maintaining a set of instructions to be executed by said network node, said set of instructions being indexed by said integer; sorting said instruction set based on said integer to form a sorted instruction set; maintaining an instruction index array comprised of an entry having said machine identifier and at least one index into said sorted instruction set; obtaining said machine identifier from said network node; and retrieving said set of instructions using said integer and said instruction index array.