Tanium Inc.

International Business Machines Corporation

Bigfix, Inc.

Peter Lincroft

Lisa Ellen Lippincott

David Salim Hindawi

Orion Hindawi

Dennis Sidney Goodrow

Peter Benjamin Loer

David Leigh Donoho

James M Brown

Christian L Hunt

Andrew R White

Jason E Mealins

Peter Constantine

Thomas R Guieu

Max Freilich

Matthew C Hauck

Gregory Mitchell Toto

Jeremy Scott Spiegel

Dennis S Goodrow

Orion Yosef Hindawi

A non-static collection of machines self-organizes into a linear communication orbit. A server has sent a data unit to a subset of machines in the linear communication orbit. A first machine receives a plurality of shards of the data unit from an upstream neighbor of the first machine in the linear communication orbit and sends the plurality of shards of the data unit to a downstream neighbor of the first machine in the linear communication orbit. The first machine selects and maintains a subset of the plurality of shards of the data unit in a local cache of the first machine according to a data caching method. The first machine selects the subset of the plurality of shards it maintains independently of whether the subset of the plurality of shards are maintained locally by the upstream neighbor and the downstream neighbor of the first machine in the linear communication orbit.

Parallel distributed network management

Software updates by computational machines in a distributed system are facilitated by a server system that receives a master update from a remote server outside to the distributed system. The server system, which is in the distributed system, generates from the master update a first group of update metadata comprising less than all of master update and sends to a first plurality of computational machines in the distributed system first update materials, including the first group of update metadata and first filter criteria specifying characteristics of computational machines that are to locally store the first group of update metadata. A respective computational machine that satisfies the first filter criteria locally stores the first group of update metadata, obtains first update files based on the first group of update metadata, and updates one or more software programs using the first update files.

Software application updating in a local network

A method is provided of managing a non-static collection of machines. A first client machine runs a first communication protocol. The non-static collection of machines includes a first linear communication orbit, the first linear communication orbit comprising a sequence of machines that run the first communication protocol, and a second linear communication orbit, the second linear communication orbit comprising a sequence of machines that run a second communication protocol distinct from the first communication protocol. The first client machine receives an instruction from a server to install the second communication protocol, installs the second communication protocol, and then submits a registration request to the server. The first client machine receives, from the server, contact information of a list of potential neighbors. The first client machine then, proactively constructs and maintains a respective local segment of the second linear communication orbit.

System, security and network management using self-organizing communication orbits in distributed networks

A first machine identifies, from among a non-static collection of machines, a respective set of forward contacts that comprises a set of machines. The set of forward contacts are distributed along the ordered sequence in the forward direction away from the respective machine in an order of increasing similarity between the respective channel number assigned to the first machine and a respective channel number assigned to each of the set of forward contacts. The first machine establishes a respective direct communication channel between the first machine and each of the set of forward contacts. The first machine sends a first query to a first forward contact and sends collected answers for the first query to at least a second forward contact that has a greater similarity to the first machine based on the respective channel numbers of the first machine and the first and second forward contacts.

Reliable map-reduce communications in a decentralized, self-organizing communication orbit of a distributed network

A method of updating software, performed by respective machines in a linear communication orbit includes, at a local server executed by a respective machine, receiving, via the linear communication orbit, update metadata. At an update module executed by the respective machine, an update module evaluates software version information using the update metadata to determine a set of one or more updates to be applied to one or more software programs. A patch module sends, via the linear communication orbit, requests for one or more software update files corresponding to the set of one or more updates, and receives the one or more software update files corresponding to the set of one or more updates. The update module then updates the one or more of the software programs by applying the received one or more software update files to the one or more of the software programs.

Decoupling of a first machine from a plurality of machines in a network is disclosed. Each machine has a machine identifier. The plurality of machines are organized into a linearly ordered sequence in accordance with a predefined order of the machine identifiers. The first machine is configured to receive a query from a preceding machine and propagate the query to a succeeding machine in the linearly ordered sequence. Prior to decoupling from the network, the first machine informs respective presence of a first subset of machines to a second subset of machines that are not overlapping with the first subset of machines. The first subset of machines includes a machine having a lower machine identifier relative to the machine identifier of the first machine, and the second subset of machines includes a machine having a higher machine identifier relative to the machine identifier of the first machine.

In a network of a plurality of machines and a server, the machines have self-organized into a linearly ordered sequence in accordance with a predefined order of their respective machine identifiers. The linearly ordered sequence includes one or more local segments each include a first machine followed by a sequence of second machines. A query regarding management information of a local segment is injected into the network at the first machine of the local segment. The query is forwarded along the local segment, and each machine in the local segment responds to the query by adding its own local information to any answers already accumulated in the payload of the query. A second machine in the local segment sends a report message containing aggregated management information that has been collected in the payload of the query to the server.

In one aspect, machines in a managed network implements a set of rules that cause individual machines to directly interact with only a small number of machines in the network (i.e., a local neighborhood within the network), while the independent local actions of the individual machines collectively cause the individual machines to be self-organized into one or more communication orbits without any global control or coordination by a server or an administrator. The communication orbits are used for supporting network, security and system management communications in the managed network.

Method and system for providing message communications with failure detection and recovery are disclosed. At a respective node of a non-static collection of nodes forming a linear communication orbit: the node identifies, from among the non-static collection of nodes, a set of forward contacts distributed in a forward direction along the linear communication orbit; the node monitors a propagation state of a first query that has departed from the respective node to travel in the forward direction along the linear communication orbit; and upon detecting a propagation failure of the first query based on the monitoring, the node sends the first query directly to a first forward contact among the set of forward contacts to initiate a failure recovery process within at least part of a segment of the linear communication orbit between the respective node and the first forward contact of the respective node.

A data caching and distribution method, performed by a plurality of computational machines in a linear communication orbit, includes generating a data request by a first machine to request specific data, and passing the data request along a data request path that tracks the linear communication orbit until the request is received at a second machine, in the linear communication orbit, that returns the specific data in response to the data request. The method includes, at a third machine between the second machine and the first machine in the linear communication orbit, conditionally storing the specific data in a local cache of the third machine according to a data caching method.

Data caching, distribution and request consolidation in a local network

A first managed machine of a plurality of managed machines arranged in a linear communication orbit based on a predefined order of respective machine identifiers of the managed machines scans for live unmanaged machines within a selected portion of the network that is associated with a first range of machine identifiers that includes identifiers between the respective identifiers of the first managed machine and a respective neighbor machine of the first managed machine, determines whether the remedial instruction specifies a respective remedial operation applicable to the one or more live unmanaged machines that have been detected within the selected portion of the network, and requests the one or more live unmanaged machines to execute the respective remedial operation specified by the remedial instruction.

Growing community of inventors

Albany, CA, United States of America

Peter Lincroft