Policy-based resource management with target-driven remediation on server

1. A management method for use in a data-processing infrastructure comprising a server data-processing entity and a set of target data-processing entities, the method comprising the steps of:

downloading, from the server data-processing entity onto each target data-processing entity of the set of target data-processing entities, a set of corresponding management policies, the management policies of at least one of the target data-processing entities comprising a subset of server-side management policies and a subset of target-side management policies, wherein each policy of the management policies indicates how to verify a compliance of the at least one of the target data-processing entities with the policy and how to remedy its possible non-compliance;

executing, on each target data-processing entity, a verification action indicated in each one of the corresponding management policies for verifying the compliance of the target data-processing entity with the management policy;

executing, on each target data-processing entity, a target-side remediation action indicated in each violated one of the corresponding target-side management policies which the target data-processing entity is not compliant with, for remedying the non-compliance of the target data-processing entity with the violated target-side management policy;

sending, from each target data-processing entity to the server data-processing entity, an indication of a remediation request for each violated one of the corresponding server-side management policies which the target data-processing entity is not compliant with; and

executing, on the server data-processing entity, a corresponding server-side remediation action in response to each remediation request for remedying the non-compliance of the corresponding target data-processing entity with the corresponding violated server-side management policy such that the violated target-side management policies are remedied by the set of target data-processing entities and the violated server-side management policies are remedied by the server data-processing entity.

2. The management method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of sending the indication of the remediation request comprises:

collecting environmental information on the target data-processing entity for the violated server-side management policy; and

associating the environmental information with the remediation request; wherein the step of executing the corresponding server-side remediation action comprises:

executing the server-side remediation action according to the associated environmental information.

3. The management method according to claim 2 , wherein the step of sending the indication of the remediation request comprises:

executing, on the target data-processing entity, a request action indicated in the violated server-side management policy, the request action comprising at least one instruction for creating the remediation request.

4. The management method according to claim 3 , wherein the step of executing the request action comprises:

executing at least one further instruction comprised in the request action for collecting the environmental information.

5. The management method according to claim 2 , further comprising the step of:

sending an enforcement report, comprising an indication of a result of the verification of the compliance with the corresponding management policies, from each target data-processing entity to the server data-processing entity, wherein the step of sending the indication of a remediation request comprises:

adding an indication of the remediation request to the enforcement report.

6. The management method according to 5 , wherein the step of sending the indication of the remediation request comprises:

adding the environmental information to the enforcement report in association with the remediation request.

7. The management method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of executing a verification action comprises:

triggering the execution of the verification action indicated in each corresponding management policy in response to the expiration of a periodic time-out on the target data-processing entity.

8. The management method according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of:

causing the execution of the verification action indicated in each violated server-side management policy on the corresponding target data-processing entity in response to the execution of the corresponding server-side remediation action by the server data-processing entity.

9. The management method of claim 1 , where each management policy of the management policies comprises a verification section which defines a condition to be fulfilled by each target data processing entity in order to be compliant with the management policy, and a remediation section which defines a way to remedy a non-compliance of each target data-processing entity with the management policy.

10. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-usable storage medium having stored thereon program code that is operable for causing a data-processing system to perform the steps of the management method according to claim 1 when the program code is executed on the data-processing system.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 , where each management policy of the management policies comprises a verification section which defines a condition to be fulfilled by each target data processing entity in order to be compliant with the management policy, and a remediation section which defines a way to remedy a non-compliance of each target data-processing entity with the management policy.

12. A management method for use in a data-processing infrastructure comprising a server data-processing entity and a set of target data-processing entities, the method comprising the steps executed by the server data-processing entity of:

downloading, by the server data-processing entity onto each target data-processing entity of the set of target data-processing entities, a set of corresponding management policies, the management policies of at least one of the target data-processing entities comprising a subset of server-side management policies and a subset of target-side management policies, to cause the target data-processing entity to execute a verification action indicated in each one of the corresponding management policies for verifying a compliance of the target data-processing entity with the management policy, and to execute a target-side remediation action indicated in each violated one of the corresponding target-side management policies, which the target data-processing entity is not compliant with, for remedying the non-compliance of the target data-processing entity with the violated target-side management policy, wherein each policy of the management policies indicates how to verify the compliance of the target data-processing entity with the policy and how to remedy its possible non-compliance;

receiving, by the server data-processing entity from each target data-processing entity, an indication of a remediation request for each violated one of the corresponding server-side management policies, which the target data-processing entity is not compliant with; and

executing, on the server data-processing entity, a corresponding server-side remediation action in response to each remediation request for remedying the non-compliance of the corresponding target data-processing entity with the corresponding violated server-side management policy.

13. The management method of claim 12 , where each management policy of the management policies comprises a verification section which defines a condition to be fulfilled by each target data processing entity in order to be compliant with the management policy, and a remediation section which defines a way to remedy a non-compliance of each target data-processing entity with the management policy.

14. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-usable storage medium having stored thereon program code that is operable for causing a data-processing system to perform the steps of the management method according to claim 12 when the program code is executed on the data-processing system.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 , where each management policy of the management policies comprises a verification section which defines a condition to be fulfilled by each target data processing entity in order to be compliant with the management policy, and a remediation section which defines a way to remedy a non-compliance of each target data-processing entity with the management policy.

16. A management method for use in a data-processing infrastructure comprising a server data-processing entity and a set of target data-processing entities, the method comprising the steps directly performed on each target data-processing entity of the set of target data-processing entities of:

downloading, from the server data-processing entity, a set of management policies, the management policies comprising a subset of server-side management policies and a subset of target-side management policies, wherein each policy of the management policies indicates how to verify a compliance of the target data-processing entity with the policy and how to remedy its possible non-compliance;

executing a verification action indicated in each one of the management policies for verifying the compliance of the target data-processing entity with the management policy;

executing a target-side remediation action indicated in each violated one of the target-side management policies, which the target data-processing entity is not compliant with, for remedying the non-compliance of the target data-processing entity with the violated target-side management policy; and

sending, to the server data-processing entity, an indication of a remediation request for each violated one of the server-side management policies which each target data-processing entity is not compliant with, to cause the server data-processing entity to execute a corresponding server-side remediation action in response to each remediation request for remedying the non-compliance of the target data-processing entity with the corresponding violated server-side management policy.

17. The management method of claim 16 , where each management policy of the management policies comprises a verification section which defines a condition to be fulfilled by each target data processing entity in order to be compliant with the management policy, and a remediation section which defines a way to remedy a non-compliance of each target data-processing entity with the management policy.

18. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-usable storage medium having stored thereon program code that is operable for causing a data-processing system to perform the steps of the management method according to claim 16 when the program code is executed on the data-processing system.

19. The computer program product of claim 18 , where each management policy of the management policies comprises a verification section which defines a condition to be fulfilled by each target data processing entity in order to be compliant with the management policy, and a remediation section which defines a way to remedy a non-compliance of each target data-processing entity with the management policy.