Web based computer user work environment of a computing system with deployment of multi-layered item list

Computer user working environment has been evolved from punch card & paper tape to mouse click native window based in past few decades. This invention takes the course of this continuing evolution and creating a web based computer user work environment for a control management station and its associated systems on the network crossing Intranet, Internet or LAN. Therefore, users can access and manage the control management station and all its associated system through web browser on any other systems or devices.To establish a web based computer user work environment, the resources information on control management station and on associated systems on network need to be collected and convert them to standard structured format for web based communication and further displaying them in web browser. These information need to be collected by control management station at its and the associated systems' boot up time or at the time when user login and request to access and manage these resources.To best present all resources to users and provide users a flexible environment to access and manage these resources in web environment, a traditional multi-layered item list can be creatively deployed in this web based computer user work environment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The present invention is in the area of network communication, and particularly related to multiple users concurrently interacting with multiple computers to display, view, access, and operate various resources (e.g., via multi-layers item list) by using a web browser In addition, the present invention is also related to methods and steps of constructing a web-based computer user work (operation) environment.

2. Description of Related Art

The evolution of computer-related working environment has changed from paper tape or punch cards of early years to a command line user work environment on a native system in 70th, and to a graphic window environment of a computer system in the middle 80th. Since then, there have been some network-based computing environments developed such as Microsoft's terminal service, the Telnet of Unix & Linux system, and etc. These computing environments allow users from a computer system to access and operate a designated remote computer system. Some network management software has also been developed to mostly focus on monitoring activities of a remote computer system. However, most of the software are limited in mobility and capability because they need to install specialized software on the user's native computer system.

There are some web-based applications that allow a user to access web applications on a web server from a web browser running on a remote computer system or device of the user. However, most of such applications are not designed for managing resources on the web server and not designed for creating a web-based computer user working environment. There are also some web-based applications that allow people to access and manage a computer system remotely by dumping an existing computer user work environment of the computer system to a web browser on a user's local computer system that results providing limited access and operation capability to the user. Thus there is a need for a user-friendly environment that users can concurrently access and manage resources with ease.

SUMMARY

This section summarizes some aspects of the present disclosure and briefly introduces some aspects in preferred embodiments. Simplifications or omissions in this section as well as in the abstract or the title of the present disclosure may be made to avoid obscuring the purpose of this section, the abstract and the title. Such simplifications or omissions are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

Generally speaking, the present invention is related to a user-friendly environment that users can concurrently access and manage resources with ease. According to one aspect of the present invention, a web-based computer user working environment (herein “WCUWE”) is disclosed. Some aspects of the WCUWE are described in co-pending U.S. application Ser. Nos. 10/713,904 and 10/713,905, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference in each one's entirety. A central-controlled distributed scalable virtual machine (herein “CCDSVM”) is formed to achieve and realize a flexible working environment for users of the CCDSVM. The WCUWE provides a mechanism to allow users to access and operate the provisioned systems of a CCDSVM from any web browser on any remote system or devices. With the capability of expanding a CCDSVM across the Intranet and Internet with its strong security control, the WCUWE can meet the increasing demand for a more secure, more mobilized, more flexible and more cost saving computational solution.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The detailed description of the invention is presented largely in terms of procedures, steps, logic blocks, processing, and other symbolic representations that directly or indirectly resemble the operations of data processing devices. These process descriptions and representations are typically used by those skilled in the art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. Numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will become obvious to those skilled in the art that the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well known methods, procedures, components, and circuitry have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring aspects of the present invention.

Reference herein to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments.

For the convenience of describing some embodiment of the present invention, the following terminologies are provided.

It is an abbreviation for central controlled distributed scalable virtual machine. A CCDSVM is configured, in one embodiment, allowing a control management system to control a group of systems (e.g., server computers) and provide distributed services to a client device coupled to the Intranet, the Internet or in a local area network (LAN) environment. The software components of the CCDSVM form a virtual operating environment or system.

Computer User Working Environment (CUWE):

Every computer system provides an end user a working environment which usually runs on top of a generic operating system. The CUWE allows a user to setup an authentication profile for each different user, to configure system resources from storage, network, file system, file folders structure, files and all other available resources on the computer system, to monitor system activities, to access applications, and to manage data files such as moving data from one folder to another folder or moving data from one system to another system and etc without limits. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a CUWE is configured to provide a multi-task mechanism. Therefore, a user can perform multiple tasks concurrently after they successful log in the CUWE.

Web-Based Computer User Work Environment (WCUWE):

The web-based computer user work environment (WCUWE) runs on top of a generic operating system in a single or multiple computers. It allows a user to work on one or more computer systems from a conventional web-browser on a remote system (device) of the user or on one of the computer systems. It provides great mobility and flexibility to the user(s). With this web-based computer user work environment, the entire CCDSVM system can operate like a single virtual machine.

In general, resources on a computer or any other electronic device refer to, but not limited to, CPU, memory, storage device, network device, monitor or other display devices, keyboard, mouse, photo or video record devices, wireless device, user authentication profiles, and various form of deposited data in a storage device. The deposited data in a storage device could be a file system structure, folders, data files, formed raw data and etc. and is not limited to these in the present invention. A data file can be in all kinds of form, such as plain text form, binary data form, PDF form. MPEG or JPEG form, or other various image data forms, MS power point data form or Word documentation form etc. without limits. The storage device could be in any media form such as hard disk drive, magnetic tape drive, various form of memory devices, or others suitable media without limits. it should be noted, unless specifically discussed, whenever a resource in a computer, a system or a device is discussed, it means any form of computing power, data, or capacity that the computer, the system or the device has or able to access.

Standard Structured Information:

A web browser can interpret the standard structured format (formatted information) and display the formatted information in web pages so that people can view, manipulate, and interact with the information therein. The standard formatted information is imposed and encoded by following the syntax of a programming language such as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), XHTML, DHTML, XML, or any other various suitable languages, whichever is best to present the structured information without limits. In practice, these languages (HTML, XML, . . . ) themselves are often referred to as a standard for web page programming. Therefore, in this disclosure, it is not necessary to specify what standard is being used as long as data or resources are presented in a way that is suitable for web communication.

A multi-layered item list is a logically organized information list with certain order. Each entry in an MLIL contains an item that may contain another layered list of items, where each of the items may represent a physical resource or information of a computer system or other devices. For example, the information of files and folders of a file system on a modern computer system is typically organized as a multi-layered item list and can be entirely viewed, displayed and operated in a UI on the computer system with supporting from a modern computer operating system. Likewise, each item (also referred to as a node) on an MLIL may represent a folder or a file. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the information about systems or devices on a network, the information of hardware components on a system such as disks, network cards, memory etc, the information of users of a system can also be organized into an MLIL for viewing, displaying and operating. The supporting of the MLIL in a WCUWE makes the system resources and information much easy to be displayed, viewed, and operated from a browser. In general, an MLIL contains at least one item (node) and as many as multiple hundreds items (nodes) depending on the needs.

The System:

The system mentioned in this invention is any type of computing device that can be a desktop computer, laptop computer, various types of server computer, PDA, or cell phone or other devices with communication ability across a communication network.

The OS (Operating System):

The OS mentioned in this invention can be any suitable operating system such as Windows, Linux, various Unix, real-time operating system and others without limits.

The programming languages, which used for implementing all software mentioned in this invention, could be any suitable languages or a combination of the suitable languages such as C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Visual Basic, C sharp, HTML, XML, DHTML, XHTML, and others without limits

The communication protocols to be used in the CCDSVM could be various types that are appropriate for transmitting required data across a communication network. The communication protocols could be IP-based or non-IP-based. The IP based protocols are built on top of IP protocol that could be standard protocols such as TCP protocol, UDP protocol, ICMP protocol, and others without limits. The IP based protocols also can be non-standard proprietary protocols. The non-IP based protocols, for one example, can be ISO 8473. ISO 8208. or serial communication, or data link layer protocols like LLC 802.2, or HDLC, or any proprietary protocols bellow the IP protocol level without limits.

The Communication Protocols for Web:

The communication protocols for web computing could be HTTP, SOAP, WAP, or others without limits.

The Web Browser:

The web browser could be any existing commercial software from any vendor such as Microsoft IE, Netscape, Firefox, Mozillar, or other commercial or proprietary software. The web browser must be capable to handle web protocols such as HTTP, SAOP, WAP or others, and be able to interpret the standard structured formatted information such as web page.

The Web Server Software:

The web server software mentioned in this invention could be a commercial software from any vendor such as Apache of open source foundation, IIS of Microsoft Corporation, or others on the market, and it also can be a proprietary software. The web server software must be able to handle web protocols such as HTTP, which is a protocol built on top of TCP protocol. Therefore, the structured information for web communication can be transmitted to said web browser across a communication network by the web server if the web server and web browser are located on two different computer systems. The web server and web browser also can communicate with each other through inter-process communication if both of the web server and web browser are located on a same computer system.

User Session with the CCDSVM:

A user session is started at a time a user log-in (or log on) to a CCDSVM from a web-browser on an end-user computing device and is ended at a time the user logout the CCDSVM from the same web browser. During a session, users can perform tasks which have been permitted by a security profile for the user.

One of the objects, advantages, and benefits in the present invention is to provide a web based computer user working environment (“WCUWE”) in which users can access resources available in an environment, which includes a plurality of resources residing among a plurality of computer systems. According to one embodiment of the present invention, such resources can be accessed and managed from a web-browser regardless where the users are located. In addition, such an environment permits each of multiple users from his or her own web-browser to concurrently access and manage the CCDSVM with multi-tasking capability.

Since the introduction of graphic user interface in an operating system for computers, users are able to display, view and operate data and hardware resources in a computer system or device by a pointing device (e.g., a mouse). By clicking through a multi-layered item list, such as a file or folder list displayed in Window Explore of Microsoft, a user can navigate to an item in any level in the list. In other words, supporting a multi-layered item list has become a critical part of a window based computer user work environment. However, within the CCDSVM, how to let multiple concurrent users to effectively simultaneously display, view or operate an item list in a single web-browser for the available resources, such as for deeply nested files & folders or for multi groups of provisioned systems or devices etc. is an unprecedented challenge.

Referring now toFIG. 1, it shows an exemplary simplified block diagram of an exemplary CCDSVM according to one embodiment. As shown in the figure, the CCDSVM is a collection of computing devices including console hosts1, a control management system2, system units3, and client hosts10that are connected to each other via net110and net211and are described in detail below.

A console host can be any system on a network and run with a suitable OS. However, it must have a web browser9installed, where the browser9is used for accessing and operating the entire CCDSVM. The web-browser9can be implemented with any suitable or a combination of suitable programming languages. One example of the browser9is the Internet Explorer (IE) from Microsoft Corporation. Optionally, Web-Console is another name for the web-browser9on a console host1. From the web browser9by following a web URL link to another system or on the same system, a user can obtain a WCUWE and further access, manage and operate the entire system. The term of the web-console used sometimes is to indicate its ability to access system information and perform system operation in the CCDSVM by privileged users. A console host1may also include other software modules13, which may be implemented with any suitable programming languages. These software modules may communicate with a control management system2using IP based, non-IP based protocols or any suitable protocols to receive or send data between a console host and the control management system2. To support a non-web-based networked console, the software used for the console must handle protocols other than web protocols such as HTTP, SOAP, WAP without limits. Further software modules13of the console host1must communicate with console supporting software6on the control management system2. The console host1is similar to the client system10except it is dedicated to a user who takes a system administration role for the CCDSVM.

Control Management System2:

The control management system2is a computing device on the network and can have any suitable OS running on it. The control management system2includes web server software7and console supporting software6. The console supporting software6includes web server interface software modules5and control management software modules4. The control management system2may also have a Web browser used as a web-console9. The web server software7is configured to send data to and receive data from the web console9of one of the console hosts1or from a web-browser of client10.

The console supporting software6and the web server7can be implemented with any suitable or a combination of suitable programming languages. In one embodiment, the web server interface5of the console support software6may be extended to provide service as the web server software7does. In this case, there is no specialized web server software7needed.

The system unit3is a computing device including service software modules8configured to communicate with other devices on the network. For example, the service software modules8of the system unit3can communicate with the control management software4of the control management system2to carry out tasks for viewing or operating resources. For other examples, it also can communicate with the client10to deliver the required services thereto, or to communicate with another system unit3to transfer data, and etc.

The service software modules8may include an individual software module configured to handle the HTTP protocol or other web protocols if there is a need for web-based communication with the client10or other system unit3or the control management system2. This individual software module could be commercially available web server software on the market or could be a proprietary software module.

Net111and Net212: each of Net1and Net2is a network infrastructure including the Internet or the Intranet, or a local area network (LAN). In one embodiment, Net1provides communication links between the control management system2and the console-host1or the client hosts10. It also provides communication link between the system unit3and the client host10. The net1may comprises connection media such as cable of Ethernet, optical Fibre, and other, comprises wireless communication media for providing wireless communication links through air, and comprises data bus on circuit board. The Net2also consists of communication equipment such as switches, routers, and adapters, etc. and all other possible elements of communication equipment without limits. The Net2comprises similar connection media and equipment mentioned above and provides communication links between the control management system2and the system units3or the consoles host1. It also provides the communication link between the system unit3and the client host10.

The client hosts10are not part of the CCDSVM, but with the permission and authorization, they can get services from and access to the CCDSVM using the web-browser9.

The data flows in the CCDSVM:

According to one embodiment, there are 4 basic data flows within a typical CCDSVM: (1) Data path1is for a data flow through a communication link between the web browser9on the client host10or the console host1or the control management system2and the web handling software on the control management system2, such as web-server7and the console support software6. With this path of data flow, whenever the user submits a request from the web-browser9to the web-server7and further down to the console support software6, the console support software6collects all required information (i.e., metadata) from a target system and converts them into standard structured information for web communication. The targeted system could be the system unit3or the control management system2itself. The information collected by the console support software6in the control management system2could be the system status, or the storage information, or the network information, or the user authentication profile, or the file system information or files and folders information on a target system. The collected information is not limited to these mentioned above herein. The console support software6then passes this converted structured information to the web server software7and further transmits them to the web-browser9through communication link, net111or net212, so that it can be displayed and viewed by the conventional web browser9.

The communication protocol used between the web-browser9in the client host10or the console host1and the web server7in the control management system2could be the HTTP or any other suitable protocols for web communication, which could successfully transmit the data over the web.

(2) The data path2is for data flow through communication link between the control management system2and the system units3.

With this path of data flow, the requests targeted to the system units3are passed from the console support software6of the control management system2to the service modules8of the system unit3through the communication link net212. If the responses to those requests must return back to the control management system2, the service modules8in the system unit3carry out the requests and then send the response back to the console support software6of the control management system2. The communication protocol used between the console support software6of the control management system2and the service modules8of the system unit3can be any suitable protocol for transmitting data between them. The typical data flow through this path could be a boot message, a system status, network information, or storage information of the system unit3. It should be noted that the actual data flow though this path is not limited to those mentioned.

(3) The data path3is the data flow through a communication link between the system units3and the client host10or the console host1. With reference toFIG. 1, in some cases, the console support software6of the control management system2may present a web link, pointing to an object on the system unit3, to a user working on the web-browser9of the client host10, the console host1, or the control management system2. The object pointed at by the web link on the system unit3could be an MPEG video, a file (e.g., a text file, PDF, MS power point or MS Word) and etc., and is not limited to these types. It could also be a link of another web application service program. From the web browser9, the user can directly access the information on the system unit3pointed at by the web link without going through the control management system2again. In this case, the service modules8of the system unit3must also include a web server software to directly support the web browser9access.

(4) The data path4is data flow through a communication link between a system unit3and another system unit3. With this path, the service modules8of one the system units3can directly transmit data or information to the service modules8of the another system unit3via the communication link net212without going through the control management system2. The communication protocol between the system units3could be IP-based or based on any suitable non-IP-based protocol. The data and information transmitted through the path4can be in various type such as a data file. For example, a user on the web-browser9may navigate through a file folder on a system unit3. Later, the user instructs to transfer a file from the system unit3to another targeted system unit3by mouse clicking, therefore, the data file will be transferred directly between two system units3without going through the control management system2again.

The Variation of the CCDSVM Configuration Models:

FIG. 2ashows a figure of an example of the CCDSVM with a single control management system. With this model, there is no any system unit3, therefore, the CCDSVM degenerated into a single system and the WCUWE just works for the single system, which is the control management system2. Thus a user from the web-browser9of the console host1, a client host10, or the control management system2can access and operate the entire resources on the control management system2.

FIG. 2bis a figure of an example of the CCDSVM with identical client host and system unit. This model is substantially similar to the model of a typical CCSDVM shown inFIG. 1, except there is no difference between the client host10and the system unit3since each system unit3is also configured with a web-browser9and each client host10is also configured with service modules8. This means that each system unit/client shall play both roles of a system unit and a client host. With this model, a user on each system unit/client can login into the control management2from the web-browser9and further access and operate the resources of the control management system2, or any other system unit/client with a security permission.

FIG. 2cis an example of the CCDSVM with non-web accessed client host. This model is substantially similar to the model of an exemplary CCDSVM shown inFIG. 1, except that the client host10has its own service modules14for non-web based access instead of using a web-browser for accessing. For example, if the system unit3is a SAN unit providing storage volumes, and one of the service modules14of the client host10is a driver routine for reading data from and writing data to a disk volume on the system unit3. The client host10may also have a web-browser9to access the system unit3for other purposes except for accessing disk volumes.

FIG. 3shows an example of software modules of the WCUWE for a typical CCDSVM. The software modules of the WCUWE can be implemented with any suitable or a combination of any suitable programming languages such C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Visual Basic, HTML, XML, etc. . . . which means that software of the WCUWE is programming language independent.

In one embodiment, the software of the WCUWE may include following items:1) web server interface modules5of the console support software6on the control management system2.2) control management modules4of the console support software6on the control management system2.3) web server software7on the control management system. The web server software7could be commercially available web server software on the marketing such as Apache or MS IIS or others, and also could be based on proprietary software. If the web server interface modules5provide compatible functionality with the web server software7, then the web server software7may not be needed.4) service software modules8on the system unit3. The service software modules8may include web server software7or a software module, which provide equivalent functionality as the web server software7does.5) web browser9on the console host1, on the control management system2, or on the client host10. The web browser9could be a commercial web browser on the market such as MS IE, or Netscape, and also could be proprietary software modules.

FIG. 4shows simplified examples of a Multi-Layered Item list (MLIL).FIG. 4a: This is a multi-layered item list contains multiple nodes and multiple layers. A node on an MLIL can be expanded to display sub-node if there is any by mouse clicking. The sub-nodes may be reduced by mouse clicking on the same node again.FIG. 4b: This is a degenerated Multi-layered items list containing a single node (i.e., a single layer).

FIG. 5shows simplified examples of operation menu for the WCUWE of the CCDSVM.FIG. 5a: A web based drop-down menu for disk volume management. The drop-down menu can be invoked by right clicking on an item (node) on MLIL.FIG. 5b: A web based selective menu for system unit management. The item can be selected and further click the submit button.

FIG. 6shows simplified examples of operation menu for different types of node on an MLIL.FIG. 6a: an operation menu for managing the storage (disk).FIG. 6b: an operation menu for managing the file.FIG. 6b: an operation menu to manage the system unit on network.

FIG. 7shows an example of system units grouped by a group ID.

According to one embodiment, this figure shows one example of five system units being divided into two groups, a marketing group and an engineer group. The marketing group contains 2 system units while the engineer group contains 3 system units. The groups are automatically and dynamically formed when the system units boot up.

FIG. 8shows an example of an MLIL combined with mixed devices, system units and system groups.FIG. 8a: a top level of an MLIL is system group, the second level is system unit, the third level is device of disks.FIG. 8b: a top level of an MLIL is system group, the second level is system unit, the third level start with a file folder with files.

The Initiation of the WCUWE:

The WCUWE can be established via a sequence of steps, these steps are performed by the software of the WCUWE, especially by the console support software6of the control management system2described below:

Referring back toFIG. 1, according to one embodiment, the console support software6collects information for all major resources of the control management system2and converted the information to a standard structured format, which is viewable in the web-browser9. The resources mentioned above include storage, network, file system, files, folders, users, system status etc, which can be collected whenever the control management system2is boot up or at an appropriate time. The information of the resources may be stored in memory for fast retrieve at later time and also may be stored in permanent storage such as disks.

The console support software6also communicates with the service modules8of each of the system units3to collect information about major resources from each of the system units3through the communication link net2. Further, the console support software6binds the collected information of the system units3into a network information list on the control management system2. In addition, upon a users' accessing, the network information list is organized and converted to a standard structured format for web communication, therefore, being viewable in the web-browser9. The network information includes the information of the system units3and their storage devices, network devices, wireless devices, video and audio record & playback devices, file-system, users, system status and all others on the net2. The network information can be collected whenever each of the system units3is boot up or at other appropriate time.

Further, the network information list kept on the control management system2can be kept in memory for later fast access and can be organized using any suitable logical structure, for example as a simple list of array, a linked list, a double linked list, a hash table, a tree structure and etc. The network information list can also be stored on permanent storage such as disk or others for the backup purpose. In addition, the network information can be stored in any form on permanent storage, which can be in a form of commercial database, binary record file, flat text ASCII file or others. All specific exemplary forms of data depository or logical structure mentioned above are for illustration only, and they shall not be limited herein in this invention.

After the initiation of the WCUWE, each of users is allowed to log in, from a web-browsers9on a end-user device to the WCUWE of the CCDSVM, and various resources & information of the CCDSVM can be displayed, viewed, accessed, or operated by each user from the web browser9.

Users Interaction, Access and Manage Resources with the WCUWE:

Users of the client host10, the console host1, or the control management system2can log into the WCUWE of the CCSDVM via a web URL link provided by the software of the WCUWE (seeFIG. 3). The software of the WCUWE presents information about resources of the control management system2and the server units3to each of the users after each of their login from a web browser9. Subsequently, whenever a user requests to access or operate a resource residing either on the control management system2or the system unit3of the CCDSVM, the software of the WCUWE is configured to create a corresponding user task for such request to be processed on the targeted system. In one embodiment, the software of the WCUWE is configured to support multiple concurrent tasks for the same user from a single web-browser9and support multiple concurrent users each of which from a web-browser to perform such tasks while providing security protection for the resources being accessed.

The Use of Multi-Layer Item List in the WCUWE:

In order to provide convenience for each of the login users to perform tasks in the WCUWE, the console support software6may use a logical structure of multi-layer item list (MLIL) illustrated in theFIG. 4combined with using associated web-browser based operation menu illustrated inFIG. 5for operating corresponding actual multi-level organized resources. The resources as mentioned before could be the file folders of a file system, the system units3on the network, the users and their security profile etc. If there is a need to create a structured multi-layer item list (MLIL) for resources of the CCDSCM upon each login user trying to access and operate, the console support software modules6of the control management system2are configured to do the following:

a) For each session of each of the login users, a memory management module of the console support software6is configured to create an MLIL which can be flexibly expanded or reduced by mouse clicking while being displayed in a web browser. Further, the console support software6makes an association between each created logical structure of the MLIL and the actual targeted resources. The created MLIL can reside in memory and can be in any form of a list structure such as a simple array list, link list, double link list, various tree structure, or hashed table. etc.

b) For each created MLIL, binding a corresponding graphic or text representation to each node (item) on the MLIL for the purpose of displaying, and associating each node (item) with appropriate attributes. The attributes shall reflect characteristics of the actual resources, such as name, type, level, size etc. and of course it is not limited to these, therefore, the resources can be correctly displayed and operated through the MLIL.

c) Link an operation menu to the MLIL. The operation menu can be either a web-based drop-down menu1as shown inFIG. 5or a non-drop-down selective menu2as shown inFIG. 5.

d) Convert the created MLIL and all its associated information into the standard structured information for web communication, which to be viewable in and accessible via the web-browser9. Thereafter, the MLIL can be either viewed by a web-browser9on the control management system2or viewed by a web-browser9on the client host10or the console host1. The converted logical item list needs to be transmitted, via a communication link of net111or net212, from the control management system2to the client host10or the console host1. The converted logical item list can be transmitted using a web protocol such as HTTP or any other suitable protocols in order for users remotely view it from the web-browser9.

e) After user taking an action of either viewing, or operating one of the resources represented by the MLIL, the console support software6modifies the MLIL through the memory management module of the console support software6. Also, the memory management module of the console support software6keeps tracks of the memory usage and status for the correspondent MLIL as the results of expanding or reducing the MLIL upon a user access or operate a resource represented by this MLIL. For example, deleting a file folder operation requires to delete an actual folder on a file system and delete the corresponding node on the MLIL. Most importantly, all processes or threads created to perform tasks of operating the resource represented by the MLIL can effectively share the dynamically modified MLIL with a consistent view throughout the user's entire login session. The memory management module of the console support software6may need to translate and map the initial logical memory address of the MLIL to another logical memory address, therefore, the different processes or threads of the same user session can effectively access the same actual MLIL memory object during the user session,

f) The steps described from b) to e) above can be repeatedly processed as long as a user keeps working on the same resources represented by this specific MLIL.

For each of logout users, the created MLIL for the user session will be deleted through the memory management module of the console support software6. Further if a user stops access the current related resource and requests to access a total different resource, the original MLIL will be deleted and a new MLIL will be created.

The Support of Deeply Nested Files & Folders Lists on Systems within the WCUWE of the CCDSVM:

The access and managing a file system always is an important part of a computer user work environment (CUWE) in the past. Supporting a file system to be accessed by users from a network has always being a challenge to many vendors. With the present invention, a user can manage storage volumes of the entire CCDSVM from a web browser9and further can create, manage, and access the file system residing either on the control management system2or any one of the system units3. With a sophisticate method of using the multi-layer item list as shown inFIG. 4together with the operation menu shown inFIG. 5for the file system in the WCUWE of the CCDSVM in this invention, users can efficiently access and manage files and folders in file systems from a web-browser9on the fly without caching anything of the file system.

In one embodiment, the multi-layer item lists (MLIL) is used for representing an actual folder structure of a file system on a target system of the CCDSVM. The MLIL has each node (item) to represent a folder or the file system or a file. When a user navigates the file system through mouse-clicking on the MLIL to operate a file or folder from a web-browser9, only a small piece of information, which is related to the file or folder on a target system, needs to be retrieved or transmitted between the target system of the CCDSVM and the control management system2. For example, if the user wants to add or delete an item such as a folder, the only major information needs to be transmitted is a folder name from the control management system2to the target system and the target system shall carry out the task of adding or deleing said folder. If a user wants to access information, which is under a current item on the MLIL, such as the information of a folder, after sending the folder name, the only information that needs to be retrieved from the target system is the sub-folder or file names if there is any under the current folder. If the user wants to set access permission for a file or a folder on any one of target systems for one or multiple users to access, the information of the targeted system and information of the file or folder on the network need to be bound with each user's security profile. The target systems could be either the control management system2or any one of the system units3in the CCDSVM.

If a user needs to view or edit the content of a file on a system unit3, the file may be transmitted via the communication link of net1& net2directly from the target system unit3to the client host10or the console host1, without going through the control management system2. If the file is on the control management system2and users like to view or edit it from a remote system, the file is transmitted via the communication link of the net1to the client host10or the console host1. With a proper viewing tool on the client host10or the console host1or the control management system2, which may be invoked from the web-browser9, the user is able to view the contents of the file. With a proper editor, user can further edit the file and then transmit the edited file back to the target system. The target system could be either the system unit3or the control management system2. Alternatively, the file may also be transmitted from the target system to the control management system2and then convert it from original format to a format, which may be viewed and edited in the web-browser9. After converting, if the target system is not the control management system2, the file can be transmitted via the communication link of the net1or net2from the control management system2to the client-host10, or the console host1for viewing or editing with a web-browser9. If the target system is the control management system2itself, there would be no such transmission required.

The Support of the Automatically & Dynamically Provisioned Groups of Systems in the WCUWE of the CCDSVM:

Network information is an important part of a WCUWE. In one embodiment, the server units3of the CCDSVM can be automatically and dynamically provisioned into multiple groups based on their group ID, where each group contains at least one of the server units3(“provisioned system”).

To effectively access and manage such grouped system units3and their associated devices, including storage or network interface cards or terminal monitor or video & audio recorder (e.g., camcorder. or keyboard & mouse), or wireless devices or file systems on the network, the multi-layer item list (MLIL) can be used. Therefore, in one embodiment, the mixed information on the network can be ordered with a top-down fashion from the server-group at top level, the system units3at the second level, and the devices or file systems start from the third level and so on within the MLIL.

More specifically, a node on the MLIL with different levels or types may associate with a different type of an operation menu. For example, a node of a system unit3on an MLIL may be associated with an operation menu containing options of system status, shutdown, storage management, change usage etc. and a node of storage device may be associated with an operation menu containing options of creating a storage volume, displaying storage volume, and deleting a storage volume and so on. After converting all information associated with the MLIL to said standard structured format, the complex information on the network can be viewed and operated by a user from a web-browser9.

For example,FIG. 7shows the example of how are the system units3provisioned into multiple groups.FIG. 8shows the example of how a device such as storage being listed under the server units3in a group.FIG. 9shows an example of how can a file system on a system unit3in a group be accessed. The method of automatically and dynamically grouping the system units3and wisely using the MLIL to represent the diversified resources on the network, the entire CCDSVM can be much more efficiently accessed, operated, and managed. For example, through mouse clicks on a web-browser9, privileged users can create storage volumes from a fresh disk on any target system and make a file system on each of the storage volumes, mount the file system and create a folder structure on the file system, and further setup an access control on a folder or file for users with limited privileges to access. Therefore, the WCUWE can securely let permitted user access from a web-browser anywhere on the network.

The Support of the User Administration & Authentication in a WCUWE of the CCDSVM:

Initially, a WCUWE allows a default super user to login the WCUWE of the CCDSVM and to access an authentication web-page provided by the console support software6. The privileged user can setup other privileged or non-privileged user accounts and account profiles thereafter. Similar to a file system in the WCUWE of the CCDSVM, a user profile can be viewed and operated by using an MLIL combined with a web-based operation menu as shown inFIG. 5, and further to convert it to a standard structured format, which can be viewed and accessed by the user from a web-browser9. Therefore, through mouse click on the MLIL pertaining to the user profiles and a web-based operation menu in a web page, the user can perform operations of user profile creating, viewing, updating, deleting and others without limits. Specially, the privileged users can setup profiles for other non-privileged users for said secure access control. In addition, the user information and their security profiles can be kept in any form of a database, which could be a commercial database on the market, or a plaint text file, or a binary record file, or others.

The present invention has been described in considerable details with preference to certain preferred versions, examples, and figures; however, other versions, and samples are also possible. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the preferred versions and samples contained herein.