Patent ID: 7454496

Claim:
A method for monitoring data resources of a data processing network on behalf of new consumer of monitoring data to the data processing network, said method comprising: determining monitoring requirements of said new consumer, wherein said monitoring requirements include; a list of data resources monitored for said new consumer; metrics of said monitoring data for said new consumer; a data format for monitoring data provided to said new consumer; a time interval between periods of sending said monitoring data to said new consumer; and actions taken during failure of said data resource; comparing the monitoring requirements of the new consumer with monitoring capabilities of a plurality of monitoring entities to identify at least one monitoring entity including monitoring capabilities matching the monitoring requirements of the new consumer, wherein; said monitoring entities monitor said data resources of said data processing network; and said monitoring capabilities including one or more of: a current set of data resources being monitored by each of said plurality of monitoring entities; a set of data resources which each of said plurality of monitoring entities is capable of monitoring; monitoring metrics which each of said plurality of monitoring entities is currently monitoring; monitoring metrics which each of said plurality of monitoring entities is capable of currently monitoring; a current monitoring period; and data format capabilities of each of said plurality of monitoring entities; and in response to identifying at least one monitoring entity of said plurality of monitoring entities including monitoring capabilities matching the monitoring requirements of the new consumer, selecting at least one of the identified monitoring entities and binding the new consumer to the selected at least one of the identified monitoring entities, wherein binding said new consumer to said selected at least one of the identified monitoring entities comprises establishing a connection between said new consumer and said selected at least one of the identified monitoring entities, sending a description of the new consumer's monitoring requirements to said selected at least one of the identified monitoring entities, and configuring said selected at least one of the monitoring entities to perform said new consumer's monitoring requirements; and in response to a failure to identify at least one of the monitoring entities having monitoring capabilities matching all monitoring requirements of the new consumer, initiating a negotiation between the new consumer and a plurality of monitoring entities to select a best match, relative to other matches based on quality of service parameters, between the monitoring requirements of the new consumer and the monitoring capabilities of the plurality of monitoring entities.