Patent ID: 7509414

Claim:
A method for providing a metric service that collects, aggregates, and composes metrics, said method comprising: declaratively specifying a metric service policy (MS-Policy), said MS-policy comprising: a format and a content of input metric records inputted by a plurality of producer applications, wherein said format and said content vary among said plurality of producer applications, and wherein said input metric records comprise state information of said plurality of producer applications; a schedule of availability for said input metric records; a format and a content of metric records required by a generic management application; a schedule based on which desired metrics must be supplied; and a process, executed by a generic engine of said generic management application, that derives final metrics from said input metric records; wherein said declaratively specifying said MS-policy uses an XML based, MS-policy language specification; collecting, by a metric service engine, said input metric records according to said MS-policy from different producer applications; parsing, by a metric record parser of said metric service engine, said MS-policy for which said desired metrics needed by various elements of said consumer application are defined; aggregating, by said metric service engine said collected input metric records; composing, by a composition engine of said metric service engine, composite metrics from said input metric records, according to said MS-Policy, said composite metrics being assembled into desired composite metric records; and sending an XML representation of said desired composite metric records via a subscription interface to a plurality of consumer applications.