CRPC-TR99811-S						August 1999

Title: State Discovery: The Power of Ping

Author: Amber Van Wyk

Submitted November 1999

Abstract:

Many organizations, especially universities, find it difficult to monitor
the state of the growing number of machines in open laboratories.  System
administrators may find it difficult to always be aware of the state of
each machine.  That state may include basic functionality, what software
is installed on each machine, and the amount of memory in each machine.  
In open labs, whole machines or individual components (e.g., memory) can
easily be stolen.

This paper presents an application that monitors a network of machines.  
It discusses the background needed to understand the project described,
design considerations, implementation, and future work and ideals.

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Amber Van Wyk
avanwyk@cs.caltech.edu
Department of Computer Science
California Institute of Technology