Method for managing an open computer system

• US 20010026536A1
• Filed: 04/11/2001
• Published: 10/04/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bull Sas (Atos SE)
• Original Assignee: Bull Sas (Atos SE)
• Inventors: Li, Xiaobo, Brunet, Jean, Lamberet, Florence
• Granted Patent: US 6,847,996 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for calculating an indicator of a network management system comprising at least one submanager that monitors a part of the network, the submanager comprising a plurality of modules that allow communication with the equipment units of the network and with a main manager, the calculation method being characterized in that at least one equation defining an indicator and evaluated by an indicator module of the submanager comprises at least one object attribute, at least one index whereof is variable, and the method comprises

a step for the reception by the indicator module of a notification transmitted by a model configuration module, this notification comprising an address of an equipment unit and an identification of an equation representing an indicator,

an initialization step in which the instances of the variable indices have an initial value that does not make it possible to calculate the specified equation,

a step for determining all the valid instances of all the variable indices of all the attributes of the equation.

Claims

1. Method for calculating an indicator of a network management system comprising at least one submanager that monitors a part of the network, the submanager comprising a plurality of modules that allow communication with the equipment units of the network and with a main manager, the calculation method being characterized in that at least one equation defining an indicator and evaluated by an indicator module of the submanager comprises at least one object attribute, at least one index whereof is variable, and the method comprises

a step for the reception by the indicator module of a notification transmitted by a model configuration module, this notification comprising an address of an equipment unit and an identification of an equation representing an indicator,

an initialization step in which the instances of the variable indices have an initial value that does not make it possible to calculate the specified equation,

a step for determining all the valid instances of all the variable indices of all the attributes of the equation.

2. Method for calculating an indicator according to

claim 1

, characterized in that the determination step comprises:

a step for searching, in the equation, for an attribute called a unifier attribute comprising the largest number of variable indices,

a step for sending an interrogation request, successively requesting the various instances of the unifier attribute,

a step for extracting the instances of each variable index of the unifier attribute,

a step for sending an interrogation request requesting the instances of the attributes of the equation having as variable index values the values extracted in the preceding step,

a step for storing the variable index instances for which an instance has been found for all of the attributes of the equation.

3. Method for calculating an indicator according to

claim 1

or

2

, characterized in that the definition of the indices in the equation comprises constraints limiting the number of instances possible for at least one variable index.

4. Method for calculating an indicator according to

claim 2

in combination with

claim 3

, characterized in that the method comprises a verification step that makes it possible to verify whether the instances of the extracted indices of the unifier attribute satisfy the specified constraints.

5. Method for calculating an indicator according to any of claims 1 through 4, characterized in that the method comprises a step for updating the instances of the indices, performed periodically.

6. Method for calculating an indicator according to

claim 5

, characterized in that the updating step comprises:

a step for sending an interrogation request, successively requesting the next instance of the unifier attribute,

a step for comparing the index instances found with the previous index instances,

a step for verifying the validity of the index instances found that correspond to previous index instances, and the index instances found that do not correspond to previous index instances,

a step for deleting the previous index instances that were not found or that are no longer valid,

a step for adding the index instances found and validated.

7. Method for calculating an indicator according to

claim 6

, characterized in that the step for validating the instances comprises a step for sending an interrogation request requesting the instances of the attributes of the equation having as variable index values the instances found in the preceding step.

8. Method for calculating an indicator according to

claim 6

or

7

, characterized in that the step for deleting the previous index instances that were not found or that are no longer valid comprises:

a step for marking the index instances validated during the validity verification step,

a step for counting the total number of index instances,

a step for deleting all of the unmarked index instances, except one.