Network monitoring system

• US 20020083169A1
• Filed: 05/23/2001
• Published: 06/27/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Saito, Hideaki, Aki, Yuko
• Granted Patent: US 7,353,269 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring

Abstract

A network monitoring system which monitors activities on a network with optimal coverage and frequency, depending on the current state of the network. A monitoring policy setting unit sets a specific monitoring policy that includes: which object to watch, which item of that object to monitor, and how frequent it should be. According to this policy, a monitoring unit carries out monitoring of the network. The monitoring result is passed to a monitoring policy changing unit, which changes the current monitoring policy being set in the monitoring policy setting unit. Some related resources on the network may also be reconfigured according to the reported monitoring result, by a resource setup changing unit. An event detector detects a particular event occurred in the network resources and notifies the monitoring policy changing unit of the occurrence, so that the monitoring policy will be changed accordingly.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium storing a program for monitoring activities on a network, the program causing a computer system to function as:

monitoring policy setting means for setting a monitoring policy;

monitoring means for monitoring the network according to the policy set in said monitoring policy setting means; and

monitoring policy changing means for changing the current monitoring policy being set in said monitoring policy setting means, according to a monitoring result reported by said monitoring means.

2. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring policy includes a parameter that specifies how frequently the monitoring will be conducted.

3. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring policy includes a parameter that specifies which object to monitor.

4. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring policy includes a parameter that specifies which item to monitor.

5. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein said monitoring policy changing means increases the frequency of the monitoring and adds a new object and/or item to the coverage of the monitoring, when degradation in service level of the network is observed.

6. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein said monitoring policy changing means decreases the frequency of the monitoring and withdraws an existing object and/or item from the coverage of the monitoring, when improvement in service level of the network is observed.

7. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, further storing a program which causes the computer system to function as resource setup changing means for changing a setup of a predetermined set of resources on the network according to the monitoring result reported by said monitoring means.

8. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, further storing a program which causes the computer system to function as event detecting means for detecting the occurrence of a particular event in a predetermined resource on the network,

wherein said monitoring policy changing means changes the current monitoring policy in response to the particular event detected by said event detecting means.

9. A network monitoring system which monitors activities on a network, comprising:

monitoring policy setting means for setting a monitoring policy;

monitoring means for monitoring the network according to the policy set in said monitoring policy setting means; and

monitoring policy changing means for changing the current monitoring policy being set in said monitoring policy setting means, according to a monitoring result reported by said monitoring means.

10. A method of monitoring activities on a network, comprising the steps of:

(a) setting a monitoring policy;

(b) monitoring the network according to the policy set at said step (a) of setting; and

(c) changing the current monitoring policy that is originally at said step (a) of setting, according to a monitoring result obtained at said step (b) of monitoring.