Method and apparatus for monitoring remote devices by creating device objects for the monitored devices

• US 20030167323A1
• Filed: 05/31/2002
• Published: 09/04/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Motoyama, Tetsuro, Fong, Avery
• Granted Patent: US 7,849,171 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3051 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/022 Multivendor or multi-standard integration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0233 Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0856 by backing up or archiving configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/06 Generation of reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail

Abstract

A method and apparatus for monitoring at least one network connected device (monitored device) using a controller is disclosed. More specifically, a method and apparatus for easily creating device objects representing the monitored device is described. Initially, the controller/monitoring system attempts to establish communication with the monitored device. If the controller cannot be configured to interface with the monitored device, configuration information, such as manufacturer, model, and a unique identifier from the monitored device are obtained. In the process of determining the configuration information, a determination is made to find out if the monitored device is supported by the controller using information from System Support Database (SSD). A device object is created using information from the SSD, thus establishing a communication protocol between the controller and the monitored device Subsequently, configuration information for the monitored device is updated in the System Configuration Database (SCD).

Claims

1. In a network based system having a monitoring system and at least one device communicatively coupled via the network, the monitoring system being communicatively coupled to first and second databases, a method of monitoring the at least one device comprising the steps of:

(a) determining if the monitoring system is configured to interface with said at least one device;

(b) obtaining configuration information from said at least one device if the monitoring system is not configured to interface with said at least one device;

(c) determining if said at least one device is supported by the monitoring system using information stored in the second database;

(d) creating a device object using information stored in said first and second databases to establish communication between said at least one device and the monitoring system, wherein the device object includes references to information stored in the first database; and

(e) updating configuration information, for said at least one device, stored in the first database with information stored in the second database to enable the monitoring system to interface with said at least one device, thereby allowing flexibility in the creation of device objects.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining configuration information from said at least one device includes identifying at least one of (i) manufacturer of the device, (ii) model of the device, and (iii) unique identifier of said at least one device.

3. The method as in claim 2, wherein the configuration information is only used during initialization of the monitoring system to identify if at least one device that requires monitoring.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining if the monitoring system is configured to interface with said at least one device includes querying the first database with at least one of manufacturer, model, and unique identifier of said at least one device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining if the monitoring system is configured to interface with said at least one device comprises querying said at least one device with data stored in the first database.

6. The method as in claim 5, wherein the first database is a system configuration database and comprises:

information for enabling communication between the monitoring system and said at least one device; and

status information related to said at least one device, the status information being added after initialization of the monitoring system for monitoring said at least one device.

7. The method as in claim 1, wherein the second database is a system support database and comprises information about various manufacturers and device models supported by the monitoring system.

8. The method as in claim 1, wherein the step of determining if said at least one device is supported by the monitoring system further comprises obtaining detailed status information of said at least one device being monitored if the manufacturer and model of said at least one device are supported by the monitoring system.

9. The method as in claim 1, wherein the device object allows the monitoring system to communicate with said at least one device and determine information needed from said at least one device.

10. The method as in claim 1, wherein the device object stores references to information using vectors or arrays.

11. The method as in claim 1, wherein the device object storing references to information includes object identifiers.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one device includes hardware components.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one device includes software components.

14. In a network based system having at least one device communicatively coupled via the network, an apparatus for monitoring the device comprising:

a monitoring system communicatively coupled to the network;

first and second databases communicatively coupled to the monitoring system;

means for determining if the monitoring system is configured to interface with the at least one device;

means for obtaining configuration information from said at least one device if the monitoring system is not configured to interface with said at least one device;

means for determining said at least one device is supported by the monitoring system using information stored in the second database;

means for creating a device object using information stored in said first and second databases to establish communication between said at least one device and the monitoring system, wherein the device object includes references to information stored in the first database; and

means for updating configuration information, for said at least one device, stored in the first database with information stored in the second database to enable the monitoring system to interface with said at least one device, thereby allowing flexibility in the creation of device objects.

15. The apparatus as in claim 14, wherein configuration information includes information related to (i) manufacturer, (ii) model, and (iii) unique identifier of said at least one device.

16. The apparatus as in claim 15, wherein the configuration information is only used during initialization of the monitoring system to identify at least one device that requires monitoring.

17. The apparatus as in claim 14, further comprises:

means for querying the first database with at least one of manufacturer, model, and unique identifier of said at least one device to determine if the monitoring system is configured to interface with said at least one device.

18. The apparatus as in claim 14, further comprises:

means for querying said at least one device with data stored in the first database to determine if the monitoring system is configured to interface with said at least one device.

19. The apparatus as in claim 14, wherein the first database is a system configuration database and comprises:

information for enabling communication between the monitoring system and said at least one device; and

status information related to said at least one device, the status information being added after initialization of the monitoring system for monitoring said at least one device.

20. The apparatus as in claim 14, wherein the second database is a system support database and comprises information about various manufacturers and device models supported by the monitoring system.

21. The apparatus as in claim 14, wherein the device object allows the monitoring system to communicate with said at least one device and determine information needed from said at least one device.

22. The apparatus as in claim 14, wherein the device object stores references to information using vectors or arrays.

23. The apparatus as in claim 14, wherein the device object storing references to information includes object identifiers.

24. The apparatus as in claim 14, wherein said at least one device includes hardware components.

25. The apparatus as in claim 14, wherein said at least one device includes software components.

26. In a network based system having a monitoring system and at least one device communicatively coupled via the network, the monitoring system being communicatively coupled to first and second databases, a computer program product within a computer usable medium comprising:

instructions for determining if the monitoring system is configured to interface with said at least one device;

instructions for obtaining configuration information from said at least one device if the monitoring system is not configured to interface with said at least one device;

instructions for determining said at least one device is supported by the monitoring system using information stored in the second database;

instructions for creating a device object using information stored in said first and second databases to establish communication between said at least one device and the monitoring system, wherein the device object includes references to information stored in the first database; and

instructions for updating configuration information, for said at least one device, stored in the first database with information stored in the second database to enable the monitoring system to interface with said at least one device, thereby allowing flexibility in the creation of device objects.

27. A network based system having at least one network connected device, the system comprising:

a controller for monitoring the at least one network connected device, said controller having logic for;

determining if the controller is configured to interface with said at least one network connected device;

obtaining configuration information from said at least one network connected device if the controller is not configured to interface with said at least one network connected device;

first and second databases communicatively coupled to the controller, said second database storing information for determining if said at least one network connected device is supported by the controller, said first and second databases having information for creating a device object to establish communication between said at least one network connected device and the controller, wherein the device object includes references to information stored in the first database; and

wherein configuration information in said first database is updated with information stored in the second database for enabling the controller to interface with said at least one network connected device, thereby allowing flexibility in the creation of device objects.

28. In a network based system having a monitoring system and at least one device communicatively linked via the network, the monitoring system being communicatively coupled to first and second databases, a method of monitoring the at least one device comprising the steps of:

(a) determining if the monitoring system is configured to interface with said at least one device;

(b) obtaining configuration information from said at least one device if the monitoring system is not configured to interface with said at least one device;

(c) determining said at least one device is supported by the monitoring system using information stored in the second database;

(d) creating a device object using information stored in said first and second databases to establish communication between said at least one device and the monitoring system, wherein the device object includes references to information stored in the first database; and

(e) updating configuration information, for said at least one device, stored in the first database with information stored in the second database to enable the monitoring system to interface with said at least one device, thereby allowing flexibility in the creation of device objects.

29. An apparatus for monitoring at least one device communicatively linked to a network, comprising:

a monitoring system including a processor, said monitoring system communicatively linked to the network;

first and second databases communicatively linked to the monitoring system;

said processor configured to

(i) determine if the monitoring system is configured to interface with said at least one device, said processor obtaining configuration information from said at least one device if the monitoring system is not configured to interface with said at least one device;

(ii) determine said at least one device is supported by the monitoring system using information stored in the second database;

(iii) creating a device object using information stored in said first and second databases to establish communication between said at least one device and the monitoring system, wherein the device object includes references to information stored in the first database; and

(iv) updating configuration information, for said at least one device, stored in the first database with information stored in the second database to enable the monitoring system to interface with the device, thereby allowing flexibility in the creation of the device object.