Method and system for using data structures to store database information for multiple vendors and model support for remotely monitored devices

• US 20040139183A1
• Filed: 12/26/2002
• Published: 07/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Motoyama, Tetsuro, Fong, Avery
• Granted Patent: US 7,392,310 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning

Abstract

In a communication system having one or more monitored devices communicatively coupled to a monitoring system, a database having information related to the one or more monitored devices, a method of obtaining and maintaining, in the monitoring system, information related to the monitored devices is described. The method includes enabling the monitoring system to access the database in order to retrieve information related to the monitored devices, populating a first data structure with information retrieved from the database, determining if a monitored device is supported by the monitoring system using information from the database, and establishing communication with the monitored device in order to obtain status information of the monitored device if the monitored device is determined to be supported by the monitoring system.

Claims

1. In a communication system having one or more monitored devices communicatively coupled to a monitoring system, a database having information related to the one or more monitored devices, a method of obtaining and maintaining, in the monitoring system, information related to the monitored devices comprising:

a) enabling the monitoring system to access the database in order to retrieve information related to the monitored devices;

b) populating a first data structure with information retrieved from the database;

c) determining if a monitored device is supported by the monitoring system using information from the database; and

d) establishing communication with the monitored device in order to obtain status information of the monitored device if the monitored device is determined to be supported by the monitoring system.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

storing information related to vendors and models of the monitored devices in said database.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

step b) further comprises retrieving information about vendors, models, and information to obtain unique identifiers of monitored devices; and

step d) is performed using an HTTP communication protocol.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

retrieving information from web pages of respective monitored devices.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising:

storing information about vendors of monitored devices supported by the monitoring system; and

storing information that is used for obtaining a model of a monitored device from a web page of the monitored device.

6. The method according to claim 4, further comprising:

populating the retrieved information from the database into a plurality of fields of said first data structure, the first data structure including;

a first field having information related to a vendor of a monitored device;

a second field having a reference to a web page having model information of the monitored device; and

a third field having information that is used to obtain model information from a web page of the monitored device.

7. A method of obtaining and maintaining information about one or more monitored devices in a monitoring system, comprising:

a) storing vendor information and vendor model information related to the monitored devices in a database;

b) enabling a monitoring system to access the database in order to retrieve the stored vendor information and vendor model information;

c) populating a first data structure with vendor information retrieved from said database;

d) populating a second data structure with vendor model information if no further vendor information remains to be populated in the first data structure;

e) determining if a monitored device is supported by the monitoring system using information from the database; and

f) establishing communication with the monitored device to obtain status information of a monitored device if the monitored device is determined to be supported by the monitoring system.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein step c) further comprising:

populating a sub-data structure of said first data structure with a vendor name of a monitored device, a web page having a model name of the monitored device, and information for obtaining the model name from the web page.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising:

adding the sub-data structure of the first data structure to a data structure vector;

adding the model name and the sub-data structure of the first data structure to a data structure map; and

adding the vendor name and the data structure map to a data structure representing a vendormodel ID map.

10. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:

i) using an entry from the data structure vector to access a web page of a monitored device;

ii) identifying a vendor of the accessed monitored device as vendor name in the sub-data structure of the first data structure;

iii) obtaining model name of the monitored device from the we page using information in the sub-data structure of the first data structure; and

iv) comparing the model name with information stored in the second data structure in order to determine if the model name of the monitored device is supported by the monitoring system.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:

iterating steps i) to iv) for all elements of the data structure vector if the monitoring system cannot access the web page or if the model name cannot be obtained from the web page; and

determining that the monitored device is not supported by the monitoring system if the monitoring system is unsuccessful in obtaining the vendor and model name of the monitored device after iterating through all elements of the data structure vector.

12. In a communication system having one or more monitored devices communicatively coupled to a monitoring system, a database having information related to the one or more monitored devices, an apparatus for obtaining and maintaining in a monitoring system information related to the monitored devices comprising:

means for enabling the monitoring system to access the database in order to retrieve information related to the monitored devices;

means for populating a first data structure with information retrieved from the database;

means for determining if a monitored device is supported by the monitoring system using information from the database; and

means for establishing communication with the monitored device using an HTTP protocol in order to obtain status information of the monitored device if the monitored device is determined to be supported by the monitoring system.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising:

means for storing information related to vendors and models of the monitored devices in said database.

14. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein means for populating further comprises:

means for retrieving information about vendors, models, and information to obtain unique identifiers of monitored devices.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, further comprising:

means for retrieving information from web pages of respective monitored devices.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15, further comprising:

means for storing information about vendors of monitored devices supported by the monitoring system; and

means for storing information that is used for obtaining a model of a monitored device from a web page of the monitored device.

17. An apparatus for obtaining and maintaining information about one or more monitored devices in a monitoring system, comprising:

means for storing vendor information and vendor model information related to the monitored devices in a database;

means for enabling a monitoring system to access the database in order to retrieve the stored vendor information and vendor model information;

means for populating a first data structure with vendor information retrieved from said database;

means for populating a second data structure with vendor model information if no further vendor information remains to be populated in the first data structure;

means for determining if a monitored device is supported by the monitoring system using information from the database; and

means for establishing communication with the monitored device to obtain status information of a monitored device if the monitored device is determined to be supported by the monitoring system.