System and unified setting interface for configuring network manageable devices

• US 20050198234A1
• Filed: 11/15/2004
• Published: 09/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Gteko Ltd. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Leib, Evgeny, Glazer, Joshua, Liansky, Leonid
• Granted Patent: US 7,668,944 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0226 Mapping or translating multiple network management protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0253 using browsers or web-pages for accessing management information

Abstract

A unified setting interface that enables a management application to configure network manageable devices, regardless of their type or manufacturer. Configuration of a network manageable device requires that certain information be provided to the network manageable device. For different types of devices from different manufacturers, this information and its format can vary. A management application using the unified setting interface does not require the individual interfaces for configuring network manageable devices from different manufacturers.

Claims

1. A system enabling the configuration of at least one network manageable device, the system comprising:

a unified setting interface that interfaces with at least one management application to generate a device request; and

a request generator that generates a submission request to the at least one network manageable device based on a translated device request received from the unified setting interface.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the unified setting interface allows the at least one management application to modify configurable parameters of the at least one network manageable device.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein, for each of the configurable parameters, the unified setting interface provides a unique name regardless of the type of the network manageable device.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the unified setting interface comprises a set of commands through which the at least one management application sets the configurable parameters.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a database comprising a plurality of entries is associated with the at least one network manageable device.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein each of the entries comprises a plurality of sub-entries, each of the sub-entries comprises at least one of a regular expression, a manageable device script, an authorization parameter, an identification parameter and an address of a configurable parameter.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the manageable device script is used for generating the submission request.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the submission request is in a format compliant with the at least one network manageable device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the submission request is at least an HTTP request.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a device interface that communicates with the at least one network manageable device using at least one of a Telnet connection, hypertext transfer protocol, simple network management protocol and universal plug and play protocol.

11. A system enabling the configuration of at least one network manageable device, the system comprising:

interface means for interfacing with at least one management application to generate a device request; and

request means for generating a submission request to the at least one network manageable device based on a translated device request received from the unified setting interface.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the interface means allows the at least one management application to modify configurable parameters of the at least one network manageable device.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein, for each of the configurable parameters, the interface means generates a unique name regardless of the type of the network manageable device.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the interface means comprises a set of commands through which the at least one management application sets the configurable parameters.

15. The system of claim 11, further comprising a database comprising a plurality of entries is associated with the at least one network manageable device.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein each of the entries comprises a plurality of sub-entries, each of the sub-entries comprises at least one of a regular expression, a manageable device script, an authorization parameter, an identification parameter and an address of a configurable parameter.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the manageable device script is used for generating the submission request.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the submission request is in a format compliant with the at least one network manageable device.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the submission request is at least an HTTP request.

20. The system of claim 11, further comprising a communication means that communicate with the at least one network manageable device using at least one of a Telnet connection, hypertext transfer protocol, simple network management protocol and universal plug and play protocol.

21. A system enabling the configuration of at least one network manageable device, the system comprising:

a unified setting interface that interfaces with at least one management application to generate a device request; and

a response processor that executes a regular expression on a response output by the at least one network manageable device that received the device request, wherein the regular expression extracts data from the network manageable device response and forwards the extracted data to the unified setting interface for transfer to the at least one management application.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the unified setting interface allows the at least one management application to request configurable parameters of the at least one network manageable device.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein, for each of the configurable parameters, the unified setting interface provides a unique name regardless of the type of the network manageable device.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the unified setting interface comprises a set of commands through which the at least one management application requests the configurable parameters.

25. The system of claim 21, further comprising a database comprising a plurality of entries is associated with the at least one network manageable device.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein each of the entries comprises a plurality of sub-entries, each of the sub-entries comprises at least one of a regular expression, a manageable device script, an authorization parameter, an identification parameter and an address of a configurable parameter.

27. The system of claim 22, wherein the extracted data relates to configurable parameters of the at least one network manageable device.

28. The system of claim 21, further comprising a device interface that communicates with the at least one network manageable device using at least one of a Telnet connection, hypertext transfer protocol, simple network management protocol and universal plug and play protocol.

29. The system of claim 21, wherein the response processor comprises:

a parser that parses the response output by the at least one network manageable device; and

a regular expression engine that executes a regular expression to extract data to be forwarded to the unified setting interface.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the response processor accesses a memory that stores a plurality of regular expressions.

31. A system enabling the configuration of at least one network manageable device, the system comprising:

interface means that interface with at least one management application to generate a device request; and

response means that executes a regular expression on a response output by the at least one network manageable device that received the device request, wherein the regular expression extracts data from the network manageable device response and forwards the extracted data to the interface means for transfer to the at least one management application.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the interface means allows the at least one management application to request configurable parameters of the at least one network manageable device.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein, for each of the configurable parameters, the interface means provides a unique name regardless of the type of the network manageable device.

34. The system of claim 32, wherein the interface means comprises a set of commands through which the at least one management application requests the configurable parameters.

35. The system of claim 31, further comprising a storage means comprising a plurality of entries is associated with the at least one network manageable device.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein each of the entries comprises a plurality of sub-entries, each of the sub-entries comprises at least one of a regular expression, a manageable device script, an authorization parameter, an identification parameter and an address of a configurable parameter.

37. The system of claim 32, wherein the extracted data relates to configurable parameters of the at least one network manageable device.

38. The system of claim 31, further comprising communication means for communicating with the at least one network manageable device using at least one of a Telnet connection, hypertext transfer protocol, simple network management protocol and universal plug and play protocol.

39. The system of claim 31, wherein the response means comprises:

means for parsing the response output by the at least one network manageable device; and

engine means for executing a regular expression to extract data to be forwarded to the unified setting interface.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein the response means accesses storage means that stores a plurality of regular expressions.

41. A system enabling the configuration of at least one network manageable device, the system comprising:

a unified setting interface that interfaces with at least one management application to generate a device request;

a request generator that generates a submission request to the at least one network manageable device based on a translated device request received from the unified setting interface;

a response processor that executes a regular expression on a response output by the at least one network manageable device that received the translated device request, wherein the regular expression extracts data from the network manageable device response and forwards the extracted data to the unified setting interface for transfer to the at least one management application.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the unified setting interface allows the at least one management application to modify configurable parameters of the at least one network manageable device.

43. The system of claim 42, wherein, for each of the configurable parameters, the unified setting interface provides a unique name regardless of the type of the network manageable device.

44. The system of claim 42, wherein the unified setting interface comprises a set of commands through which the at least one management application sets the configurable parameters.

45. The system of claim 41, further comprising a database comprising a plurality of entries is associated with the at least one network manageable device.

46. The system of claim 45, wherein each of the entries comprises a plurality of sub-entries, each of the sub-entries comprises at least one of a regular expression, a manageable device script, an authorization parameter, an identification parameter and an address of a configurable parameter.

47. The system of claim 46, wherein the manageable device script is used for generating the submission request.

48. The system of claim 47, wherein the submission request is in a format compliant with the at least one network manageable device.

49. The system of claim 41, wherein the submission request is at least an HTTP request.

50. The system of claim 41, further comprising a device interface that communicates with the at least one network manageable device using at least one of a Telnet connection, hypertext transfer protocol, simple network management protocol and universal plug and play protocol.

51. The system of claim 41, wherein the response processor comprises:

a parser that parses the response output by the at least one network manageable device; and

a regular expression engine that executes a regular expression to extract data to be forwarded to the unified setting interface.

52. The system of claim 51, wherein the response processor accesses a memory that stores a plurality of regular expressions.

53. A method for enabling the configuration of a plurality of network manageable devices, the method comprises:

establishing a connection with a network manageable device selected from the plurality of network manageable devices;

detecting the type of the network manageable device;

retrieving description information and configurable parameters of the network manageable device; and

generating a unified setting interface for the network manageable device using the description information and the configurable parameters.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein the method further comprises identifying an entry in a database from a plurality of entries, wherein each of the plurality of entries is associated with at least one of the plurality of network manageable devices.

55. The method of claim 54, wherein the entry comprises a plurality of sub-entries, wherein each of the sub-entries further comprises at least one of a regular expression, a manageable device script, an authorization parameter, an identification parameter and an address of a configurable parameter.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein the manageable device script is used for generating a plurality of submission requests, wherein each submission request is used for at least modifying the setting of a configurable parameter.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein the submission request is in a format compliant with a specific type of the network manageable device.

58. The method of claim 57, wherein the submission request is at least an HTTP request.

59. The method of claim 55, wherein the regular expression is used for the purpose of extracting the values of the configurable parameters.

60. The method of claim 53, wherein the connection with the network manageable device is established using at least one of a Telnet connection, hypertext transfer protocol, simple network management protocol and universal plug and play protocol.

61. The method of claim 53, wherein the step of establishing connection with the network manageable device further comprises submitting the authorization parameters required to logon to the network manageable device.

62. The method of claim 61, wherein the authorization parameters comprise at least one of a username and a password.

63. The method of claim 53, wherein the description information of the manageable device comprises at least one of a vendor name, a serial number, a version, a firmware version, a type and a manufacturer name.

64. The method of claim 53, wherein the unified setting interface provides a single interface through which the plurality of management applications access the plurality of network manageable devices.

65. The method of claim 64, wherein the unified setting interface provides for each of the configurable parameters a unique name regardless of the type of the network manageable device.

66. The method of claim 64, wherein the unified setting interface further provides a unique set of commands through which the plurality of management applications set the configurable parameters.

67. The method of claim 53, wherein the method is utilized for the purpose of a first time setup of the network manageable devices.

68. The method of claim 53, wherein the method is utilized for the purpose of detecting malfunctions in the network manageable devices.

69. The method of claim 53, wherein the method is utilized for the purpose of providing a unified environment for configuring a plurality of network manageable devices.

70. A computer program product enabling the configuration of a plurality of network manageable devices, the computer program product containing at least executable code capable of:

establishing a connection with a network manageable device selected from the plurality of network manageable devices;

detecting the type of the network manageable device;

retrieving description information and configurable parameters of the network manageable device; and

generating a unified setting interface for the network manageable device using the description information and the configurable parameters.

71. The computer program product of claim 70, wherein the method further comprises the step of identifying an entry in a database from a plurality of entries, wherein each of the plurality of entries is associated with at least one of the plurality of network manageable devices.

72. The computer program product of claim 71, wherein the entry comprises a plurality of sub-entries, wherein each of the sub-entries further comprises at least one of a regular expression, a manageable device script, an authorization parameter, an identification parameter and an address of a configurable parameter.

73. The computer program product of claim 72, wherein the manageable device script is used for generating a plurality of submission requests, each submission request being used for at least modifying the setting of a configurable parameter.

74. The computer program product of claim 73, wherein the submission request is in a format compliant with a specific type of the network manageable device.

75. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein the submission request is at least an HTTP request.

76. The computer program product of claim 72, wherein the regular expression is used for the purpose of extracting the values of the configurable parameters.

77. The computer program product of claim 70, wherein the connection with the network manageable device is established using at least one of a Telnet connection, hypertext transfer protocol, simple network management protocol and universal plug and play protocol.

78. The computer program product of claim 70, wherein the step of establishing connection with the network manageable device further comprises submitting the authorization parameters required to logon to the network manageable device.

79. The computer program product of claim 78, wherein the authorization parameters comprise a least one of a username and a password.

80. The computer program product of claim 70, wherein the description information of the manageable device comprises at least one of a vendor name, a serial number, a version, a firmware version, a type and a manufacturer name.

81. The computer program product of claim 70, wherein the unified setting interface provides a single interface through which the plurality of management applications access the plurality of network manageable devices.

82. The computer program product of claim 81, wherein the unified setting interface provides for each of the configurable parameters a unique name regardless of the type of the network manageable device.

83. The computer program product of claim 81, wherein the unified setting interface further provides a unique set of commands through which the plurality of management applications set the configurable parameters.

84. The computer program product of claim 70, wherein the method is utilized for the purpose of a first time setup of the network manageable devices.

85. The computer program product of claim 70, wherein the method is utilized for the purpose of detecting malfunctions in the network manageable devices.

86. The computer program product of claim 70, wherein the method is utilized for the purpose of providing a unified environment for configuring a plurality of network manageable devices.