System and method for configuring and managing communication devices

• US 20060047785A1
• Filed: 11/24/2004
• Published: 03/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Wang, Jain-Chung, Hsu, Chuan-Cheng
• Application Number:
  US10/996,822
• Publication Number:
  US 20060047785A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/08 Configuration management of networks or network elements address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0879 Manual configuration through operator
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

A system (3) for configuring and managing communication devices that include non-volatile memories includes a user interface (31) for providing a configuration and management interface for a network administrator, one or more service modules (35) for generating configuration information, and a configuration manager (33) for managing the configuration information. The user interface includes a parser (312) for parsing configuration commands or management commands issued by the network administrator. The configuration manager includes a command builder (334) for mapping the configuration information provided by the service modules to the configuration commands, and a command loader (332) for loading respective configuration files containing the configuration commands from the non-volatile memories of the communication devices. A related method for configuring and managing communication devices is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A system for configuring and managing communication devices that comprise non-volatile memories, the system comprising:

a user interface for providing a configuration and management interface, the user interface comprising a parser for parsing configuration commands and management commands;

at least one service module for generating configuration information after the parser parses the configuration commands; and

a configuration manager for managing the configuration information, the configuration manager comprising;

a command builder for mapping the configuration information provided by said service module to the configuration commands; and

a command loader for loading configuration files from the non-volatile memories of the communication devices.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the user interface is a Command Line Interface (CLI).

3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the user interface is a web interface.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said service module comprises a configuration agent sub-module for providing the configuration information to the command builder.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a storage manager for saving the configuration information in the non-volatile memories of the communication devices.

6. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the command builder saves the configuration commands as respective configuration files in the non-volatile memories of the communication devices by way of the storage manager.

7. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the command loader loads the configuration files from the non-volatile memories of the communication devices by way of the storage manager.

8. A system for configuring and managing communication devices that comprise non-volatile memories, the system comprising:

a user interface for providing a configuration and management interface, the user interface comprising a parser for parsing configuration commands and management commands;

at least one service module for generating configuration information after the parser parses the configuration commands;

a storage manager; and

a configuration manager for managing the configuration information, the configuration manager comprising;

a command builder for mapping the configuration information provided by said service module to the configuration commands, and for saving the configuration commands as respective configuration files in the non-volatile memories of the communication devices by way of the storage manager; and

a command loader for loading the configuration files from the non-volatile memories of the communication devices by way of the storage manager.

9. The system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the user interface is a Command Line Interface (CLI).

10. The system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the user interface is a web interface.

11. The system as claimed in claim 8, wherein said service module comprises a configuration agent sub-module for providing the configuration information to the command builder.

12. A method for configuring and managing communication devices that comprise non-volatile memories, the method comprising the following steps:

(a) parsing configuration commands;

(b) determining whether a user interface received a save command;

(c) mapping configuration information transmitted by a configuration agent sub-module of a service module to the configuration commands, if the user interface received a save command; and

(d) saving the configuration commands in the non-volatile memories of the communication devices by way of a storage manager.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, further comprising the following steps:

(e) determining whether the user interface received a reconfiguration command;

(f) loading the configuration commands from the non-volatile memories of the communication devices by way of the storage manager and transmitting the configuration commands to a parser, if the user interface received a reconfiguration command; and

(g) re-parsing the configuration commands.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the user interface is a command line interface (CLI) or a web interface.

15. A method for managing communication devices and configuration information thereof, comprising the steps of:

providing a user interface;

retrieving user-defined commands via said user interface;

parsing said commands to configure said communication devices; and

retrieving said configuration information based on a post-command situation of said communication devices.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising the step of saving said configuration information by means of mapping said configuration information to corresponding commands so as to save said corresponding commands as a file.

17. The method as claimed in claim 16, further comprising the step of reconfiguring said corresponding commands by means of opening said file of said corresponding commands and re-parsing said corresponding commands based on newly retrieved configuration information.