METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING MULTIPLE VENDOR SUPPORT TO REMOTELY MONITORED DEVICES

• US 20070124455A1
• Filed: 05/31/2002
• Published: 05/31/2007
• 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 7,359,965 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• 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 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing multiple vendor support to remotely monitored devices is described. The method includes querying a monitored device to obtain at least one of manufacturer, model, and a unique identifier of the monitored device, using a hierarchical technique to determine if the monitoring system is configured to interface with the monitored device using information stored in a first database; and determining if the monitored device is supported by the monitoring system using information stored in a second database. The hierarchical technique includes first determining if the manufacturer of the monitored device is supported by the monitoring system, and then subsequently determining if the model of the device is supported by the monitoring system.

Claims

1. In a network-based system having a monitoring system and a plurality of image-handling devices communicatively coupled via a network, the monitoring system being communicatively coupled to first and second databases, a method of determining if an image-handling device is supported by the monitoring system, comprising:

(a) querying the image-handling device to obtain an enterprise object identifier of the image-handling device;

(b) determining if the image-handling device is supported by the monitoring system using the obtained enterprise object identifier and information stored in said second database;

(c) obtaining a manufacturer of the image-handling device based on the obtained enterprise object identifier if the image-handling device is supported by the monitoring system

(d) determining if the manufacturer of the image-handling device is supported by the monitoring system using information stored in said second database;

obtaining a unique identifier from the image-handling device if the manufacturer is supported by the monitoring system;

obtaining a MAC address of the image-handling device if the manufacturer is not supported by the monitoring system; and

assigning a random number to the unique identifier if the MAC address cannot be obtained from the image-handling device.

3. The method as in claim 1, wherein step (d) further comprises:

determining if a model of the image-handling device is supported by the monitoring system, if the manufacturer is supported by the monitoring system; and

updating the first database with manufacturer and model information if the image-handling device is supported by the monitoring system using information stored in the second database.

5. The method as in claim 3, further comprising:

listing the image-handling device as generic if the manufacturer of the image-handling device is not supported by the monitoring system; and

obtaining, from the image-handling device, information that relates to and is common to the plurality of image-handling devices.

6. The method as in claim 5, further comprising:

listing the image-handling device as manufactured by a general manufacturer;

obtaining information that relates to and is common to the plurality of image-handling devices; and

obtaining information that relates to and is common to a plurality of image-handling devices from the general manufacturer.

7. The method as in claim 6, further comprising:

obtaining information unique to the image-handling device if the model of the image-handling device is supported by the monitoring system; and

obtaining information that relates to and is common to image-handling devices manufactured by the general manufacturer.

8. The method as in claim 1, wherein the first database is a system configuration database which comprises:

information for enabling communication between the monitoring system and the image-handling device; and

status information related to the image-handling device, the status information being added after initialization of the monitoring system.

10. The method as in claim 1, wherein the first database is a system configuration database and comprises:

information for enabling communication between the monitoring system and the image-handling device; and

status information related to the image-handling device, the status information being added after initialization of the monitoring system for monitoring the image-handling device.

11. 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.

2. (canceled)

4. (canceled)

9. (canceled)

12. In a network-based system having a plurality of image-handling devices communicatively coupled to a network, an apparatus for monitoring at least one image-handling device among the plurality of image-handling devices, comprising:

a monitoring system communicatively coupled to the network;

first and second databases communicatively coupled to the monitoring system;

means for querying the image-handling device to obtain an enterprise object identifier of the image-handling device;

means for determining if the image-handling device is supported by the monitoring system using the obtained enterprise object identifier and information stored in said second database;

means for obtaining a manufacturer of the image-handling device based on the obtained enterprise object identifier if the image-handling device is supported by the monitoring system;

means for determining if the manufacturer of the image-handling device is supported by the monitoring system using information stored in said second database;

means for obtaining a unique identifier from the image-handling device if the manufacturer is supported by the monitoring system;

means for obtaining a MAC address of the image-handling device if the manufacturer is not supported by the monitoring system; and

means for assigning a random number to the unique identifier if the MAC address cannot be obtained from the image-handling device.

13. The apparatus as in claim 12, wherein the first database is a system configuration database which comprises:

information for enabling communication between the monitoring system and the image-handling device; and

status information related to the image-handling device, the status information being added after initialization of the monitoring system.

14. The apparatus as in claim 12, wherein the first database is a system configuration database and comprises:

information for enabling communication between the monitoring system and the image-handling device; and

status information related to the image-handling device, the status information being added after initialization of the monitoring system for monitoring the image-handling device.

15. The apparatus as in claim 12, wherein the second database is a system support database and comprises information about various manufacturers and device models supported by the monitoring system.

16. In a network-based system having a monitoring system and a plurality of image-handling devices communicatively coupled via a network, the monitoring system being communicatively coupled to first and second databases, a computer program product within a computer useable medium, comprising:

instructions for querying the image-handling device to obtain an enterprise object identifier of the image-handling device;

instructions for determining if the image-handling device is supported by the monitoring system using the obtained enterprise object identifier information stored in said second database;

instructions for obtaining a manufacturer of the image-handling device based on the obtained enterprise object identifier if the image-handling device is supported by the monitoring system;

instructions for determining if the manufacturer of the image-handling device is supported by the monitoring system using information stored in said second database;

instructions for obtaining a unique identifier from the image-handling device if the manufacturer is supported by the monitoring system;

instructions for obtaining a MAC address of the image-handling device if the manufacturer is not supported by the monitoring system; and

instructions assigning a random number to the unique identifier if the MAC address cannot be obtained from the image-handling device.

17. A network-based system having an image-handling device among a plurality of devices connected to a network, the system comprising:

first and second databases communicatively coupled to the controller, said second database storing information for determining if the image-handling device is supported by the controller;

a controller for monitoring the image-handling device, said controller having logic for;

querying the image-handling device to obtain an enterprise object identifier of the image-handling device;

determining if the image-handling device is supported by monitoring system using information stored in the second database;

obtaining a manufacturer of the image-handling device based on the obtained enterprise object identifier if the image-handling device is supported by the monitoring system;

determining if the manufacturer of the image-handling device is supported by the monitoring system using the obtained enterprise object identifier and information stored in the second database;

obtaining a unique identifier from the image-handling device if the manufacturer is supported by the monitoring system;

obtaining a MAC address of the image-handling device if the manufacturer is not supported by the monitoring system; and

assigning a random number to the unique identifier if the MAC address cannot be obtained from the image-handling device,

wherein configuration information in said first database is updated with information stored in the second database for enabling the controller to interface with the image-handling device.