Intelligent Discovery Of Network Information From Multiple Information Gathering Agents
First Claim
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1. A network management system for discovering information about a network, comprising:
- a plurality of processing nodes;
plural discovery agents on said nodes adapted to discover information concerning said network;
each of said discovery agents having an associated discovery capability;
each of said discovery agents having an associated discovery assignment computed prior to discovery;
collectively, said agent discovery assignments being a subset of said agent discovery capabilities; and
said agent discovery capabilities being overlapping due to some of said agents being capable of discovering the same information from the same network device, and said discovery assignments being non-overlapping, such that (1) no network device is discovered more than once by different discovery agents seeking the same information, (2) one or more agents are not permitted to perform full discovery of information due to one or more other discovery agents being assigned to discover the same information, and (3) no duplicate discovery information is generated.
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Abstract
A system, method and computer program product for intelligent discovery of network information from multiple information gathering agents adapted to discover information concerning the network. The discovery agents each have an associated discovery capability. Based on consideration of the agent discovery capabilities, discovery assignments are computed and network discovery is performed according to the assignments so as to reduce discovery poll overhead.
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Citations
44 Claims
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1. A network management system for discovering information about a network, comprising:
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a plurality of processing nodes; plural discovery agents on said nodes adapted to discover information concerning said network; each of said discovery agents having an associated discovery capability; each of said discovery agents having an associated discovery assignment computed prior to discovery; collectively, said agent discovery assignments being a subset of said agent discovery capabilities; and said agent discovery capabilities being overlapping due to some of said agents being capable of discovering the same information from the same network device, and said discovery assignments being non-overlapping, such that (1) no network device is discovered more than once by different discovery agents seeking the same information, (2) one or more agents are not permitted to perform full discovery of information due to one or more other discovery agents being assigned to discover the same information, and (3) no duplicate discovery information is generated.
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2-20. -20. (canceled)
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21. In a network containing a plurality of processing nodes, a method for discovering information about said network, comprising:
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providing plural discovery agents on said nodes adapted to discover information concerning said network; each of said discovery agents having an associated discovery capability; prior to discovery, computing a discovery assignment for each of said discovery agents; collectively, said agent discovery assignments being a subset of said agent discovery capabilities; and said agent discovery capabilities being overlapping due to some of said agents being capable of discovering the same information from the same network device, and said discovery assignments being non-overlapping, such that (1) no network device is discovered more than once by different discovery agents seeking the same information, (2) one or more agents are not permitted to perform full discovery of information due to one or more other discovery agents being assigned to discover the same information, and (3) no duplicate discovery information is generated. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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33. A computer program product, comprising:
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one or more computer-readable storage media; software code stored on said one or more storage media for programming one or more network processing nodes to perform network management operations for discovering information about a network, said operations comprising; providing plural discovery agents on said nodes adapted to discover information concerning said network; each of said discovery agents having an associated discovery capability; prior to discovery, computing a discovery assignment for each of said discovery agents; collectively, said agent discovery assignments being a subset of said agent discovery capabilities; and said agent discovery capabilities being overlapping due to some of said agents being capable of discovering the same information from the same network device, and said discovery assignments being non-overlapping, such that (1) no network device is discovered more than once by different discovery agents seeking the same information, (2) one or more agents are not permitted to perform full discovery of information due to one or more other discovery agents being assigned to discover the same information, and (3) no duplicate discovery information is generated. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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Specification