Methods and Systems for Monitoring Changes Made to a Network that Alter the Services Provided to a Server

• US 20100214940A1
• Filed: 02/19/2010
• Published: 08/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommScope Inc. (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CommScope Inc. (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Macauley, Daniel W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,472,333 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies

Abstract

Methods of automatically monitoring changes made to the communications connections into a server are provided. Pursuant to these methods, an identification is made that a change was made to the communications connections into the server. A determination is then made if the identified change complies with a set of pre-determined rules. If it is determined that the change does not comply with at least one of the rules in the set of pre-determined rules, then an alert is automatically issued.

Claims

1. A method of automatically monitoring changes made to the communications connections into a server, the method comprising:

identifying that a change was made to the communications connections into the server;

determining if the identified change complies with a set of pre-determined rules; and

automatically issuing an alert if the change does not comply with at least one of the rules in the set of pre-determined rules.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the change to the communications connections comprises a change to the configuration of a VLAN switch.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the change to the communications connections comprises a patching change.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of predetermined rules includes redundancy rules.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if the change made to the communications connection was a pre-scheduled change; and

automatically issuing an alert if it is determined that the change made to the communications connection was not a pre-scheduled change

6. A method of automatically issuing an alert when an unauthorized change is made to a network that alters the services provided to a server in the network, the method comprising:

identifying that a change was made to a communications connections into the server;

determining if the identified change was a pre-scheduled change; and

automatically issuing an alert if the change was not pre-scheduled.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the identified change made to the communications connections comprises a change to the configuration of a VLAN switch.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein identifying that a change was made to the communications connections into the server comprises:

determining the patching connections into the server;

mapping the patching connections to associated services to identify the services provided to the server; and

identifying that a change was made to a VLAN switch that altered the services being provided to the server.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining if the change made to the communications connection complies with a set of pre-determined rules; and

automatically issuing an alert if the change does not comply with at least one of the rules in the set of pre-determined rules.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the change to the communications connections comprises a patching change.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising determining the change that was made to the services provided to the server by the patching change.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining if the change made to the communications connection complies with a set of pre-determined rules; and

automatically issuing an alert if the change does not comply with at least one of the rules in the set of pre-determined rules.

13. A method of deploying a new server that will receive a set of services, the method comprising:

receiving a request to deploy the new server;

automatically selecting a location for the server based on a set of rules;

automatically determining the hardware and configuration changes that are necessary to deploy the server at the selected location and to provide the set of services to the server.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the location selected for the server is further based on the number and/or type of hardware and configuration changes that would be required to deploy the set of services to the server to at least some of the available locations.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising automatically issuing work orders for at least some of the hardware and configuration changes that are necessary to deploy the server at the selected location and to provide the set of services to the server.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising automatically monitoring to determine if the hardware and configuration changes that are necessary to deploy the server at the selected location and to provide the set of services to the server are performed correctly.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising automatically monitoring to determine if each of the hardware and configuration changes that are necessary to deploy the server at the selected location and to provide the set of services to the server are performed within respective pre-specified time periods.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising determining if a user entering the request to deploy the new server has the authority to deploy the server.

19. A method of automatically monitoring a change in a location of a virtual server application from a first server to a second server, the method comprising:

automatically determining a plurality of services that are attached to the second server;

automatically determining if the services required by the virtual server application are attached to the second server;

automatically determining if any services that are prohibited by the virtual server application are attached to the second server;

automatically determining if the change in the location of the virtual server application was scheduled; and

issuing an alert if all of the services required by the virtual server application are not attached to the second server, if any services that are prohibited by the virtual server application are attached to the second server or if the change in the location of the virtual server application was not scheduled.