MANAGING NETWORK CONFIGURATIONS

• US 20140068035A1
• Filed: 09/04/2013
• Published: 03/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Duggan, Matthew E., Croy, Timothy R., Fulton, Robert P., Graham, Trevor, Hamilton, Kevin M., Wallace, David J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,647,891 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/085 Retrieval of network configuration; Tracking network configuration history
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0866 Checking the configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0873 Checking configuration conflicts between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0895 Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components

Abstract

Provided are systems, methods and computer program products that proactively manage configurations that enable a service. Configurations that are critical to enabling a particular service are automatically captured, for example as part of a provisioning activity, and/or tracked in association with that service. This automated, service-oriented configuration management enables improved service assurance and faster identification of problems, and mitigates the problem of errors and compromised service delivery that can arise from misconfigurations.

Claims

1. A method for managing network configurations, comprising:

storing first configuration information for a set of network devices;

determining one or more required configuration changes to one or more devices in the set of network devices to provide a configured set of network devices that enable a service; and

generating at least one service policy representing a set of network configuration information elements for the configured set of network devices that enable the service, and saving the at least one service policy in association with the service.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing a proposed configuration change with at least one service policy;

determining whether the proposed configuration change complies with a set of one or more predefined conditions; and

generating a notification if the proposed configuration change does not comply with the one or more predefined conditions.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing one or more configuration changes to devices in the set of network devices;

determining whether the changed configuration complies with a set of one or more conditions; and

performing an operation, subsequent to the performance of configuration changes, if the updated configuration information does not comply with the conditions.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the subsequent operation comprises backing out the one or more configuration changes.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the subsequent operation comprises generating a notification that the updated configuration information does not comply with the conditions.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of performing the one or more configuration changes comprises applying a set of one or more service provisioning instructions to devices in the set of devices.

8. A computer program product comprising program code embodied on a recording component, the program code configured to control performance of operations on a data processing apparatus on which the program code executes, to perform the method of claim 1.

7. A system for managing network configurations for service enablement, comprising:

a data store for storing first configuration information for a set of network devices; and

a configuration manager configured to determine one or more required configuration changes to devices in the set of network devices to provide a configured set of network devices that enable a service, and to generate at least one service policy representing a set of network configuration information elements for the configured set of network devices that enable the service, and for saving the at least one service policy in association with the service.