Method and apparatus for determining the health of a network
First Claim
1. In a computer network system, an apparatus for providing a user with an indication of an overall degree of functionality of said computer network system, said apparatus comprising:
- a circuit for gathering diagnostic and status information from various units of said computer network;
a memory coupled to said circuit for storing software which instructs said circuit on which of said diagnostic and status information is to be gathered;
a network management station coupled to said computer network for evaluating said gathered diagnostic and status information, said gathered diagnostic and status data representing a plurality of different parameters, the network management station further for generating a unitless value as a function of said plurality of different parameters, such that said unitless value represents said overall degree of functionality of said computer network; and
a display screen for displaying said unitless value, wherein said unitless value ranges from an indication that said computer network is functioning properly to an indication that said computer network is not functioning properly.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus which provides the user with an indication of the computer network'"'"'s health. The indication is provided by a network management station on the computer network. The network management station has a distributable piece of code which instructs agents to gather diagnostic and status information. The network management station then evaluates the network specific diagnostic and status data gathered by the agents. Based on the evaluation, the network management station generates a representation of the computer network'"'"'s functionality (i.e., its "health"). Thereby, the user can readily determine whether the computer network requires repairs.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. In a computer network system, an apparatus for providing a user with an indication of an overall degree of functionality of said computer network system, said apparatus comprising:
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a circuit for gathering diagnostic and status information from various units of said computer network; a memory coupled to said circuit for storing software which instructs said circuit on which of said diagnostic and status information is to be gathered; a network management station coupled to said computer network for evaluating said gathered diagnostic and status information, said gathered diagnostic and status data representing a plurality of different parameters, the network management station further for generating a unitless value as a function of said plurality of different parameters, such that said unitless value represents said overall degree of functionality of said computer network; and a display screen for displaying said unitless value, wherein said unitless value ranges from an indication that said computer network is functioning properly to an indication that said computer network is not functioning properly. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. In a computer network system, a computer implemented method for indicating an overall degree of functionality of said computer network, said method comprising the steps of:
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determining a plurality of parameters relating to said computer network; assigning to each of said parameters a weight representing a degree of importance relative to the others of said parameters to generate a plurality of weighted parameters; correlating said plurality of weighted parameters to a range of conditions representing different degrees of functionality of said computer network, wherein said correlating step results in a single unitless value representing said overall degree of functionality of said computer network; and displaying an image that conveys said unitless value to said user. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. In a computer network, a method of conveying an overall health of said computer network, said method comprising the steps of:
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determining status information pertaining to various operating parameters of said computer network, the status information including a plurality of subsets, each subset corresponding to one of said operating parameters; weighting each of said subsets of said status information according to an estimated degree of impact of each of said operating parameters on said overall health of said computer network relative to each of the others of said operating parameters; generating a single weighted value that conveys said overall health of said computer network based on said weighting step; displaying said weighted value as a graphical display ranging from a peak performance to a degraded performance of said computer network.
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Specification