Computer method for updating a network design

• US 5,821,937 A
• Filed: 08/12/1996
• Issued: 10/13/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Visionael Corp. (Upland Software, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: NetSuite Development Corp (Upland Software, Inc.)
• Inventors: Maloney, Kevin M., Tonelli, Daniel L., Katz, Martin H., Cronin, Kevin W.
• Primary Examiner(s): KATBAB, ABDOLLAH
• Application Number:
  US08/695,608
• Time in Patent Office: 792 Days
• Field of Search: 395/335, 395/200.02, 395/200.3, 395/200.48, 395/200.51, 395/200.53, 395/200.54, 395/200.57, 395/200.8, 345/335, 345/339, 345/348, 345/349, 345/356
• US Class Current: 715/853
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

A method for designing networks including auditing a network to discover a present network configuration, creating a network design sheet from the discovered network configuration, placing device icons representing intelligent device objects on the network design sheet, selecting a media type representing an intelligent media object, and connecting the media type to a first one of the device icons. The method further includes validating the connection to the first one of the device icons.

Claims

1. A method for updating a network design of a network, the network including a plurality of devices, comprising:

auditing the network, including communicating with at least one of the devices, to discover a configuration of the network;

generating a network design sheet from the discovered configuration, the network design sheet being populated with device icons representing intelligent device objects corresponding to devices discovered in the network;

placing a selected device icon representing an intelligent device object on the network design sheet;

selecting a media type corresponding to an intelligent media object;

connecting the media type between the selected device icon and another device icon on the network design sheet, including connecting the media type to a first one of the selected device icon and the other device icon; and

validating the connection of the media type between the selected device icon and the other device icon, including validating the connection to the first one of the device icons.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

preventing the connection from being made if the validation indicates an invalid connection to the first one of the device icons.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prompting a user to take additional actions before completing the connection if the validation indicates that the connection to the first one of the device icons is invalid but can be made valid.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the additional actions include:

configuring the first one of the device icons to include an adapter card.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the additional actions include:

adding an additional device icon to the network design sheet.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

connecting the selected media type to a second one of the selected device icon and the other device icon; and

validating the connection to the second one of the device icons.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

validating the media connection between the first and second ones of the device icons.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

preventing the connection to the second one of the device icons from being made if the validation indicates an invalid connection.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

prompting a user to take additional actions before completing the connection to the second one of the device icons if the validation indicates that the connection is invalid but can be made valid.

10. The method of claim 9, where in the additional actions include:

configuring the second one of the device icons to include an adapter card.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the additional actions include:

adding an additional device icon to the network design sheet.

14. The method of claim 1 or of claim 12, wherein communicating includes employing a suite of probes.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the suite of probes employ one or more communication protocols.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein employing the suite of probes includes employing probes selected from the group of probes consisting of an SNMP probe, an IPX probe, an MS SMS probe, an HP/OV probe, an SNA probe, and an IPX SAP probe.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein employing the SNMP probe includes finding SNMP managed devices, and gathering internet protocol address and media access control address information from the SNMP managed devices.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein employing the suite of probes includes gathering topology, host and interface information from devices in the network.

19. The method of claim 1 or of claim 12, wherein auditing further includes supplementing the discovered configuration by inputting information not automatically discoverable by communicating with the devices in the network.

12. A method for servicing a network, comprising:

creating a network design, including placing device icons representing intelligent device objects corresponding to devices on a network design sheet, selecting a media type representing an intelligent media object, connecting the media type to each of a selected plurality of the device icons, and validating the connections of the media type to each of the selected plurality of device icons;

implementing the network design in a network by connecting a plurality of devices that correspond to the intelligent device objects that are represented by the selected plurality of device icons to media corresponding to the intelligent media object represented by the selected media type, thereby creating a network;

auditing the network, including communicating with at least one of the devices implemented in the network, to discover a configuration of the network; and

comparing the discovered configuration to the network design.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein comparing includes flagging:

devices discovered by auditing the network but not corresponding to intelligent device objects in the network design;

intelligent device objects found in the network design but not corresponding to devices discovered by auditing; and

intelligent device objects found in the network design and devices discovered by auditing that correspond with each other.

20. A computer program for updating a network design of a network, the network including a plurality of devices being connected by communication media, the computer program being stored on a media readable by a general purpose computer, for configuring the computer upon being read and executed by the computer to perform functions comprising:

auditing the network, including communicating with at least one of the devices with the computer, to discover a configuration of the network;

displaying the discovered configuration in a network design sheet on a display monitor of the computer, the network design sheet including device icons representing intelligent device objects corresponding to discovered devices and media types representing the intelligent media objects corresponding to discovered communication media;

allowing a user to modify the design sheet by;

selecting from device icons representing intelligent device objects and placing a selected device icon on the network design sheet; and

selecting a media type representing an intelligent media object and connecting the selected media type to a first one of the selected device icon and another device icon on the network design sheet; and

validating the connection to the first one of the device icons.

22. The computer program of claim 20 or of claim 21, wherein the communicating function includes employing a suite of probes.

23. The computer program of claim 22, wherein the suite of probes employ one or more communication protocols.

24. The computer program of claim 22, wherein employing the suite of probes includes employing probes selected from the group of probes consisting of an SNMP probe, an IPX probe, an MS SMS probe, an HP/OV probe, an SNA probe, and an IPX SAP probe.

25. The computer program of claim 22, wherein employing the suite of probes includes gathering topology, host and interface information from intelligent device objects.

26. The computer program of claim 20 or of claim 21, wherein the auditing function further includes supplementing the discovered configuration by inputting information not automatically discoverable by communicating with the intelligent device objects.

21. A computer program for servicing a network that is implemented with a plurality of devices being connected by connection media, the computer program being stored on a media readable by a general purpose computer, for configuring the computer upon being read and executed by the computer to perform functions comprising:

allowing a user to design a network configuration by placing a selected plurality of device icons representing intelligent device objects on a network design sheet being displayed on a display monitor of the computer, connecting the device icons on the design sheet with one or more selected media types representing intelligent media objects, and validating the connections to each of the selected plurality of device icons on the design sheet;

auditing the implemented network, including communicating with at least one of the devices in the implemented network, to discover a configuration of the implemented network; and

comparing the discovered configuration of the implemented network to a network configuration being stored in the computer, wherein the stored network configuration comprises one of a network configuration discovered by a prior auditing and a network configuration designed by the user.

27. The computer program of claim 21, wherein the function of comparing includes flagging:

devices discovered by auditing the network but not corresponding to intelligent device objects in the stored network configuration;

intelligent device objects found in the stored network configuration but not corresponding to devices discovered by auditing; and

intelligent device objects found in the stored network configuration that correspond with devices discovered by auditing.

28. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for assisting a user to update a network design of a network, the network including a plurality of devices, the computer readable program code in the article of manufacture comprising;

computer readable program code for causing a computer to audit the network, the audit including communicating with at least one of the devices, to discover a configuration of the network;

computer readable program code for causing the computer to generate a network design sheet from the discovered configuration of the network and to display the network design sheet on a display monitor of the computer;

computer readable program code for causing the computer to display on the display monitor a palette of device icons representing intelligent device objects corresponding to devices;

computer readable program code for causing the computer to allow a user to place a selected one of the device icons on the network design sheet;

computer readable program code for causing the computer to display a palette of media types representing intelligent media objects on the display monitor;

computer readable program code for causing the computer to allow a user to connect a selected one of the media types between the selected device icon and another device icon on the network design sheet, including connecting the media type to a first one of the selected device icon and the other device icon; and

computer readable program code for causing the computer to validate the connection of the media type between the selected device icon and the other device icon, including validating the connection to the first one of the device icons.

30. The article of manufacture of claim 28 or of claim 29, wherein the computer readable program code for causing the computer to communicate includes computer readable program code for causing the computer to communicate by employing a suite of probes.

31. The article of manufacture of claim 30, wherein the suite of probes employ one or more communication protocols.

32. The article of manufacture of claim 30, wherein employing the suite of probes includes employing probes selected from the group of probes consisting of an SNMP probe, an IPX probe, an MS SMS probe, an HP/OV probe, an SNA probe, and an IPX SAP probe.

33. The article of manufacture of claim 30, wherein employing the suite of probes includes gathering topology, host and interface information from intelligent device objects.

34. The article of manufacture of claim 28 or of claim 29, wherein the computer readable program code for causing the computer to audit the implemented network further includes computer readable program code for causing the computer to supplement the discovered configuration by allowing the user to input information not automatically discoverable by communicating with the intelligent device objects.

29. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for servicing a network that is implemented with a plurality of devices, the computer readable program code in the article of manufacture comprising;

computer readable program code for causing a computer to allow a user to design a network configuration, including computer readable program code for causing the computer to allow the user to place a selected plurality of device icons representing intelligent device objects on a network design sheet being displayed on a display monitor of the computer, computer readable program code for causing the computer to allow the user to connect the device icons on the design sheet with one or more selected media types representing intelligent media objects, and computer readable program code for causing the computer to validate the connections to each of the selected plurality of device icons on the design sheet;

computer readable program code for causing the computer to audit the implemented network to discover a configuration of the implemented network, including computer readable program code for causing the computer to communicate with at least one of the devices in the implemented network;

computer readable program code for causing the computer to compare the discovered configuration of the implemented network to a network configuration being stored in a memory of the computer, wherein the stored network configuration comprises one of a network configuration discovered by a prior auditing and a network configuration designed by the user.

35. The article of manufacture of claim 29, wherein the computer readable program code for causing the computer to compare includes computer readable program code for causing the computer to flag:

devices discovered by the audit of the network but not corresponding to intelligent device objects in the stored network configuration;

intelligent device objects found in the stored network configuration but not corresponding to devices discovered in the audit; and

intelligent device objects found in the stored network configuration that correspond with devices discovered in the audit.