Correlation technique for use in managing application-specific and protocol-specific resources of heterogeneous integrated computer network

• US 5,909,550 A
• Filed: 10/16/1996
• Issued: 06/01/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Data Advisors LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shankar, Ravindra, Maly, Frank
• Primary Examiner(s): Asta, Frank J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): VU, THONG H
• Application Number:
  US08/732,998
• Time in Patent Office: 958 Days
• Field of Search: 395/200.15, 395/200.09, 395/200.1, 395/182.02, 395/200, 395/329, 395/615, 395/650, 395/200.57, 370/60
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/022 Multivendor or multi-standard integration

Abstract

Heterogeneous resources of an integrated network environment are managed from a single network management station by correlating information pertaining to those resources. The integrated network environment is generally managed by a predetermined application tool executing on the management station that provides an application-centric map of the network for communicating with resources conversant with the application tool. Information pertaining to other protocol-specific resources are overlaid on the map to facilitate monitoring of those specific resources by the application tool. As a result, the station can interactively access the application-centric resources while also obtaining status information from the protocol-specific resources of the network.

Claims

1. A method for managing heterogeneous resources of an integrated network having a host computer and a single network management station coupled to the network, the heterogeneous resources including application-specific resources and protocol-specific resources, the method comprising the steps of:

A. generating an application-centric map of the network using an application tool running on the network management station, the application-centric map specifying information pertaining to application-specific resources conversant with the application tool;

B. providing information of the protocol-specific resources from the host computer to the network management station;

C. correlating the information pertaining to the application-specific and protocol-specific resources at the network management station to enable management of the network heterogeneous resources from the management station; and

D. controlling both the application-specific resources and the protocol-specific resources via the management station, based upon correlated information produced in Step C from the information pertaining to the application-specific and protocol-specific resources;

p1 wherein the information pertaining to the application-specific resources and the information pertaining to the protocol-specific resources are stored in respective portions of a database and have different respective syntaxes, and the single network management station is configured to compensate for said different respective syntaxes by placing contents of said portions into a format that permits comparison therebetween.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step B comprises the steps of:

B1. acquiring a portion of the information using a predetermined network technique that specifies an optimal path between the protocol-specific resources and the host computer; and

B2. acquiring a remaining portion of the information from a data structure of the host computer, the remaining portion specifying definitions of the protocol-specific resources.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the step C comprises the step of:

C1. overlaying the information of the protocol-specific resources onto the application-centric map to facilitate monitoring of the protocol-specific resources by the application tool.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step B comprises the step of:

B3. providing the information over a pipe connection coupling the host computer to the management station.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the predetermined network technique of step B1 is source-route-bridging.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the application-specific resources are routers and wherein the application tool is a simple network management protocol tool configured to generate the application-specific map, and wherein the application-specific map in step A specifies topology information.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the protocol-specific resources are physical unit (PU) and logical unit (LU) entities and wherein the information provided by the entities in step B are route information.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the data structure of step B2 is a virtual telecommunication access method table whose contents define the PU and LU entities with respect to the host computer.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying on a console of the management station a graphical representation of the integrated network based upon the correlated information.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the application-specific resources are IP devices, and the protocol-specific resources are SNA devices.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of controlling both the application-specific resources and the protocol-specific resources comprises the step of controlling activation and deactivation of the application-specific and protocol-specific resources via the management station.

9. An arrangement for managing heterogeneous resources of an integrated network having a host computer and a single network management station coupled to the network, the heterogeneous resources including application-specific resources and protocol-specific resources, the arrangement comprising:

an application tool executing on the network management station for generating an application-centric map of the network, the application-centric map specifying topology information of application-specific resources conversant with the application tool;

a data structure of the host computer having entries for storing information pertaining to definitions of the protocol-specific resources;

a pipe connection for transferring the definitions from the host computer to the network management station;

means for correlating the information pertaining to the application-specific and protocol-specific resources at the single network management station to enable management of both the application-specific and protocol-specific resources from the single management station; and

means for controlling, via the single management station, both the application-specific and protocol-specific resources based upon correlated information produced by the means for correlating from the information pertaining to the application-specific and protocol specific resources;

wherein the information pertaining to the application-specific resources and the information pertaining to the protocol-specific resources are stored in respective portions of a database and have different respective syntaxes, and the single network management station is configured to compensate for said different respective syntaxes by placing contents of said portions into a format that permits comparison therebetween.

10. The arrangement of claim 9 further comprising means for executing source-route-bridging operations so that the host computer acquires route information for transfer over the pipe connection to the network management station, the route information specifying optimal paths among the heterogeneous resources.

11. The arrangement of claim 10 wherein the application-specific resources are routers and wherein the application tool is a simple network management protocol (SNMP) tool configured to generate the application-centric map.

12. The arrangement of claim 11 wherein the protocol-specific resources are physical unit (PU) and logical unit (LU) entities.

13. The arrangement of claim 12 wherein the routers include SNMP agents that are queried by the network management station using a SNMP protocol to create the application-centric map.

14. The arrangement of claim 13 wherein the topology information specified by the application-centric map comprises addresses and relationships of the routers.

15. The arrangement of claim 14 wherein the host computer acquires the route information by extracting the contents of a routing information field from an explorer frame and wherein the route information is provided over the pipe connection along with the definitions of the PU and LU entities.

16. The arrangement of claim 15 wherein the data structure is a virtual telecommunication access method table.

22. The arrangement of claim 9, further comprising means for graphically displaying at the management station a representation of the integrated network based upon the correlated information.

25. The arrangement of claim 9, wherein the application-specific resources are IP devices, and the protocol-specific resources are SNA devices.

28. The arrangement of claim 9, wherein the means for controlling permits activation and deactivation of both the application-specific and protocol-specific resources controlled via the management station.

17. A method for managing heterogeneous resources of an integrated network having a host computer and a single network management station coupled to the network, the heterogeneous resources including application-specific resources and protocol-specific resources, the method comprising the steps of:

generating an application-centric map of the network using an application tool running on the network management station, the application-centric map specifying topology information pertaining to application-specific resources conversant with the application tool;

acquiring route information (i) using a predetermined network technique that specifies an optimal path between the protocol-specific resources and the host computer, and (ii) from a table of the host computer, the table having entries whose contents define the protocol-specific resources with respect to the host computer;

correlating the topology and route information at the network management station to enable management of the heterogeneous resources from the single management station; and

controlling at the single management station both the application-specific resources and the protocol-specific resources based upon correlated topology and route informations;

wherein the topology information and route information have different respective syntaxes and are stored in different respective portions of a database, and the network management station is configured to compensate for differences in said syntaxes by placing the portions of the database into a format that permits comparison between contents of said portions.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the contents of the table entries comprise a name and exchange identifier, the latter being a unique identifier that identifies each protocol-specific resource to the host.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the predetermined network technique is source-route-bridging using an explorer frame and wherein the step of acquiring route information further comprises the step of extracting the contents of a routing information field from the explorer frame at the host computer.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the step of extracting comprises the step of parsing the contents of the routing information field into segment fields comprising ring-bridge pairs.

23. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of displaying on a console of the management station a graphical representation of the integrated network based upon the correlated information.

26. The method of claim 17, wherein the application-specific resources are IP devices, and the protocol-specific resources are SNA devices.

29. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of controlling comprises the step of controlling activation and deactivation of the application-specific and protocol-specific resources via said management station.