Method and apparatus for monitoring the status of non-pollable devices in a computer network

• US 6,049,828 A
• Filed: 09/15/1998
• Issued: 04/11/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cabletron Systems Incorporated (Extreme Networks, Inc.)
• Inventors: Nelson, Mark H., Dev, Roger H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Follensbee, John A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Dzung C
• Application Number:
  US09/153,711
• Time in Patent Office: 574 Days
• Field of Search: 345/969, 709/220, 709/223, 709/224, 709/225, 709/226, 709/229, 709/249, 709/253, 709/239, 714/11, 714/43, 714/56
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: B63B 5/06 Decks; Shells
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2257 using expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3041 where the computing system component is an input/output interface interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units G06F13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3048 where the topology of the computing system or computing system component explicitly influences the monitoring activity, e.g. serial, hierarchical systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3096 wherein the means or processing minimize the use of computing system or of computing system component resources, e.g. non-intrusive monitoring which minimizes the probe effect: sniffing, intercepting, indirectly deriving the monitored data from other directly available data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/32 with visual or acoustical indication of the functioning of the machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3447 Performance evaluation by modeling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0604 using filtering, e.g. reduction of information by using priority, element types, position or time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0609 based on severity or priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0659 by isolating or reconfiguring faulty entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0677 Localisation of faults
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0686 Additional information in the notification, e.g. enhancement of specific meta-data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/069 using logs of notifications; Post-processing of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0695 the faulty arrangement being the maintenance, administration or management system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 : using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 : Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 : related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 : by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 : by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 : Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 : Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/103 : with adaptive polling, i.e. dynamically adapting the polling rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 : Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 706/916 : Electronic or computer, internal or network, circuit

Abstract

A network management system includes a user interface, a virtual network and a device communication manager. The virtual network includes models which represent network entities and model relations which represent relations between network entities. Each model includes network data relating to a corresponding network entity and one or more inference handlers for processing the network data to provide user information. The system can poll or communicate with certain network entities and can infer the status of network connectors and other network entities for which polling is impossible or impractical. The system performs a fault isolation technique wherein the fault status of a network device is suppressed when it is determined that the device is not defective. User displays include hierarchical location views and topological views of the network configuration. Network devices are represented on the displays by multifunction icons which permit the user to select additional displays showing detailed information regarding different aspects of the corresponding network device.

Claims

1. In a network comprising interrelated network entities including communicating network entities and at least one non-communicating network entity, a method for monitoring a status of the non-communicating network entity, comprising the steps of:

providing an electronic network management system;

said network management system communicating with said communicating network entities to obtain operational information as to the communicating network entities; and

said network management system using the operational information as to the communicating network entities and information as to relations between said non-communicating network entity and said communicating network entities to infer the status of the non-communicating network entity.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the step of communicating with said communicating network entities includes said network management system polling said network entities at predetermined intervals.

3. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the step of providing an electronic network management system includes the step of maintaining in the network management system a representation of the network including models and relations between models, said models including models of said communicating network entities and inferred models of said non-communicating network entity, each model including one or more inference handlers, said inference handlers in said inferred models updating status information in response to information obtained from the models of said communicating network entities.

4. A method as defined in claim 1 further including the step of providing the status of the non-communicating network entity to a user.

5. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the step of inferring the status of the non-communicating network entity includes inferring a lost contact status when all network entities connected to the non-communicating network entity have a lost contact status.

6. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the step of inferring the status of the non-communicating network entity includes inferring an established contact status when at least one network entity connected to the non-communicating network entity has an established contact status.

7. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the step of inferring the status of the non-communicating entity includes inferring an initial contact status when all network entities connected to the non-communicating network entity have an initial contact status.

8. A method as defined in claim 1 further including the step of updating the information as to relations between said non-communicating network entity and said communicating network entities when a network entity is added to or removed from said network.

9. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the step of obtaining operational information as to the communicating network entities includes periodically updating a contact status of said communicating network entities.

10. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the step of obtaining operational information as to the communicating network entities includes updating a contact status of ports in a ported network entity.