Technique for correlating logical names with IP addresses on internetworking platforms

• US 6,131,117 A
• Filed: 12/29/1997
• Issued: 10/10/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Clark, Wayne, Periasamy, Ravi
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Zarni
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cardone, Jason D.
• Application Number:
  US08/999,271
• Time in Patent Office: 1,016 Days
• Field of Search: 709/220, 709/223, 709/224, 709/225, 709/230, 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 709/238, 709/244, 709/249, 707/10
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/35 involving non-standard use of addresses for implementing network functionalities, e.g. coding subscription information within the address or functional addressing, i.e. assigning an address to a function

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 generally comprises SNA and NetBIOS entities coupled to IP routers. Address information pertaining to selected IP routers and SNA entities are acquired by the routers through a series of SNA message flows. Similarly, a series of NetBIOS message flows among those IP routers coupled to the NetBIOS entities result in the acquisition of IP and NetBIOS address information of these resources at the routers. This information is used to create an IP-centric map of the network. In addition, the SNMP agents provide name information pertaining to the SNA-specific and NetBIOS-specific resources to the console using an SNMP protocol. The name information are overlaid on the map to facilitate monitoring of those specific resources by the SNMP tool.

Claims

1. A method for correlating information pertaining to heterogeneous resources of an integrated computer network having a host computer and a management station coupled to the network, the heterogeneous resources including routers coupled to first and second protocol-specific resources, the method comprising the steps of:

acquiring first address information pertaining to a first group of routers coupled to the first protocol-specific resources at the first group of routers, the address information acquired through a series of first message flows among the first group of routers and first protocol-specific resources;

acquiring second address information pertaining to a second group of routers coupled to the second protocol-specific resources at the second group of routers, the address information acquired through a series of second message flows among the second group of routers and the second protocol-specific resources;

transferring the first address information from the first group of routers to the management station in accordance with an application tool running on the management station and the first group of routers, the first address information used to generate an application-centric map of the network specifying information pertaining to routers;

transferring the second address information from the second group of routers to the management station in accordance with the application tool running on the management station and the second group of routers; and

overlaying the second address information onto the application-centric map to correlate the first and second address information and, thus, to facilitate monitoring of the protocol-specific resources by the management station.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the routers are Internet Protocol (IP) routers and wherein the application tool is a simple network management protocol (SNMP) tool configured to generate an IP-centric map specifying topology information.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the first protocol-specific resources are System Network Architecture (SNA) entities and wherein the series of first message flows comprises SNA message flows.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the first address information acquired through the SNA message flows comprises IP addresses of the first group of IP routers along with control point (CP) names of the SNA entities.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of loading the first address information into first management information blocks (MIBs) stored at the first group of IP routers.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein wherein the second protocol-specific resources are NetBIOS entities and wherein the series of second message flows comprises NetBIOS message flows.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the second address information acquired through the NetBIOS message flows comprises IP addresses of the second group of IP routers along with NetBIOS names of the NetBIOS entities.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising the step of loading the second address information into second MIBs stored at the second group of IP routers.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of transferring the first address information comprises the step of transferring the IP addresses and CP names stored in the first MIBs to the management station in accordance with the SNMP tool.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the step of transferring the second address information comprises the step of transferring the IP addresses and NetBIOS names stored in the second MIBs to the management station in accordance with the SNMP tool.

11. A system for correlating information pertaining to heterogeneous resources of an integrated computer network having a host computer and a management station coupled to the network, the heterogeneous resources including routers coupled to first and second protocol-specific resources, the system comprising:

means for acquiring first address information pertaining to a first group of routers coupled to the first protocol-specific resources at the first group of routers;

means for acquiring second address information pertaining to a second group of routers coupled to the second protocol-specific resources at the second group of routers;

means for transferring the first address information from the first group of routers to the management station in accordance with an application tool running on the management station and the first group of routers;

means for transferring the second address information from the second group of routers to the management station in accordance with the application tool running on the management station and the second group of routers;

an application tool executing on the network management station for generating an application-centric map of the network using the first address information; and

means for 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.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the means for acquiring first address information comprises a series of first message flows among the first group of routers and first protocol-specific resources.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the means for acquiring the second address information comprises a series of second message flows among the second group of routers and the second protocol-specific resources.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the routers are Internet Protocol (IP) routers and wherein the application tool is a simple network management protocol (SNMP) tool configured to generate an IP-centric map specifying topology information.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the routers include SNMP agents that are queried by the network management station using a SNMP protocol to create the application-centric map.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the first protocol-specific resources are System Network Architecture (SNA) entities and wherein the series of first message flows comprises SNA message flows.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the second protocol-specific resources are NetBIOS entities and wherein the series of second message flows comprises NetBIOS message flows.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the first address information acquired through the SNA message flows comprises IP addresses of the first group of IP routers along with control point (CP) names of the SNA entities.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the second address information acquired through the NetBIOS message flows comprises IP addresses of the second group of IP routers along with NetBIOS names of the NetBIOS entities.

20. The system of claim 19 further comprising management information blocks (MIBs) stored at the routers for storing the first and second address information.

21. A network management station for correlating information pertaining to heterogeneous resources of an integrated computer network having a host computer, the heterogeneous resources including routers coupled to first and second protocol-specific resources, the network management station comprising:

a processor;

an application tool executing on the processor for generating an application-centric map of the network;

means for receiving first address information from a first group of routers, the first address information pertaining to the first group of routers coupled to the first protocol-specific resources, the first address information further used by the application tool when generating the application-centric map;

means for receiving second address information from a second group of routers, the second address information pertaining to the second group of routers coupled to the second protocol-specific resources; and

means for overlaying the second address information onto the application-centric map to correlate the first and second address information and, thus, to facilitate monitoring of the protocol-specific resources by the management station.

22. A method for correlating information pertaining to heterogeneous resources of an integrated computer network having a host computer and a management station coupled to the network, the heterogeneous resources including routers coupled to first and second protocol-specific resources, the method comprising the steps of:

generating an application-centric map of the network at the management station using an application tool;

receiving first address information from a first group of routers at the management station, the first address information pertaining to the first group of routers coupled to the first protocol-specific resources, the first address information further used by the application tool when generating the application-centric map;

receiving second address information from a second group of routers at the management station, the second address information pertaining to the second group of routers coupled to the second protocol-specific resources; and

overlaying the second address information onto the application-centric map to correlate the first and second address information and, thus, to facilitate monitoring of the protocol-specific resources by the management station.