Management information to object mapping and correlator

• US 6,317,748 B1
• Filed: 05/08/1998
• Issued: 11/13/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ahmed, Syed N., Osborne, Kenneth M., Menzies, Steven J., Byrisetty, Rajeev
• Primary Examiner(s): Burgess, Glenton B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Trim, Nkosi N
• Application Number:
  US09/074,853
• Time in Patent Office: 1,285 Days
• Field of Search: 704/223, 704/224, 707/103, 707/100, 707/101, 707/4, 707/103.R, 707/103.Y, 707/103.Z
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0233 Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99946 Object-oriented database structure network

Abstract

A method and system to provide management information of network devices by mapping between SNMP MIB module schema and Common Information Model (CIM) schema. MIB modules are tree-structured lists of objects for describing SNMP network device information, whereas CIM schema employs user-intuitive, object-oriented classes to model such information. A mapping process enumerates the MIB objects and then maps the objects into CIM Managed Object Format (MOF) classes using defined mapping tables. A correlation mechanism is further provided to efficiently determine in real time which MIBs (or portions thereof) and corresponding CIM classes a network device supports.

Claims

1. In a computer system, a method of mapping Management Information Base (MIB) objects to non-MIB object-oriented managed object classes, comprising, enumerating the MIB objects of a MIB module, and for each MIB object, determining whether the MIB object corresponds to a scalar collection or a table collection, and if the MIB object corresponds to a scalar collection, mapping the MIB object information to a singleton class and maintaining the mapping for subsequent data modeling, and if the MIB object corresponds to a table collection, mapping the MIB object information to a class capable of describing a plurality of instances and maintaining the mapping for subsequent data modeling.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the object classes comprise managed object format (MOF) classes.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether the MIB object corresponds to a scalar collection or a table collection comprises determining if a direct parent in a MIB tree is a named node.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the MIB object corresponds to a scalar collection, and wherein determining whether the MIB object corresponds to a scalar collection or a table collection comprises evaluating syntax in the MIB object.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the MIB object corresponds to a scalar collection, and wherein mapping the MIB object information to the singleton class includes accessing a mapping table.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the MIB object corresponds to a scalar collection, and wherein mapping the MIB object information to the singleton class includes extracting properties from the MIB object.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the MIB object corresponds to a scalar collection, and wherein mapping the MIB object information to the singleton class comprises translating the MIB object information to MOF class information.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the MIB object corresponds to a scalar collection, and wherein mapping the MIB object information to a singleton class includes extracting the MIB object name from the scalar collection, and basing a class name thereon.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the MIB object corresponds to a table collection, and wherein mapping the MIB object information to the class capable of describing a plurality of instances comprises accessing a mapping table.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the MIB object corresponds to a table collection, and wherein mapping the MIB object information to the class capable of describing a plurality of instances comprises extracting keys of a keyed class of the table collection.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the MIB object corresponds to a table collection, and wherein mapping the MIB object information to the class capable of describing a plurality of instances comprises mapping the MIB object information to a keyed MOF object.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the MIB object corresponds to a table collection, and wherein mapping the MIB object information to the class capable of describing a plurality of instances includes extracting properties from the MIB object.

13. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

14. In a computer system, a method of mapping Management Information Base (MIB) objects to non-MIB object-oriented managed object classes, comprising, enumerating the MIB objects of a MIB module, and for each MIB object, determining whether the MIB object corresponds to a scalar collection or a table collection, and if the MIB object corresponds to a scalar collection, mapping the MIB object information to a singleton class by translating the MIB object information to (Managed Object Format) MOF class information, and maintaining the mapping for subsequent data modeling, and, if the MIB object corresponds to a table collection, mapping the MIB object information to a class capable of describing a plurality of instances and maintaining the mapping for subsequent data modeling.

15. In a computer system, a method of mapping Management Information Base (MIB) objects to non-MIB object-oriented managed object classes, comprising, enumerating the MIB objects of a MIB module, and for each MIB object, determining whether the MIB object corresponds to a scalar collection or a table collection, and if the MIB object corresponds to a scalar collection, mapping the MIB object information to a singleton class and maintaining the mapping for subsequent data modeling, and if the MIB object corresponds to a table collection, mapping the MIB object information to a class capable of describing a plurality of instances by extracting keys of a keyed class of the table collection, and maintaining the mapping for subsequent data modeling.

16. In a computer system, a method of mapping Management Information Base (MIB) objects to non-MIB object-oriented managed object classes, comprising, enumerating the MIB objects of a MIB module, and for each MIB object, determining whether the MIB object corresponds to a scalar collection or a table collection, and if the MIB object corresponds to a scalar collection, mapping the MIB object information to a singleton class and maintaining the mapping for subsequent data modeling, and if the MIB object corresponds to a table collection, mapping the MIB object information to a class capable of describing a plurality of instances by mapping the MIB object information to a keyed (Managed Object Format) MOF object, and maintaining the mapping for subsequent data modeling.