Management information to object mapping

• US 7,143,156 B2
• Filed: 10/09/2001
• Issued: 11/28/2006
• 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): SALAD, ABDULLAHI ELMI
• Application Number:
  US09/974,423
• Publication Number:
  US 20020091809A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,876 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/220, 709/230, 709/245, 709/246, 709/315, 709/316, 709/331, 709/328, 709/321, 707/103, 707/103.Y, 707/130.R
• US Class Current: 709/223
• 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. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions, comprising:

obtaining a set of management information having a plurality of data structures comprising MIB objects including a table collection, wherein at least one data structure describes multiple instances of a type definition;

translating the set of management information to object classes, the translating including translating the at least one data structure describing multiple instances to a class comprising a keyed MOF object class capable of describing a plurality of instances, at least one of the object classes inheriting from at least one of the other object classes; and

storing the object classes.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein translating the set of management information to object classes further includes translating at least one data structure in the set of management information to a singleton class.

3. A method, comprising:

obtaining a set of management information having a plurality of data structures comprising MIB objects including a table collection, wherein at least one data structure describes multiple instances of a type definition;

translating the set of management information to object classes, the translating including translating the at least one data structure describing multiple instances to a class comprising a keyed MOF object class capable of describing a plurality of instances at least one of the object classes inheriting from at least one of the other object classes;

storing the object classes; and

after storing the object classes, receiving a request and satisfying the request via the stored object classes.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein satisfying the request via the stored object classes comprises:

selecting an object class;

instantiating an object from the definition provided by the object class; and

executing a method of the object to provide information for the request.

5. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 3.

6. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions, comprising:

obtaining a set of management information having a plurality of data structures comprising MIB objects including a table collection, wherein at least one data structure describes multiple instances of a type definition;

translating the set of management information to object classes, the translating including translating the at least one data structure describing multiple instances to a class comprising a keyed MOF object class capable of describing a plurality of instances, at least one of the object classes inheriting from at least one of the other object classes; and

storing the object classes prior to receiving a request from a device seeking information pertaining to a managed device associated with the set of management information.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, further comprising

receiving a request for information pertaining to a managed device associated with the set of management information;

in response to the request, instantiating an object from a definition provided by an object class; and

providing information to satisfy the request via the object.