Method and system for using abstract classes to extract status information from networked devices

• US 7,574,503 B2
• Filed: 08/27/2004
• Issued: 08/11/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Motoyama, Tetsuro, Fong, Avery
• Primary Examiner(s): Pwu; Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bruckart; Benjamin R
• Application Number:
  US10/927,257
• Publication Number:
  US 20060059255A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,810 Days
• Field of Search: 709223-226
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/022 Multivendor or multi-standard integration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0226 Mapping or translating multiple network management protocols
• 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 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/06 Generation of reports

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program product for extracting, for a selected communication protocol, status information related to a monitored device communicatively coupled to a network, including accessing the monitored device using the selected communication protocol to obtain at least vendor information related to the monitored device; obtaining, from a first memory, information identifying an access function for extracting the status information from an accessible data file on the monitored device; generating a string based on the obtained vendor information and the obtained access function information; retrieving, from a second memory in correspondence to the generated string, (1) information of a data processing object associated with the access function, and (2) an information map that includes at least a type of status information to be extracted from the monitored device and a weight associated with the status information; and accessing the monitored device using the access function, the information map, and the selected communication protocol to obtain the status information.

Claims

1. A method of extracting, for a selected communication protocol, status information related to a monitored device communicatively coupled to a network, comprising:

accessing the monitored device using the selected communication protocol to obtain at least vendor information related to the monitored device;

obtaining, from a first memory, information identifying an access function for extracting the status information from an accessible data on the monitored device;

generating a string based on the obtained vendor information and the obtained access function information;

retrieving, from a second memory in correspondence to the generated string, (1) information of a data processing object associated with the access function, and (2) an information map that includes at least a type of status information to be extracted from the monitored device and a weight associated with the status information, the weight representing a priority of the status information to be extracted by the selected communication protocol;

accessing the monitored device using the access function, the information map, and the selected communication protocol to obtain the status information; and

storing the obtained status information, in a third memory, based on a comparison between the weight that is associated with the status information obtained using the selected communication protocol, and another weight that is associated with the status information obtained using another communication protocol, wherein

the accessing the monitored device using the access function comprises accessing the monitored device to obtain the status information based on the weight representing the priority of the status information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing the monitored device to obtain model information related to the monitored device,

wherein the generating step comprises generating the string using the vendor and the model information.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

repeating the accessing, obtaining, generating, retrieving, and accessing steps for each communication protocol in a plurality of communication protocols used to extract the status information from the monitored device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting the communication protocol among SNMP, HTTP, and FTP.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the retrieving comprises retrieving the information map that includes at least the type of status information to be extracted from the monitored device and the weight associated with the status information relative to status information extracted by at least one other communication protocol.

6. A system for extracting, for a selected communication protocol, status information related to a monitored device communicatively coupled to a network, comprising:

a controller including

means for accessing the monitored device using the selected communication protocol to obtain at least vendor information related to the monitored device;

means for obtaining, from a first memory, information identifying an access function for extracting the status information from an accessible data on the monitored device;

means for generating a string based on the obtained vendor information and the obtained access function information;

means for retrieving, from a second memory in correspondence to the generated string, (1) information of a data processing object associated with the access function, and (2) an information map that includes at least a type of status information to be extracted from the monitored device and a weight associated with the status information, the weight representing a priority of the status information to be extracted by the selected communication protocol;

means for accessing the monitored device using the access function, the information map, and the selected communication protocol to obtain the status information; and

means for storing the obtained status information, in a third memory, based on a comparison between the weight that is associated with the status information obtained using the selected communication protocol, and another weight that is associated with the status information obtained using another communication protocol, wherein

the means for accessing the monitored device using the access function accesses the monitored device to obtain the status information based on the weight representing the priority of the status information.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the controller further comprises:

means for accessing the monitored device to obtain model information related to the monitored device,

wherein the means for generating comprises means for generating the string using the vendor and the model information.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the controller further comprises:

means for selecting the communication protocol among SNMP, HTTP, and FTP.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the means for retrieving retrieves the information map that includes at least the type of status information to be extracted from the monitored device and the weight associated with the status information relative to status information extracted by at least one other communication protocol.

10. A computer-readable storage medium having embedded therein instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method for extracting, for a selected communication protocol, status information related to a monitored device communicatively coupled to a network, the method comprising:

accessing the monitored device using the selected communication protocol to obtain at least vendor information related to the monitored device;

obtaining, from a first memory, information identifying an access function for extracting the status information from an accessible data on the monitored device;

generating a string based on the obtained vendor information and the obtained access function information;

retrieving, from a second memory in correspondence to the generated string, (1) information of a data processing object associated with the access function, and (2) an information map that includes at least a type of status information to be extracted from the monitored device and a weight associated with the status information, the weight representing a priority of the status information to be extracted by the selected communication protocol;

accessing the monitored device using the access function, the information map, and the selected communication protocol to obtain the status information; and

storing the obtained status information, in a third memory, based on a comparison between the weight that is associated with the status information obtained using the selected communication protocol, and another weight that is associated with the status information obtained using another communication protocol, wherein

the accessing the monitored device using the access function comprises accessing the monitored device to obtain the status information based on the weight representing the priority of the status information.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

accessing the monitored device to obtain model information related to the monitored device,

wherein the generating comprises generating the string using the vendor and the model information.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

repeating the accessing, obtaining, generating, retrieving, and accessing, for each communication protocol in a plurality of communication protocols used to extract the status information from the monitored device.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

selecting the communication protocol among SNMP, HTTP, and FTP.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the retrieving comprises retrieving the information map that includes at least the type of status information to be extracted from the monitored device and the weight associated with the status information relative to status information extracted by at least one other communication protocol.

15. A system for extracting, for a selected communication protocol, status information related to a monitored device communicatively coupled to a network, comprising:

a first accessing unit configured to access the monitored device using the selected communication protocol to obtain at least vendor information related to the monitored device;

an obtaining unit configured to obtain, from a first memory, information identifying an access function for extracting the status information from an accessible data on the monitored device;

a generating unit configured to generate a string based on the obtained vendor information and the obtained access function information;

a retrieving unit configured to retrieve, from a second memory in correspondence to the generated string, (1) information of a data processing object associated with the access function, and (2) an information map that includes at least a type of status information to be extracted from the monitored device and a weight associated with the status information, the weight representing a priority of the status information to be extracted by the selected communication protocol;

a second accessing unit configured to access the monitored device using the access function, the information map, and the selected communication protocol to obtain the status information; and

a storage unit configured to store the obtained status information, in a third memory, based on a comparison between the weight that is associated with the status information obtained using the selected communication protocol, and another weight that is associated with the status information obtained using another communication protocol, wherein

the second accessing unit is configured to access the monitored device to obtain the status information based on the weight representing the priority of the status information.