Integrated audit and configuration techniques

• US 7,761,794 B1
• Filed: 01/22/2004
• Issued: 07/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Namasivayam, Premchandar, Chari, Srikumar, Jiang, Jason Yansheng, Pathrikar, Swapnil
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashore; William L
• Assistant Examiner(s): LONG, ANDREA NATAE
• Application Number:
  US10/764,323
• Time in Patent Office: 2,371 Days
• Field of Search: 715/961, 715/962, 709/223
• US Class Current: 715/700
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Techniques for integrated audit and configuration are provided. The techniques include receiving a request from a user to analyze first configuration information with a second set of configuration information; receiving the first configuration information; analyzing one or more parameters of the first configuration information with the second set of configuration information to result in creating and storing comparison information; displaying the comparison information; choosing one or more action mechanisms to provide to the user for each of the one or more parameters based on the comparison information; and enabling the user to perform one or more actions associated with the one or more action mechanisms.

Claims

1. A method for integrated audit and configuration comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

receiving a request from a user to analyze first configuration information with a second set of configuration information;

receiving the first configuration information;

analyzing one or more parameters of the first configuration information with the second set of configuration information to result in creating and storing comparison information;

displaying the comparison information including displaying parameters of the first configuration that do not conform with the parameters of the second configuration;

choosing one or more action mechanisms to display to the user for each of the one or more parameters based on the comparison information including the non-conforming parameters;

enabling the user to select a displayed action mechanism to perform one or more actions associated with the one or more action mechanisms;

based on the user'"'"'s selection, generating instructions and applying changes to the first configuration information;

wherein the one or more action mechanisms comprise at least one from a group consisting of toggle actions, wizard actions, and lockdown actions;

wherein each of the one or more action mechanisms has separate properties and characteristics and performs separate changes to the first configuration file;

receiving a second request from the user to perform one action of the one or more actions;

performing the one action;

wherein the second request is one of one or more requests to perform one or more corresponding actions;

performing the one or more corresponding actions based on the one or more requests to perform actions by constructing a new configuration information based on the first configuration information and each of the one or more corresponding actions;

checking the new configuration against an object model of acceptable configurations, wherein the object model comprises constraints for each parameter in the configuration, interrelations among those parameters, and how those parameters relate as a whole to the device being configured;

if the changes are not acceptable, displaying a summary of problems.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of configuration information comprises a set of one or more parameter values;

and wherein the step of analyzing one or more parameters of the first configuration information comprises comparing a values of each of the one or more parameters in the first configuration information with a corresponding parameter values from the set of one or more parameter values from the second set of configuration information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of configuration information comprises a set of one or more rules;

and wherein the step of analyzing one or more parameters of the first configuration information comprises analyzing the one or more parameters of the first configuration information with respect to the set of one or more rules.

4. The method of claim 1, where the new configuration is the configuration for a configurable system;

wherein the configurable system includes one or more configurable devices; and

wherein the method further comprises the steps of;

receiving a third request to submit the changes;

checking the new configuration information against an object model of acceptable configurations; and

if the changes are acceptable, configuring the configurable system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first configuration information comprises the configuration for a configurable system;

wherein the configurable system includes one or more configurable devices; and

wherein the first configuration information is for each of the one or more configurable devices; and

wherein the step of receiving the first configuration information comprises obtaining the first configuration information for each of the one or more configurable devices.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of configuration information is one of one or more sets of second configuration information;

and wherein the method further comprises selecting the second set of configuration information based on the request from the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of configuration information is one er of one or more sets of second configuration information;

and wherein the method further comprises selecting the second set of configuration information based on one or more sets of configuration information for a device to be configured.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more actions comprise one or more toggle actions, and the one or more action mechanisms comprise one or more toggle action mechanisms, and wherein the step of performing the action associated with a particular toggle action mechanism comprises changing a parameter value associated with the particular toggle action mechanism.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more actions comprise one or more fix actions, and the one or more action mechanisms comprise one or more fix action mechanisms, and wherein the step of performing the action associated with the fix action mechanism comprises changing a parameter value associated with a particular fix action mechanism based on a corresponding parameter value in the second set of configuration information.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more actions comprise one or more user input actions, and the one or more action mechanisms comprise one or more user input action mechanisms, and wherein the step of performing the action associated with a particular user input action mechanism comprises:

obtaining user input for a parameter value associated with the particular user input action mechanism; and

changing the parameter value associated with the particular user input action mechanism based on the user input.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more actions comprise one or more wizard actions, and the one or more action mechanisms comprise one or more wizard action mechanisms, and wherein the step of performing the action associated with a particular wizard action mechanism comprises the step of running a wizard associated with the particular wizard action mechanism.

12. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the processors to perform:

receiving a request from a user to analyze first configuration information with a second set of configuration information;

receiving the first configuration information;

analyzing one or more parameters of the first configuration information with the second set of configuration information to result in creating and storing comparison information;

displaying the comparison information including displaying parameters of the first configuration that do not conform with the parameters of the second configuration;

choosing one or more action mechanisms to display to the user for each of the one or more parameters based on the comparison information including the non-conforming parameters;

enabling the user to select a displayed action mechanism to perform one or more actions associated with the one or more action mechanisms;

based on the user'"'"'s selection, generating instructions and applying changes to the first configuration information;

wherein the one or more action mechanisms comprise at least one from a group consisting of toggle actions, wizard actions, and lockdown actions;

wherein each of the one or more action mechanisms has separate properties and characteristics and performs separate changes to the first configuration file;

receiving a second request from the user to perform one action of the one or more actions;

performing the one action;

wherein the second request is one of one or more requests to perform one or more corresponding actions;

performing the one or more corresponding actions based on the one or more requests to perform actions by constructing a new configuration information based on the first configuration information and each of the one or more corresponding actions;

checking the new configuration against an object model of acceptable configurations, wherein the object model comprises constraints for each parameter in the configuration, interrelations among those parameters, and how those parameters relate as a whole to the device being configured;

if the changes are not acceptable, displaying a summary of problems.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the second set of configuration information comprises a set of one or more parameter values;

and wherein the instructions that cause analyzing one or more parameters of the first configuration information comprise instructions that cause comparing a value of each of the one or more parameters in the first configuration information with a corresponding parameter value from the set of one or more parameter values from the second set of configuration information.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the second set of configuration information comprises a set of one or more rules;

wherein the instructions that cause analyzing one or more parameters of the first configuration information comprise instructions that cause analyzing the one or more parameters of the first configuration information with respect to the set of one or more rules.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the new configuration is the configuration for a configurable system;

wherein the configurable system includes one or more configurable devices;

further comprising one or more sequences of instructions that cause the processors to receive a third request to submit the changes;

check the new configuration information against an object model of acceptable configurations;

if the changes are acceptable, configure the configurable system.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the first configuration information comprises the configuration for a configurable system;

wherein the configurable system includes one or more configurable devices;

wherein the first configuration information is for each of the one or more configurable devices;

wherein the instructions which cause receiving the first configuration information comprise instructions that cause obtaining the first configuration information for each of the one or more configurable devices.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the second set of configuration information is one of one or more sets of second configuration information;

further comprising one or more sequences of instructions that cause the processors to select the second set of configuration information based on the request from the user.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the second set of configuration information is one of one or more sets of second configuration information;

further comprising one or more sequences of instructions that cause the processors to select the second set of configuration information based on one or more sets of configuration information for a device to be configured.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the one or more actions comprise one or more toggle actions;

wherein the one or more action mechanisms comprise one or more toggle action mechanisms;

wherein the instructions that cause performing the action associated with a particular toggle action mechanism comprise instructions that cause changing a parameter value associated with the particular toggle action mechanism.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the one or more actions comprise one or more fix actions;

wherein the one or more action mechanisms comprise one or more fix action mechanisms;

wherein the instructions that cause performing the action associated with the fix action mechanism comprise instructions that cause changing a parameter value associated with a particular fix action mechanism based on a corresponding parameter value in the second set of configuration information.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the one or more actions comprise one or more user input actions;

wherein the one or more action mechanisms comprise one or more user input action mechanisms;

wherein the instructions that cause performing the action associated with a particular user input action mechanism comprise instructions which when executed cause

obtaining user input for a parameter value associated with the particular user input action mechanism;

changing the parameter value associated with the particular user input action mechanism based on the user input.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the one or more actions comprise one or more wizard actions;

wherein the one or more action mechanisms comprise one or more wizard action mechanisms;

wherein the instructions that cause performing the action associated with a particular wizard action mechanism comprise instructions that cause running a wizard associated with the particular wizard action mechanism.