Systems and methods for interfacing with network information collection devices

• US 7,885,194 B1
• Filed: 08/22/2008
• Issued: 02/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Payne, David, Narin, Dogu, Tully, Siobhan
• Primary Examiner(s): Trost, IV; William
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Toan D
• Application Number:
  US12/196,493
• Time in Patent Office: 900 Days
• Field of Search: 370/242, 370/245, 370/252, 370/254, 370/241, 370/247, 370/248, 370/250, 370/251, 702/188, 709/220, 709/224, 714/48, 717/127
• US Class Current: 370/242
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0686 Additional information in the notification, e.g. enhancement of specific meta-data

Abstract

A network device may include logic configured to receive a problem report from a second network device, where the problem report includes event data, determine at least one of an action to perform or whether reconfiguration information is associated with the event data in the received problem report and add information to the received problem report to provide a reformatted problem report and transmit the reformatted problem report to a third network device when it is determined that reconfiguration information is not associated with the event data in the problem report.

Claims

1. A network device comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive a first extensible markup language (XML) problem report and a second XML problem report from a second network device, where the first XML problem report includes a first XML header and first XML event data and the second XML problem report includes a second XML header and second XML event data, where each of the first XML problem report and the second XML problem report includes fault data collected by a reactive script, following expiration of a short timer associated with the second network device, the fault data associated with a fault condition, and operation data collected by a proactive script, following expiration of a long timer associated with the second network device, the operation data associated with a non-fault condition;

identify, based on the first XML header and the second XML header, that the first XML problem report and the second XML problem reports are problem reports;

process, in response to identifying that the first XML problem report and the second XML problem reports are problem reports, the fault data and the operation data, in the first XML event data and the second XML event data, to determine that the first XML event data, in the first XML problem report, is associated with a particular reconfiguration information, of a plurality of reconfiguration information corresponding with the second network device, and that the second XML event data in the second XML problem report is not associated with any of the plurality of reconfiguration information;

transmit the particular reconfiguration information and authentication data, associated with the network device, to the second network device, in response to the first XML problem report;

form a reformatted second XML problem report, including adding additional information to the second XML problem report based on the second XML event data where the additional information includes changes to the second XML header to identify the network device and data from processing the fault data and the operation data, in the second XML event data; and

transmit the second reformatted XML problem report to a third network device.

2. The network device of claim 1, where the processor, when processing the first XML event data and the second XML event data, is further configured to:

identify, based on the first XML event data, a first type of event that occurred in the second network device that led to generation of the first XML problem report; and

determine the reconfiguration information based on the identified first type of event that occurred in the second network device.

3. The network device of claim 1, where the processor, when forming the reformatted second XML problem report, is further configured to:

identify, based on the second XML event data, a second type of event that occurred in the second network device that led to generation of the second XML problem report; and

add the information to the reformatted second XML problem report based on the identified second type of event that occurred in the second network device.

4. The network device of claim 3, where the information added to the reformatted second XML problem report, based on the identified second type of event, includes an action to be performed by the third network device in response to the receiving the reformatted second XML problem report.

5. The network device of claim 3, where the information added to the reformatted second XML problem report, based on the identified second type of event, includes an alert, to the third network device, related to the identified second type of event at the second network device.

6. The network device of claim 1, where the processor, when forming the reformatted second XML problem report, is further configured to:

add the information to the reformatted second XML problem report based on an attribute of the third network device that receives the reformatted second XML problem report.

7. The network device of claim 1, where the processor, when forming the reformatted second XML problem report, is further configured to:

identify confidential data in the second XML problem report; and

filter out the confidential data in the reformatted second XML problem report prior to transmitting the reformatted second XML problem report to the third network device.

8. The network device of claim 1, where the reconfiguration information includes at least one of a software process or a script associated with the second XML event data.

9. A method, performed by a network device, the method comprising:

associating one of an action or reconfiguration information with each of a plurality of event data types;

receiving a first extensible markup language XML problem report from a first network device, where the first XML problem report includes a first XML header and a first type of event data, of the plurality of event data types, where the first type of event data is associated with a particular action;

receiving a second XML problem report from a first network device, where the second XML problem report includes a second XML header and a second type of event data, of the plurality of event data types, where the second type of event data is associated with a particular reconfiguration information,

where each of the first XML problem report and the second XML problem report includes fault data collected by a reactive script, following expiration of a short timer associated with the second network device, the fault data associated with a fault condition, and operation data collected by a proactive script, following expiration of a long timer associated with the second network device, the operation data associated with a non-fault condition;

identifying, based on the first XML header and the second XML header, that the first XML problem report and the second XML problem reports are problem reports;

forming, based on the fault data and the operation data in the first XML problem report, a third XML problem report, where the third XML problem report includes an indication of the first type of event data, from the first XML problem report, the particular action associated with the first type of event data from the first XML problem report, where forming the third XML problem report includes modifying the first XML header to identify the network device;

transmitting the third XML problem report to a second network device;

forming a fourth XML problem report based on the second XML problem report, where the fourth XML problem report includes an indication of the second type of event data, from the second XML problem_report, authentication data associated with the network device, and the particular reconfiguration information associated with the second type of event data from the second XML problem report; and

transmitting the fourth XML problem report to the first network device.

10. The method of claim 9, where forming the third problem report further includes:

including security information and timestamp information, associated with the first XML problem report, in the third XML problem report.

11. The method of claim 9, where the third XML problem report enables the second network device to perform the particular action associated with the first type of event data included in the first XML problem report.

12. The method of claim 11, where the second network device is associated with a customer intelligence database, and

where the particular action includes:

analyzing data from the third XML problem report, and

storing the data, from the third XML problem report, in the customer intelligence database.

13. The method of claim 9, where the particular action includes:

determining, by the second device, another reconfiguration information associated with the first network device and the first type of event data from the first XML problem report, where the reconfiguration information includes at least one of a software process or a script; and

forwarding, from the second network device, the other reconfiguration information to the first network device.

14. The method of claim 13, where the reconfiguration information includes data to correct an event that occurred in the first network device, where the first type of event data is associated with the event.

15. The method of claim 13, where the second network device is associated with a vendor of the first network device.

16. A memory device comprising instructions executable by a processor of a network device, the instructions including:

one or more instructions for receiving a first extensible markup language (XML) problem report and a second XML problem report from a downstream network device, where the first XML problem report includes first event XML data and the second XML problem report includes second XML event data, where each of the first XML problem report and the second XML problem report includes fault data collected by a reactive script, following expiration of a short timer associated with the second network device, the fault data associated with a fault condition, and operation data collected by a proactive script, following expiration of a long timer associated with the second network device, the operation data associated with a non-fault condition;

one or more instructions for processing the first XML event data and the second XML event data to determine that the first XML event data, in the first XML problem report, is associated with a particular reconfiguration information, of a plurality of reconfiguration information corresponding with the downstream network device, and that the second XML event data in the second XML problem report is not associated with any of the plurality of reconfiguration information;

one or more instructions reformatting, based on the fault data and the operation data in the second XML problem report, the second XML problem report, including adding additional information to the received second XML problem report based on the second XML event data where reformatting the second problem report includes changing the first second header to identify the network device;

one or more instructions for transmitting the reformatted second XML problem report to an upstream network device; and

one or more instructions for transmitting the first XML problem report and authentication data, associated with the network device, in to the downstream network device.

17. The memory device of claim 16, where the one or more instructions for reformatting the second XML problem report includes:

one or more instructions for filtering out confidential data included in the received second XML problem report.

18. The memory device of claim 16, where the one or more instructions for reformatting the second XML problem report includes:

one or more instructions for including security information and timestamp information, associated with the received second XML problem report, in the reformatted second XML problem report.

19. The memory device of claim 16, where the one or more instructions for transmitting the first XML problem report includes:

one or more instructions to receive, from the upstream network device, the reconfiguration information; and

one or more instructions to forward, to the downstream network device, the received reconfiguration information from the upstream network device.

20. The memory device of claim 16, where the instructions further include:

one or more instructions for determining the reconfiguration information based on the first XML event data from the first XML problem report.