Network administration systems and methods

• US 9,338,056 B2
• Filed: 10/26/2006
• Issued: 05/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: McGee, Michael Sean, Walker, James R., Stratton, Mark C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Laekemariam, Yosef K
• Application Number:
  US11/553,304
• Publication Number:
  US 20080104213A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,484 Days
• Field of Search: 379/112.05, 379/221.15, 379/221.08, 379/26.01, 379/112.1, 379/114.01, 379/413.02, 709/223, 709/224, 709/226, 709/225
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/083 for increasing network speed
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display

Abstract

Network administration systems and methods are disclosed. In an exemplary implementation, a method of administering a computer network may include listening to inter-switch communication at a server computer in the computer network. The method may also include parsing the inter-switch communication. The method may also include extracting data about the network from the inter-switch communication for display to a user at the server computer.

Claims

1. A method of administering a computer network, comprising:

listening passively, via a driver of a server computer comprising network interface devices, to inter-switch communication in the computer network not addressed to the server computer;

parsing the inter-switch communication; and

extracting data about the computer network from the parsed inter-switch communication to give switch connection topology of the computer network for display to a user, the switch connection topology comprising coupling of the network interface devices to one or more switches in the computer network.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising identifying a type and a version of the inter-switch communication, wherein the type comprises Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the driver is associated with the network interface devices;

the switch connection topology comprises the coupling of the network interface devices to ports of the one or more switches;

the one or more switches couple the computer server to the computer network;

the network interface devices comprise network interface cards (NICs), and

the for display comprises for display at the server computer, the display comprising a representation of the switch connection topology.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the one or more switches comprise a first switch and a second switch; and

the extracted data giving the switch connection topology indicates that a first network interface device of the network interface devices is coupled to the first switch, and a second network interface device of the network interface devices is coupled to the second switch;

further comprising, in response to the extracted data, reconfiguring the switch connection topology such that the first network interface device and the second network interface device are coupled to a same switch comprising the first switch or the second switch.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising executing program code at the computer server notifying the user of a lack of switch redundancy and that switch-assisted load balancing (SLB) is an option, in response to the extracted data indicating that the network interface devices are coupled to a same switch of the one or more switches, wherein the one or more switches comprise multiple switches.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising reconfiguring the switch connection topology based on the extracted data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the extracted data is displayed for a user and reconfiguring the switch connection topology is manual based on the extracted data displayed for the user.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising executing program code at the server computer to automatically reconfigure the switch connection topology, comprising changing a duplex setting on the computer server if the duplex settings do not match for a connection.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the one or more switches comprise a first switch and a second switch;

the network interface devices comprise a first network interface device and a second network interface device in a teaming environment; and

the extracted data giving the switch connection topology indicates that the first network interface device is coupled to the first switch, and the second network interface device is coupled to the second switch; and

in response to the extracted data and if SLB is manually enabled, further comprising executing program code at the computer server warning the user that that SLB is not supported, and advising use of transmit load balancing (TLB) or dual channel.

10. A network administration system comprising:

a server computer in a computer network, the server computer including a plurality of network interface cards (NICs); and

computer readable program code stored on the server computer, the computer readable program code operatively associated with the NICs during execution to;

receive inter-switch communications at the server computer, the inter-switch communications not addressed to the server computer;

extract data from the inter-switch communication; and

determine a network topology from the extracted data, the network topology comprising coupling of the plurality of NICs to one or more switches in the computer network.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the computer readable program code extracts data by parsing the inter-switch communication, wherein the operations of parsing and extracting are protocol-specific, and wherein the protocol comprises Spanning Tree Bridge Protocol Data Unit (BPDU).

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the server computer to notify a user of a lack of switch redundancy and that switch-assisted load balancing (SLB) with respect to the plurality of NICs is an option, in response to the extracted data indicating that the plurality of network interface devices are coupled to a same switch of the one or more switches, the one or more switches comprising multiple switches.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein:

the one or more switches comprise a first switch and a second switch;

the plurality of network interface devices comprise a first network interface device and a second network interface device in a teaming environment; and

the server computer to warn a user that that SLB is not supported, and advise use of transmit load balancing (TLB) or dual channel, in response to the extracted data indicating the first network interface device is coupled to the first switch, and the second network interface device is coupled to the second switch.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the computer readable program code executes to reconfigure the computer network based on the extracted data.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the computer readable program code executes to change at least one duplex setting on the computer server if the duplex settings do not match for a connection in the computer network.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the computer readable program code executes to display the extracted data for a user.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the computer readable program code executes to display suggestions for reconfiguring the computer network based on the extracted data.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the network topology includes switch and switch port connectivity.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising program code when executed by a computer server causes the computer server to:

listen passively to inter-switch communication in a computer network, wherein the computer server comprises multiple network interface cards (NICs); and

learn network topology for the computer network by extracting data from the inter-switch communication, wherein to learn comprises to parse the inter-switch communication and to extract data about the network from the inter-switch communication, the network topology comprising coupling of the multiple NICs to one or more switches in the computer network.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the inter-switch communication is not addressed to the server computer, and wherein the program code when executed by a computer server causes the computer server to notify a user of a lack of switch redundancy in response to the extracted data indicating that the multiple NICs are coupled to a same switch of the one or more switches.