Managing a network element operating on a network

• US 9,755,887 B1
• Filed: 08/28/2014
• Issued: 09/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Open Invention Network LLC
• Inventors: Easttom, William Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Nam
• Application Number:
  US14/471,581
• Time in Patent Office: 1,104 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/048 mobile agents
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0661 by reconfiguring faulty entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring

Abstract

Disclosed are an apparatus and method of managing network elements operating on a network. One example method may include transmitting a request to receive at least one activity parameter of a network element operating on the network and monitoring the at least one activity parameter of the network element. The method may include determining whether a usage value of the at least one activity parameter exceeds a predetermined threshold usage value and transmitting a corrective function message to the network element responsive to determining that the usage value of the at least one activity parameter exceeds the predetermined threshold value. The method may further include performing a corrective function to reduce the usage value of the at least one activity parameter.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

transmitting a request to receive at least one activity parameter of a network element operating on a network, wherein the network element is at least one network computer, at least one network printer and at least one network router;

determining by a local SNMP agent whether a usage value of the at least one activity parameter exceeds a predetermined threshold usage value;

transmitting by the local SNMP agent a corrective function message to the network element responsive to determining that the usage value of the at least one activity parameter exceeds the predetermined threshold value; and

performing by the local SNMP agent, a corrective function to reduce the usage value of the at least one activity parameter after or concurrent with the determination of the usage value, wherein the corrective function message comprises setting a flag set operation to determine the corrective function, the flag set operation increments a virtual memory swap file size and wherein the corrective function is added to an SNMP payload and is piggybacked on a protocol data unit.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring the at least one activity parameter of the network element, wherein the monitoring of the at least one activity parameter of the network element operating on a network is performed via a simple network management protocol (SNMP) monitoring function.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the monitoring is performed via a simple network management protocol (SNMP) agent application operating on the network element.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

detecting via the SNMP agent that the predetermined threshold usage value has been exceeded; and

initiating the corrective function via the SNMP agent locally on the network element.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising transmitting results of the corrective function to a SNMP server.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one activity parameter is a random access memory (RAM) usage, a central processor utilization (CPU) usage, a number of applications being operated, and an amount of network traffic being processed.

7. An apparatus, comprising:

a transmitter configured to transmit a request to receive at least one activity parameter of a network element operating on the network, wherein the network element is at least one network computer, at least one network printer and at least one network router; and

a processor configured to determine by a local SNMP agent whether a usage value of the at least one activity parameter exceeds a predetermined threshold usage value, and

wherein the transmitter is further configured to transmit from the local SNMP agent a corrective function message to the network element responsive to determining that the usage value of the at least one activity parameter exceeds the predetermined threshold value, and wherein the local SNMP agent performs a corrective function to reduce the usage value of the at least one activity parameter after or concurrent with the determination of the usage value, wherein the corrective function message comprises setting a flag set operation to determine the corrective function, the flag set operation increments a virtual memory swap file size and wherein the corrective function is added to an SNMP payload and is piggybacked on a protocol data unit.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processor is configured to monitor the at least one activity parameter of the network element, wherein the at least one activity parameter of the network element operating on the network is monitored via a simple network management protocol (SNMP) monitoring function.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the at least one activity parameter is monitored via a simple network management protocol (SNMP) agent application operating on the network element.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the SNMP agent is further configured to detect via the SNMP agent that the predetermined threshold usage value has been exceeded, and initiate the corrective function via the SNMP agent locally on the network element.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the SNMP agent is further configured to transmit results of the corrective function to a SNMP server.

12. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the at least one activity parameter is a random access memory (RAM) usage, a central processor utilization (CPU) usage, a number of applications being operated, and an amount of network traffic being processed.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium configured to store instructions that when executed cause a processor to perform:

transmitting a request to receive at least one activity parameter of a network element operating on the network, wherein the network element is at least one network computer, at least one network printer and at least one network router;

determining by a local SNMP agent whether a usage value of the at least one activity parameter exceeds a predetermined threshold usage value;

transmitting by the local SNMP agent a corrective function message to the network element responsive to determining that the usage value of the at least one activity parameter exceeds the predetermined threshold value; and

performing a corrective function by the local SNMP agent to reduce the usage value of the at least one activity parameter after or concurrent with the determination of the usage value, wherein the corrective function message comprises setting a flag set operation to determine the corrective function, the flag set operation increments a virtual memory swap file size and wherein the corrective function is added to an SNMP payload and is piggybacked on a protocol data unit.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to perform monitoring the at least one activity parameter of the network element, wherein the monitoring of the at least one activity parameter of the network element operating on a network is performed via a simple network management protocol (SNMP) monitoring function.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the monitoring is performed via a simple network management protocol (SNMP) agent application operating on the network element.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to perform:

detecting via the SNMP agent that the predetermined threshold usage value has been exceeded;

initiating the corrective function via the SNMP agent locally on the network element; and

transmitting results of the corrective function to a SNMP server.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the at least one activity parameter is a random access memory (RAM) usage, a central processor utilization (CPU) usage, a number of applications being operated, and an amount of network traffic being processed.