Network management

• US 20020120672A1
• Filed: 02/27/2001
• Published: 08/29/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Eatough, David A., Olsen, Gregory P., Winterton, Richard R., Butt, Alan B.
• Granted Patent: US 7,433,942 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor

Abstract

A method for discovering agents operative on devices configured in a network by broadcasting discovery messages having a common format and containing data to the network devices and receiving reply messages having the same common format and containing data from the agents, and permitting new types of data within the messages without changing the common format.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

discovering agents operative on devices in a network by broadcasting, to the network devices, discovery messages that have a common format and contain data and

receiving, from the agents, reply messages that have the common format and contain data; and

the common format being configured to permit the inclusion of new types of data within the messages without changing the common format.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising transferring files to and from the network devices by sending and receiving file transfer messages having a common format.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising executing an application on a remote network device by sending to the remote network device an execution message having a common format.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising maintaining a list of codes for identifying the different messages.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising using the list of codes for identifying the types of data.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the common format comprises a first data block.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the data block comprises a tag field configured to contain an identifier tag.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the identifier tag comprises a four byte code.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the data block comprises a size field configured to contain description of the size of the data.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the size description comprises a two byte number.

11. The method of claim 6 wherein the data block contains a data field configured to contain data.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising nesting a second data block within the data field of the first data block.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

including instance data in the discovery messages configured to identify the discovery request;

at the remote network devices, copying the instance data into the reply message; and

matching a reply message to the originating discovery request by identifying the instance data within the reply message.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving application instance data from an application;

including the application instance data in the discovery message;

at the remote network devices, copying the application instance data into the reply messages; and

passing the application instance data from the reply message to the application.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the discovery message is sent to a single network device using a point-to-point protocol.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the data is organized into bytes.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the data is organized by macros.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the broadcast messages comprise discovery messages.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the received messages comprise reply messages.

21. The method of claim 16 wherein the broadcast and received messages comprise file transfer messages.

22. The method of claim 16 wherein the message is sent to a single network device using a point-to-point protocol.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising randomly selecting an amount of time that is less than a maximum value.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising including the maximum value in the discovery message.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the application gathers the information only upon the receipt of a discovery message.

28. The method of claim 26 where the discovery message is sent to a single remote device using a point-to-point protocol.

30. The apparatus of claim 29 wherein the apparatus is a dynamic library or system object.

31. The apparatus of claim 29 wherein the collection function permits collection of information about more than one network card for a device.

32. The apparatus of claim 29 wherein the collection function collects the internet protocol address, subnet mask, and Media Access Control address for any network card operative on the device.

33. The apparatus of claim 29 wherein the collection function collects the subnet mask associated with each IP address for the device, application names, protocols supported, monotonically increasing application versions, and machine unique identifier information.

34. The apparatus of claim 29 wherein the agent discovery service permits a remote agent to send application specific reply data of variable length.

16. A method comprising:

organizing data within a message configured to be read by remote agents in a network of devices, the data being organized without regard to data formats and data alignment standards of the devices or operating systems of the devices;

broadcasting the message on the network;

receiving messages from the remote agents; and

organizing data within the messages in accordance with a specific the data format and data alignment standard of a specific device and operating system.

23. A method comprising:

discovering remote agents operative on devices in a network by broadcasting discovery messages to the network devices and receiving reply messages from the remote agents; and

at a device, randomly selecting an amount of time and delaying sending the reply message by the amount of time.

26. A method comprising:

discovering remote agents operative on remote network devices by broadcasting discovery messages from a local network device to the remote network devices and receiving reply messages from the agents;

at a remote network device, upon receipt of a discovery message, forwarding the message to an application on the remote network device; and

in response to the forwarded discovery message, sending a reply message configured to contain information about the application from the application to the local network device.

29. Apparatus comprising:

a listening function of an agent discovery service to listen for discovery requests at a device configured in a network of devices;

a collection function of an agent discovery service for collecting information about the device to be included in responses to discovery requests; and

a registration function of an agent discovery service for identifying applications operative on the device that want to be discovered;

wherein the functions of the agent discovery service are selectively hosted by an application operative on the device.

35. An article comprising:

a machine-readable medium which stores machine-executable instructions, the instructions causing a machine to;

discovering agents operative on devices in a network by broadcasting, to the network devices, discovery messages that have a common format and contain data and

receiving, from the agents, reply messages that have the common format and contain data; and

the common format being configured to permit the inclusion of new types of data within the messages without changing the common format.