METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RE-GENERATING CONFIGURATION COMMANDS OF A NETWORK DEVICE USING AN OBJECT-BASED APPROACH

• US 20110225273A1
• Filed: 05/23/2011
• Published: 09/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Albert Meng Fong, Xiaobing Xie
• Original Assignee: Albert Meng Fong, Xiaobing Xie
• Inventors: Xie, Xiaobing, Fong, Albert Meng
• Granted Patent: US 8,903,965 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0233 Object-oriented techniques, for representation of network management data, e.g. common object request broker architecture [CORBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0843 based on generic templates

Abstract

Embodiments disclose re-generating a configuration command of a network device. A method includes receiving a request to re-generate a configuration command previously issued to a network device, wherein the configuration command has one or more parameters; retrieving a template and a pattern associated with the configuration command, wherein the template represents a syntax for the configuration command, wherein the pattern represents a storage location for the configuration command; based on the pattern, retrieving from an object database all objects containing values for all the particular parameters from the storage location specified by the pattern; and creating a re-generated configuration command by substituting the values of the retrieved objects into the template.

Claims

1. A method, comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

receiving a request to re-generate a previously issued network device configuration command that has one or more parameters, each of which is associated with a value;

in response to receiving the request;

determining, for the network device configuration command, a pattern that represents a storage location for the network device configuration command;

retrieving, based on the pattern, both;

a template representing a syntax for the network device configuration command, and one or more objects containing values for all the one or more parameters;

creating a re-generated configuration command, equivalent to the previously issued network device configuration command, by substituting the values of the one or more objects into the template;

wherein the method is performed by one or more network devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the pattern further comprises:

identifying a keyword in the request to re-generate the previously issued network device configuration command;

generating a pattern based, at least in part, on the keyword.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the template specifies a text output format to be used for the re-generated configuration command.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the pattern is retrieved from a template database, further comprising retrieving the one or more objects from the template database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the pattern is retrieved from a template database;

wherein the template database includes a one-to-one mapping between the template and the pattern;

wherein the one-to-one mapping is represented in a tree that uniquely maps the pattern to a leaf node, of the tree, that contains the template.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more objects containing values for all the one or more parameters are associated with the leaf node of the tree.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein retrieving the template further comprises traversing the tree based on the pattern to the leaf node where the template is stored.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the tree is a balanced tree.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the request is to regenerate an entire configuration, further comprising:

traversing the entire tree to find a set of patterns identifying all nodes of the tree that have values;

creating a set of re-generated configuration commands corresponding, respectively, to each pattern of the set of patterns.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a command definition file that defines the syntax of a particular configuration command;

compiling the command definition file to result in creating and storing one or more particular patterns and one or more particular templates corresponding to the particular configuration command;

receiving the particular configuration command;

creating one or more particular objects in a database for one or more argument values of the particular configuration command;

storing the one or more particular objects in the database based on a pattern of the one or more particular patterns.

11. A computer-readable storage device storing one or more sequences of instructions, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause:

receiving a request to re-generate a previously issued network device configuration command that has one or more parameters, each of which is associated with a value;

in response to receiving the request;

determining, for the network device configuration command, a pattern that represents a storage location for the network device configuration command;

retrieving, based on the pattern, both;

a template representing a syntax for the network device configuration command, and one or more objects containing values for all the one or more parameters;

creating a re-generated configuration command, equivalent to the previously issued network device configuration command, by substituting the values of the one or more objects into the template;

wherein the method is performed by one or more network devices.

12. The machine-readable storage device of claim 11, further comprising sequences of instructions which when executed cause:

identifying a keyword in the request to re-generate the previously issued network device configuration command;

generating a pattern based, at least in part, on the keyword.

13. The machine-readable storage device of claim 11, wherein the template specifies a text output format to be used for the re-generated configuration command.

14. The machine-readable storage device of claim 11, wherein the pattern is retrieved from a template database, further comprising sequences of instructions which when executed cause retrieving the one or more objects from the template database.

15. The machine-readable storage device of claim 11, further comprising instructions which when executed cause retrieving the pattern from a template database;

wherein the template database includes a one-to-one mapping between the template and the pattern;

wherein the one-to-one mapping is represented in a tree that uniquely maps the pattern to a leaf node, of the tree, that contains the template.

16. The machine-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the one or more objects containing values for all the one or more parameters are associated with the leaf node of the tree.

17. The machine-readable storage device of claim 15, further comprising sequences of instructions which when executed cause retrieving the template to further comprise traversing the tree based on the pattern to the leaf node where the template is stored.

18. The machine-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the tree is a balanced tree.

19. The machine-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the request is to regenerate an entire configuration, further comprising sequences of instructions which when executed cause:

traversing the entire tree to find a set of patterns identifying all nodes of the tree that have values;

creating a set of re-generated configuration commands corresponding, respectively, to each pattern of the set of patterns.

20. The machine-readable storage device of claim 11, further comprising sequences of instructions which when executed cause:

receiving a command definition file that defines the syntax of a particular configuration command;

compiling the command definition file to result in creating and storing one or more particular patterns and one or more particular templates corresponding to the particular configuration command;

receiving the particular configuration command;

creating one or more particular objects in a database for one or more argument values of the particular configuration command;

storing the one or more particular objects in the database based on a pattern of the one or more particular patterns.