Systems and methods for interfacing with network information collection devices

• US 8,014,303 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2010
• Issued: 09/06/2011
• 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): Kizou; Hassan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Toan
• Application Number:
  US12/980,578
• Publication Number:
  US 20110099257A1
• Time in Patent Office: 251 Days
• Field of Search: 370/242, 370/244, 370/245, 370/250, 370/251, 370/252
• 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 device comprising:

memory to store instructions, where the device is a first device; and

a processor to execute the instructions to;

receive a first message and a second message from a second device, where the first message and the second message differ, and where the first message includes a first header and first event data and the second message includes a second header and second event data,

identify, based on the first header and the second header, that the first message and the second messages are problem reports,

process, in response to identifying the first message and the second messages as the problem reports, the first event data to determine that the first event data, in the first message, is associated with a particular reconfiguration information, of a plurality of reconfiguration information corresponding with the second device,

process, in response to identifying the first message and the second messages as the problem reports, the second event data to determine that the second event data in the second message is not associated with any of the plurality of reconfiguration information,

transmit the particular reconfiguration information to the second device in response to the first message,

determine additional information based on processing the second event data,

form, based on processing the second event data, a reformatted second message, including the adding additional information to the second message, and

transmit the second reformatted problem report to a third device.

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

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

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

3. The device of claim 1, where the processor, when determining the additional information, is further to:

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

determine the additional information based on the identified second type of event that occurred in the second device.

4. The device of claim 3, where the information added to the reformatted second message, based on the identified second type of event, includes an alert, to the third device, related to the identified second type of event at the second device.

5. The device of claim 1, where the processor, when determining the additional information, is further to:

identify the additional information based on an attribute of the third device that receives the reformatted second message.

6. The device of claim 1, where the additional information includes an action to be performed by the third device in response to the receiving the reformatted second message.

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

identify confidential data in the second message; and

filter out the confidential data in the reformatted second message prior to transmitting the reformatted second message to the third device.

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

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

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

receiving a first message from a first device, where the first message includes a first problem report that includes 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 message from the first device, where the second message includes a second problem report that includes 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;

forming a third problem report based on the first message, where the third problem report includes an indication of the first type of event data, from the first report, and the particular action associated with the first type of event data from the first message;

transmitting the third problem report to a second device;

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

transmitting the fourth problem report to the first 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 message, in the third problem report.

11. The method of claim 9, where the third problem report includes information to enable the second device to perform the particular action associated with the first type of event data included in the first message.

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

where the particular action includes:

analyzing data from the third problem report, and

storing the analyzed data, from the third 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 device and the first type of event data from the first message, where the reconfiguration information includes at least one of a software process or a script; and

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

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

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

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

one or more instructions to receive a first message from a downstream device;

one or more instructions to identify events included in the first message;

one or more instructions to store and associate at least one of reconfiguration information, an action, or an alert with an identified event included in the first message;

one or more instructions to form a second message, where the second message includes the identified event from the first message and the at least one of the reconfiguration information, the action, or the alert associated with the identified event;

one or more instructions to transmit the second message that includes at least one of the action or the alert to an upstream device when there is no reconfiguration information associated with the identified event included in the second message; and

one or more instructions to transmit the second message to the downstream device when there is reconfiguration information associated with the identified event included in the second message.

17. The non-transient memory device of claim 16, where the one or more instructions to form a second message include:

one or more instructions to filter out confidential data included in the first message.

18. The non-transient memory device of claim 16, where the one or more instructions to form a second message include:

one or more instructions to include security information and timestamp information, associated with the first message, in the second message.

19. The non-transient memory device of claim 16, where the one or more instructions to transmit the second message include:

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

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

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

one or more instructions to determine the reconfiguration information based on the identified event from the first message.