Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer network managing
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-30
2001-06-05
Vu, Viet D. (Department: 2154)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer network managing
C709S224000, C709S241000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06243748
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a management system for a network. More particularly, it relates to a network management system in a large-scalenetwork which is constituted by a large number of nodes, and in which the nodes are structurally complicated and require many sorts of status information on subjects to-be-managed.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a network such as local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN), the simple network management protocol (SNMP) being the network management protocol of the Internet conformed to the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), with which even different types of machines can be managed by common specifications, is adopted as a protocol for managing the network.
FIG. 1A
is a diagram for explaining the outline of a network management system based on the SNMP. In a management model adopted in the SNMP, a protocol for managing the Internet works in the application layer of the TCP/IP, and a manager and a managee assume the form of a client and a server. Referring to
FIG. 1A
, a managing apparatus
100
functions as the client and operates as the manager
102
. An apparatus to-be-managed
101
functions as the server and operates as an agent
103
.
The apparatus to-be-managed
101
includes therein a database
104
called “management information base (MIB)” in which status information items on subjects for management, for example, various modules constituting a node, lines etc. are accumulated.
With the SNMP, by way of example, the manager
102
requests the agent
103
to get the value of status information (an object) on a subject for management, through a GET request. The agent
103
responds to the request as a GET response, and notifies the status information to the manager
102
as information necessary for the management. Besides, the agent
103
notifies an abnormal situation or the like having occurred on the side of the apparatus to-be-managed
101
, to the manager
102
through a TRAP. Employed here is a system wherein the manager
102
sends the GET requests to the agent
103
at, for example, regular intervals, thereby to poll the information necessary for the management.
FIG. 1B
is a diagram for explaining a network management system in a local area network which utilizes the SNMP. Referring to the figure, a network managing apparatus
100
is connected to the local area network
106
in which a plurality of workstations
105
are interconnected. Information items (objects) to be managed for each workstation
105
are the two items of a system status and an interface (port) status. The network managing apparatus
100
manages the network by periodically repeating supervision sequences for the respective workstations
105
, each of the sequence for one workstation
105
consisting of a GET request for acquiring the system status, a response to the request for the system status by the workstation
105
, a GET request for acquiring the interface status, and a response to the request for the interface status.
Heretofore, apparatuses to be managed by the SNMP have usually been workstations which constitute a local area network, and routers, bridges, hubs etc. which interconnect LANs. As information items (objects) on the subjects to-be-managed, it has sufficed to define a comparatively small number of objects, for example, two objects for one workstation as explained with reference to FIG.
1
B.
Recently, however, the structure of a node (apparatus) which constitutes a WAN, especially an ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode)-WAN, has become complicated, and the objects of subjects for management (the status information items of various control modules including line control modules, trunk lines, terminal lines, etc. as constitute the apparatus) have become large in the number of sorts and large in quantities. Moreover, the number of nodes constituting the network has enlarged to increase the loads of a manager in an MIB information acquisition process for one agent and in MIB information acquisition processes for many agents. This has led to the problem that a status information polling period for all the agents lengthens, making it difficult to incarnate the real time management of the network. In other words, the management of such a large-scale network by the use of the SNMP necessitates the adoption of a dedicated apparatus of high price and high performance or the installation of a plurality of manager apparatuses.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention consists, in a network configured of a plurality of apparatuses to-be-managed (agents) and a managing apparatus (manager), in making it possible to easily incarnate the real time management of a large-scale network in such a way that information indicative of the occurrence of a failure or the change of a status is held in the agent, and that the manager side cyclically acquires the information items of the respective agents so as to acquire actual status information from the agent side only when the failure or the status change has taken place.
A managing apparatus according to the present invention comprises a number-of-times-of-status-changes information acquisition unit, a status change decision unit, a status information acquisition unit, and a status-change information acquisition unit.
An apparatus to-be-managed according to the present invention comprises a number-of-times-of-status-changes information storage unit, a number-of-times-of-status-changes information update unit, a status-change information storage unit, and a status-change information write unit.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, the number-of-times-of-status-changes information acquisition unit acquires from the apparatus to-be-managed the number-of-times-of-status-changes information which indicates the cumulative number of times of status changes of the apparatus to-be-managed. The status change decision unit compares the acquired number-of-times-of-status-changes information, with the number-of-times-of-status-changes information acquired last, so as to decide whether or not any status change has occurred since the last acquisition. The status information acquisition unit acquires the current status information of the apparatus to-be-managed from the apparatus to-be-managed as to which the occurrence of the status change has been decided by the status change decision unit.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, the number-of-times-of-status-changes information storage unit stores therein the number-of-times-of-status-changes information which indicates the cumulative number of times of status changes. The number-of-times-of-status-changes information update unit updates the number-of-times-of-status-changes information stored in the number-of-times-of-status-changes information storage unit, when any status change has occurred.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, the status-change information acquisition unit acquires from the apparatus to-be-managed, status change information which indicates whether or not the status change of the apparatus to-be-managed has occurred. The status information acquisition unit acquires the current status information of the apparatus to-be-managed from the apparatus to-be-managed in which the status change has occurred.
According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the status-change information storage unit stores therein, status change information which indicates that any status has changed. The status-change information write unit writes the status change information into the status-change information storage unit when the status change has occurred.
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Fujitsu Limited
Helfgott & Karas, P C.
Vu Viet D.
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