Method of performing a network management transaction using...

Details Method of performing a network management transaction using... Method of performing a network management transaction using...

1999-09-24

2002-05-21

Maung, Zarni (Department: 2154)

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput

Computer network managing

C709S224000, C709S225000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06393475

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention pertains to the field of network management. More particularly, the present invention relates to a protocol for performing network management using a web-capable network management agent.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The proliferation of both local area networks (LANs) and wide area network (WANs) has resulted in increasing demands being made on network management tools and on network management personnel. In order to increase the ease and speed with which network management personnel are able to perform management tasks and respond to network problems, it is desirable to provide such personnel with convenient and ready access to network management tools.
The Internet, and more specifically the World Wide Web (hereinafter referred to as “the web”) component thereof, have become increasingly accepted as a medium of data communication in recent years. Programs which allow documents and objects to be retrieved from the web, and to be viewed are generically termed “web browsers”. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the language used for the construction of documents that are viewable by web browsers, and a specification of this language is provided in the Request For Comments (RFC) document by Berners-Lee, T., D. Connolly, “Hypertext Markup Lanugue—2.0”, RFC 1866, MIT Laboratory of Computer Science, November 1995. A large number of browsers are commercially available, including the Netscape Navigator® browser developed by Netscape Communications of Mountain View, Calif., and the Microsoft Internet Explorer® browser developed by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.
While browsers operate to display HTML documents, they are also responsible for negotiating a HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) with a web server prior to the retrieval of an HTML document or other object, the submission of information from the browser to a web server, and responding to requests to “link” to (or retrieve) other HTML documents identified in an HTML document currently displayed by the browser. The capabilities of web browsers and servers are further continually being enhanced by the development of so-called “plug-ins”, which are software modules which can be added to web browser and server software to provide enhanced functionality.
In view of the popularity and proliferation of the web browsers there has been some development towards allowing network managers to perform network management functions utilizing a web browser over the internet or an intranet. Referring to
FIGS. 1A and 1B
, two arrangements for facilitating management of a network
10
, utilizing a web browser, are illustrated. The network segment
10
comprises a network management station
12
and a network device
14
, which may be a host, gateway, terminal server, hub, repeater, bridge or frame switch. A network management application
16
resides on the network management station
12
, while a network management agent
18
resides on the network device
14
. The application
16
and the agent
18
communicate management information using the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), as defined in the RFC by Case, J. M. Fendor, M. Schoffstal, and J. Davin, “The Simple Network Management Protocol”, RFC 1157 University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Performance Systems International, Performance Systems International, and the MIT Laboratory of Computer Science, May 1990. More specifically, the agent
18
will provide the application
16
with status information regarding network activity relating to the network device
14
, either when polled by the application
16
, or as a trap. The application
16
assimilates network status information from a number of network management agents to provide a network manager with an overall view of network activity and status. A network manager can perform network management functions by receiving messages from and sending messages to the agent
18
.
All network management functions with an SNMP environment are performed by altering and inspecting variables or “managed objects”. These managed objects are termed Management Information Base (MIB) objects, and each network management agent
18
supports a predetermined set of MIB objects (termed an SNMP MIB view of that agent). The sets of MIB objects supported by various network management agents may vary from network device to network device. A number of MIB objects are defined in the RFC by McCloghrie, K., and M. Rose, “Management Information Base for Network Management of TCP/IP-based Internets”, RFC 1156 Hughes LAN Systems and Performance Systems International, May 1990. Examples of such managed objects includes the “sysUpTime” object (which provides a value indicating the time since the network management portion of a system was last re-initialized) and the “ifAdminStatus” object (which indicates whether an interface is up, down or in a testing state).
In order to maintain the simplicity of the SNMP, the exchange of messages using the SNMP utilizes an unreliable datagram service, such as the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) as specified in the RFC by Poster, J., “User Datagram Protocol”, RFC 768, USC/Information Sciences Institute, November 1980. The UDP protocol allows the transmission of message packets in a serial fashion, and accordingly has a limited bandwidth.
Also shown is
FIG. 1A
is a remote device
20
, such a desktop computer, on which is resident a client
22
in the form of a web browser. The client
22
communicates with a proxy agent
24
, which is resident on the network management station
12
using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), as defined in the RFC by Fielding, R., H. Frystyk, T. Berners-Lee, J. Gettys, J. C. Mogul, “Hypertext Transfer Protocol—HTTP/1.1”, RFC xxxx UC Irvine, MIT Laboratory of Computer Science, MIT Laboratory of Computer Science, DEC, DEC, April 1996. Accordingly, all data packages passed between the client
22
and the proxy engine
24
conform to the HTTP protocol. The proxy agent
24
receives and translates data packages from the client
22
into a format understood by the network management application
16
, before propagating the translated message to the application
16
. Accordingly, the proxy agent
24
is an intermediate program which acts as both a server and a client for the purposes of translating and forwarding requests to the application
16
on behalf of the client
22
. Similarly, messages intended for transmission from the application
16
to the client
22
must firstly be propagated to the proxy agent
24
, which translates the message into a format required by the HTTP protocol. After performing the translation, the proxy agent
24
then propagates the message to the client
22
.
FIG. 1B
shows the network management station
12
and the network device
14
which communicate network management information according to the SNMP protocol, as described above. However, the proxy agent
24
is now shown to reside on the network device
14
, instead of the network management station
12
. In the shown arrangement, the client
22
installed on the remote device
20
communicates with the network management agent
18
via the proxy agent
24
as described above. In this case, the proxy agent
24
translates a message received from the client
22
from a format specified by the HTTP protocol to a format specified by the SNMP format. Similarly, a message from the network management agent
18
to the client
22
is translated by the proxy agent
24
from a format specified by the SNMP protocol to a format specified by the HTTP protocol.
While the arrangements shown in
FIGS. 1A and 1B
allow a degree of network management to be performed from a client
22
resident on a remote device, there are a number of limitations inherent in these arrangements. Specifically, the HTTP protocol is primarily intended to facilitate the retrieval of static documents by a client from a server. The SNMP protocol is intended to facilitate network management in a simple and effective manner. Furthermore, the existence of a proxy agent for the translation of messages between t

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