Direct binary file transfer based network management system free of messaging, commands and data format conversions

An infrastructure management system comprising:

• a set of remote elements, each given one of the remote elements comprising:
• storage media holding element-side copies of status data (SD), wherein the element-side copies are continuously synchronized with corresponding copies of the SD maintained as user accessible copies of the CD;
• and
• digital logic producing contents for the element-side copies of the SD;
• a computer subsystem providing:
• a storage facility holding the user accessible copies of the SD;
• a user interface enabling a system user to access the user accessible copies of the SD to monitor the set of remote elements;
• and
• a network interface transferring the element-side copies of the SD to the computer subsystem, to be held as the user accessible copies of the SD at the storage facility of the computer subsystem, in order to maintain synchronization between element-side copies of the CD and the user accessible copies of the CD,
• wherein the user interface displays, at least in part based on contents of the SD, status of defects at the remote elements, including a summarized representation of whether each given one of the remote elements has at least one active defect, with such an active defect indicating a detection of an operational fault condition monitored at a respective remote element.

A method for interaction among a set of system components connected through a wide area network, the method comprising steps as follows:

• producing, at a first one of the components, a series of management data units, with a given one of said data units providing an array of information fields including a certain information field whose contents are used to indicate an action on part of a second one of the components;
• transferring the series of data units from said first component over the network to said second component to maintain synchronization between respective management data contents held at said first and second components;
• and
• at said second component, processing one or more of the information fields in the given data unit, including performing the action as indicated by the contents of the certain information field,
• wherein memories at each of said first and second components comprise respective segments for configuration and status files, and the given management data unit includes information segments corresponding to contents of both the configuration and the status files at said first and second components,
• wherein, in a first instance of the method, in which the first component comprises a computer subsystem and the second component comprises a remote element, the certain information field, based on whose contents the performing of the action at the remote element is done, is included within the configuration file segment of the given management data unit,
• wherein, in a second instance of the method, in which the first component comprises the remote element and the second component comprises the computer subsystem, the certain information field, based on whose contents the performing of the action at the computer subsystem is done, is included within the status file segment of the given management data unit,
• and wherein the management data contents held at the computer subsystem are accessible to a user of the method in order to enable the user to remotely manage the remote element.