Status polling failover of devices in a distributed network management hierarchy

A method of automatic status polling failover of objects in a distributed computing environment, comprising:

• a) defining an initial configuration of a central control unit and one or more collection stations of the distributed computing environment in which a user of the distributed computing environment specifies a polling configuration of the central control unit and the one or more collection stations;
• b) determining whether a collection station of one or more collection stations is inaccessible;
• c) if the collection station is inaccessible, loading a topology of the collection station to a network monitor program of a central control unit that monitors the one or more collection stations, wherein the topology is a list of a plurality of objects managed by the collection station and nodes and routings thereof;
• d) automatically performing status polling of a plurality of objects of the topology of the collection station by the central control unit while said collection station is inaccessible;
• and
• e) monitoring the collection station and releasing the topology of the plurality of objects back to the collection station when the collection station is again accessible so that the collection station can resume status polling of the plurality of objects by the collection station.

A method of status polling failover of objects in a distributed computing environment, comprising:

• a) defining an initial configuration of a central control unit and one or more collection stations of the distributed computing environment in which a user of the distributed computing environment specifies a polling configuration of the central control unit and the one or more collection stations;
• b) receiving a manual failover event initiated by a user;
• c) loading a topology of the collection station to a network monitor program of a central control unit that monitors the one or more collection stations, wherein the topology is a list of a plurality of objects managed by the collection station and nodes and routings thereof;
• and
• d) performing status polling of a plurality of objects of the topology of the collection station by the central control unit in accordance with the manual failover event.