System and method for collecting, aggregating, and coalescing network discovery data
OwnerDavid Matheny, Dale Taylor +1inventors
InventorsDavid Matheny, Dale Taylor, Richard R. Winterton
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In an embodiment, a network management system is capable of performing a coordinated discovery operation on devices in a network using a number of discovery and aggregator agents. Data collected and generated by the agents may be coalesced into a database file. New agents may be added to the system as plug-ins by registering an XML file with a network manager.
Claims30
A method comprising:
- receiving discovery data collected from a network device by two or more discovery agents;
- aggregating said discovery data;
- coalescing the discovery data in a discovery document, said discovery data including two or more duplicate data entries;
- and
- removing all but one of the duplicate data entries from the discovery document.
A method comprising:
- registering a first plurality of agents;
- performing a first discovery operation including
- collecting and aggregating data from a first plurality of network devices with said first plurality of agents, and
- coalescing said data in a discovery document;
- registering an additional agent;
- and
- performing a second discovery operation with a second plurality of agents including said first plurality of agents and said additional agent.
An article, including instructions residing on a machine-readable medium, the instructions causing a machine to:
- receive discovery data collected from a network device by two or more discovery agents;
- aggregate said discovery data;
- coalesce the discovery data in a discovery document, said discovery data including two or more duplicate data entries;
- and
- remove all but one of the duplicate data entries from the discovery document.
An article, including instructions residing on a machine-readable medium, the instructions causing a machine to:
- register a first plurality of agents;
- perform a first discovery operation including
- collect and aggregating data from a first plurality of network devices with said first plurality of agents, and
- coalesce said data in a discovery document;
- register an additional agent;
- and
- perform a second discovery operation with a second plurality of agents including said first plurality of agents and said additional agent.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.