Network management apparatus

A network management system that performs network management, comprising:

• network devices that constitute a network;
• and
• a network management apparatus that includes:
• a table storage unit that stores a device status table for managing current device statuses, a restriction condition table for managing restriction conditions for the network devices to receive status change requests, and a trouble shooting table for managing trouble shooting data for solving problems that are causes of restrictions;
• an analysis unit that determines from the tables stored in the table storage unit whether each status change request satisfies restriction conditions in a current device state, extracts all trouble shooting data until the restriction problems are eliminated when the restriction conditions are not satisfied but trouble can be avoided, and extracts causes for being unable to avoid trouble when the restriction conditions are not satisfied and trouble cannot be avoided, thereby performing an analysis of normality of the status change request;
• a user interface unit that performs a user interface operation, and sends extracted trouble shooting data or a cause for being unable to avoid trouble;
• and a device communication unit that generates from the trouble shooting data a command corresponding to a status change request for solving a problem, transmits the command to the corresponding one of the network devices, and receives a response from the network device.

A network management method for conducting network management, comprising the steps of:

• storing a device status table for managing current device statuses, a restriction condition table for managing restriction conditions for network devices to receive status change requests, and a trouble shooting table for managing trouble shooting data for solving a problem that is a cause for restrictions;
• determining from the tables whether a status change request satisfies restriction conditions in a current device state;
• performing an analysis of normality of the status change request by extracting all the trouble shooting data until the restriction problems are eliminated when the restriction conditions are not satisfied but trouble can be avoided, or by extracting causes for being unable to avoid trouble when the restriction conditions are not satisfied and trouble cannot be avoided;
• performing a user interface operation to send the extracted trouble shooting data or the cause for being unable to avoid trouble;
• and
• generating from the trouble shooting data a command corresponding to the status change request for solving the problem, so as to transmit the command to the corresponding network device, and receive a response.