US 2019/0104200 A1 · Network Certification Augmentation and Scalable Task Decomposition

Abstract

A certification-based network manager can consume either simple certifications or collection-inclusive certifications. For a simple certification, the certification-based network manager selects a discovery/collection template for the simple certification and associates the simple certification with at least some of the program code from the selected template. The program code from the selected template includes re-usable blocks or regions of program code (“task functions”) for device discovery and data collection. The certification-based network manager selects the template and the task functions based on the parameters and expressions of the simple certification, and associates with the simple certification to generate an augmented certification. The augmented certification can later be decomposed into individual tasks for scalable dispatch to data collectors.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

detecting a first certification file for data collection from a plurality of network devices, wherein the first certification file comprises parameters for network device discovery and parameters for data item collection from discovered network devices;
determining that the first certification file lacks program code to perform network device discovery and data item collection from discovered network devices;
and
based on the determination that the first certification file lacks program code to perform network device discovery and data item collection from discovered network devices, generating a second certification file based on the first certification file and a template file, wherein generating the second certification file comprises,
populating a plurality of re-usable code sections from the template file with the parameters from the first certification file as arguments;
and
populating a task chain based, at least in part, on the parameters from the first certification file, wherein the task chain indicates a sequence for executing the plurality of re-usable code sections.

4 more elements

One or more non-transitory machine-readable media comprising program code for generating blocks from source certification files for scalability and flexibility of the source certification files, the program code comprising instructions to:

detect a source certification file for data collection from a plurality of network devices, wherein the source certification file comprises parameters for network device discovery and parameters for data item collection from discovered network devices;
determine whether the source certification file lacks program code to perform network device discovery and data item collection from discovered network devices;
and
based on a determination that the source certification file lacks program code to perform network device discovery and data item collection from discovered network devices, generate a plurality of execution blocks and a set of one or more manager blocks based on the source certification file and a template file that includes a plurality of re-usable code sections for discovery and data item collection, wherein the instructions to generate the plurality of execution blocks and the set of one or more manager blocks comprise instructions to,
generate the plurality of execution blocks based on the plurality of re-usable code sections from the template file and the parameters from the source certification file as arguments, wherein each of the plurality of execution blocks is executable separately from the template file and the source certification file;
generate the set of one or more manager blocks based, at least in part, on a task chain in the template file and at least one of the parameters from the source certification file, wherein the task chain indicates a sequence for executing the plurality of re-usable code sections.

3 more elements

An apparatus comprising:

a processor;
a network interface;
and
a machine-readable medium comprising instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to,
detect a source certification file for data collection from a plurality of network devices, wherein the source certification file comprises parameters for network device discovery and parameters for data item collection from discovered network devices;
determine whether the source certification file lacks program code to perform network device discovery and data item collection from discovered network devices;
and
based on a determination that the source certification file lacks program code to perform network device discovery and data item collection from discovered network devices, generate a plurality of execution blocks and a set of one or more manager blocks based on the source certification file and a template file that includes a plurality of re-usable code sections for discovery and data item collection, wherein the instructions to generate the plurality of execution blocks and the set of one or more manager blocks comprise instructions to,
generate the plurality of execution blocks based on the plurality of re-usable code sections from the template file and the parameters from the source certification file as arguments, wherein each of the plurality of execution blocks is executable separately from the template file and the source certification file;
generate the set of one or more manager blocks based, at least in part, on a task chain in the template file and at least one of the parameters from the source certification file, wherein the task chain indicates a sequence for executing the plurality of re-usable code sections.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Network Certification Augmentation and Scalable Task Decomposition

Life of this patent

Network Certification Augmentation and Scalable Task Decomposition

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20