Policy based automatic flow collection discovery
AssigneeBrocade Communications Systems, Inc.
InventorsSanthoshkumar Kolathur, George Levchenko
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In some aspects, the disclosure is directed to methods and systems for automatically identifying a set of communications flows in a network environment, and grouping the identified set into a flow collection for management and monitoring. The system may dynamically maintaining the group membership, without requiring manual analysis and grouping. As a result, manual grouping of flows may be avoided, avoiding this complex, tedious, and error prone task, and allowing easier and more efficient administration and management.
Claims20
A method for management of communications flows, comprising:
- identifying, by a management device from a plurality of devices, a first subset of devices associated with a given criteria;
- determining, by the management device via monitoring of a first plurality of communications flows between the first subset of devices and one or more initiator endpoints, a subset of initiator endpoints that communicate with the identified first subset of devices;
- adding, by the management device, each flow between the subset of initiator endpoints and the first subset of devices to a flow classification group;
- identifying, by the management device via monitoring of a second plurality of communications flows between the subset of initiator endpoints and the plurality of devices, a second subset of devices that are targets of the communications flows from the initiator endpoints;
- adding, by the management device, each flow between the subset of initiator endpoints and the second subset of devices to the flow classification group;
- and
- applying, by the management device, a processing policy to each flow of the flow classification group.
A system for management of communications flows, comprising:
- a management device in communication with a plurality of devices, the management device comprising a processor configured to:
- identifying, from the plurality of devices, a first subset of devices associated with a given criteria,
- determine, via monitoring of a first plurality of communications flows between the first subset of devices and one or more initiator endpoints, a subset of initiator endpoints that communicate with the identified first subset of devices,
- add each flow between the subset of initiator endpoints and the first subset of devices to a flow classification group,
- identify, via monitoring of a second plurality of communications flows between the subset of initiator endpoints and the plurality of devices, a second subset of devices that are targets of the communications flows from the initiator endpoints,
- add each flow between the subset of initiator endpoints and the second subset of devices to the flow classification group, and
- apply a processing policy to each flow of the flow classification group.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.