Discovery and configuration in computer networks

A method for remotely discovering, by a management computer system, one or more roles of one or more network interfaces of a first computer system in a first network comprising one or more switches, the method comprising:

• (1) obtaining, by the management computer system, switch operation data from one or more switches in the first network, the switch operation data comprising, for at least one network interface of the switch:
• (1)(a) an identification of each adjacent interface, and
• (1)(b) at least one of:
• (1)(b)(i) one or more network interface operation properties;
• (1)(b)(ii) one or more VLAN IDs;
• (2) obtaining, by the management computer system, a blueprint specifying one or more roles and, for at least one role, at least one of:
• (2)(a) one or more network interface properties;
• (2)(b) one or more VLAN IDs;
• (3) for at least one interface of the first computer system, determining an adjacent interface of a switch using the data (1)(a), and determining the corresponding at least one of (2)(a), (2)(b);
• (4) for said at least one interface, searching the blueprint for the determined at least one of (2)(a), (2)(b), to obtain one or more corresponding roles.

Computer readable media comprising software for execution by one or more computer processors of a management computer system, to cause the management computer system to perform a method for remotely discovering one or more roles of one or more network interfaces of a first computer system in a first network comprising one or more switches, the method comprising:

• obtaining, by the management computer system, a blueprint specifying one or more roles, at least one role being associated by the blueprint with one or more network parameters;
• obtaining, by the management computer system, switch operation data from one or more switches in the first network, the switch operation data comprising one or more network parameters for one or more network interfaces of one or more of the switches;
• determining by the management computer system, from the switch operation data, at least one switch interface adjacent to at least one interface of the first computer system;
• matching, by the management computer system, the network parameters obtained from the switch operation data for said at least one adjacent switch interface, against the network parameters of the blueprint, to determine one or more roles associated with at least one matched parameter by the blueprint, and using the determined one or more roles to determine at least one role for the at least one interface of the first computer system.