A computer readable storage medium encoded with instructions, which when executed by a computer causes the computer to implement a method of initializing at least one data processing object associated with a communication protocol used to extract status information related to a monitored device communicatively coupled to a network, comprising:
- storing a vector identifying a plurality of communication protocols useable to access the monitored device;
- accessing the monitored device to obtain a vendor of the monitored device directly from the monitored device using a first communication protocol of the plurality of communication protocols, determining whether the first communication protocol failed to obtain the vendor, and repeating the accessing and determining until the vendor is obtained, each repetition of the accessing and determining cycles through the plurality of communication protocols in the vector;
- obtaining, from a support memory, information used to extract the status information using one of the plurality of communication protocols from an FTP file on the monitored device, the FTP file having been formatted in one of a plurality of different formats, and the information used to extract the status information includes information for extracting data from each of the plurality of different formats of the FTP file;
- storing the vendor and the information related to the access function in a respective data processing object of the at least one data processing object;
- and
- accessing, using the stored vendor and the information used to extract the status information in the respective data processing object, the monitored device to obtain the status information.