Methods and apparatus for displaying network data

A computer system comprising:

• a memory;
• a processor;
• an interconnection mechanism coupling the memory and the processor allowing communication there between;
• wherein the memory is encoded with an view manager application that when executed in the processor, provides a view manager process, the view manger process, when executed, processes data by causing the computer system to perform the operations of:
• identifying network information to be rendered on a graphical user interface, the network information identifying a plurality of networked fabrics, each networked fabric indicating an interconnection of host computer systems mapped to storage resources;
• for each fabric of the plurality of networked fabrics, displaying a fabric representation of that fabric in a respective fabric display region of a topology view on the graphical user interface, the representation of each fabric in each respective fabric display region including graphical host objects graphically interconnected to graphical storage objects to represent the host computer systems mapped to the storage resources in the fabric represented in that fabric display region, displaying the fabric representation comprises:
• receiving a selection of a layout of the topology view, the layout defining an arrangement of the fabric representations within the topology view;
• in response to receiving the selection of a layout of the topology view, graphically arranging the fabric representations in respective fabric display regions that conform to the layout of the topology view;
• wherein receiving a selection of a layout of the topology view comprises at least one of:
• i) receiving a selection of a grid topology, the grid topology indicating that the fabric representations in the topology view are to be arranged in respective columnar regions;
• ii) receiving a selection of a circular topology, the circular topology indicating that the fabric representations in the topology view are to be arranged in a generally circular arrangement;
• iii) receiving a selection of a star topology, the star topology indicating that the fabric representations in the topology view are to be arranged in star format;
• and
• displaying a first fabric in a first fabric display region in a first format;
• displaying a second fabric in a second fabric display region in a second format different than that of the first format, the pixels of the second fabric display region displayed in a non-overlapping format with pixels of the first fabric display region;
• and
• displaying a graphical representation of interconnections between fabric representations in the topology view of each fabric of the plurality of networked fabrics.

A computer readable medium including computer program logic encoded thereon that provides an application that, upon executing in a processor, provides view manager process that processes data by causing a computer system to perform the operations of:

• identifying network information to be rendered on a graphical user interface, the network information identifying a plurality of networked fabrics, each networked fabric indicating an interconnection of host computer systems mapped to storage resources;
• for each fabric of the plurality of networked fabrics, displaying a fabric representation of that fabric in a respective fabric display region of a topology view on the graphical user interface, the representation of each fabric in each respective fabric display region including graphical host objects graphically interconnected to graphical storage objects to represent the host computer systems mapped to the storage resources in the fabric represented in that fabric display region, displaying the fabric representation comprises:
• receiving a selection of a layout of the topology view, the layout defining an arrangement of the fabric representations within the topology view;
• in response to receiving the selection of a layout of the topology view, graphically arranging the fabric representations in respective fabric display regions that conform to the layout of the topology view;
• wherein receiving a selection of a layout of the topology view comprises at least one of:
• i) receiving a selection of a grid topology, the grid topology indicating that the fabric representations in the topology view are to be arranged in respective columnar regions;
• ii) receiving a selection of a circular topology, the circular topology indicating that the fabric representations in the topology view are to be arranged in a generally circular arrangement;
• iii) receiving a selection of a star topology, the star topology indicating that the fabric representations in the topology view are to be arranged in star format;
• displaying a graphical representation of interconnections between fabric representations in the topology view of each fabric of the plurality of networked fabrics;
• displaying a hierarchical tree view representing a hierarchy of relationships between host computer systems, switches and storage devices within fabrics of the plurality of networked fabrics, the hierarchical tree view displayed in a respective region of the graphical user interface in relation to the topology view such that pixels of the hierarchical tree do not overlap with pixels of the topology view;
• displaying the hierarchical tree view in a collapsible and expandable form;
• upon detecting an expansion of a collapsed resource in the hierarchical view, expanding a corresponding expanded graphical resource object that is represented in a respective fabric representation in the topology;
• and
• upon a collapse of an expanded resource in the hierarchical view, collapsing a corresponding expanded graphical resource object that is represented in a respective fabric representation in the topology.