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US 8,244,843 B1Granted
System and method for automated discovery and procurement of management information bases (MIBs)
AssigneeByteSphere Technologies, LLC
InventorsDeborah Primerano, Nicholas W. Saparoff
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A generic mechanism enabling the programmatic identification of MIBs needed for control of an SNMP agent for a network device is disclosed. The present invention provides for the automatic retrieval of the identified MIBs and their loading onto a network management station (NMS) without user intervention. Additionally, previously known MIBs are programmatically examined to determine whether they require updating. Any required updates may be performed automatically with the updated MIBs being loaded onto the NMS.
Claims22
In a network, a method for acquiring and deploying needed Management Information Base (MIB) modules comprising:
- transmitting a query from a Network Management Station (NMS) to a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent associated with a network device for an enterprise number identifying a vendor of the network device;
- receiving at the NMS, in response to the query, an enterprise number identifying a vendor of the network device;
- transmitting a first request from the NMS to a MIB module repository located externally to the NMS, the agent and the network device, the first request utilizing the received enterprise number and requesting verification that the MIB module repository holds at least one MIB module associated with the vendor of the network device;
- determining, at the NMS using the received enterprise number, whether a local MIB database in the NMS holds at least one MIB module associated with the vendor of the network device, and:
- if the local MIB database in the NMS holds at least one MIB module associated with the vendor of the network device:
- transmitting a second request from the NMS to the MIB module repository, the second request requesting all of the MIB modules for the identified vendor that are not present in the local MIB database that are present in the MIB module repository and any updates for a MIB module present in the local MIB database that is also present in the MIB module repository, or
- if the local MIB database in the NMS does not hold at least one MIB module associated with the vendor of the network device:
- transmitting a second request from the NMS to the MIB module repository, the second request requesting all of the MIB modules associated with the vendor that are present in the MIB module repository;
- receiving at the NMS the MIB modules for the identified vendor requested in the second request;
- installing in the local MIB database the received MIB modules for the identified vendor;
- requesting verification of support by the SNMP agent for each of the MIB modules that were installed in the local MIB database following the second request;
- receiving verification of support from the SNMP Agent for at least one of the installed MIB modules;
- and
- loading the at least one verified installed MIB module into a MIB object data database on the NMS to enable management of the SNMP agent.
11 more elements
A physical non-transitory computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for acquiring and deploying needed Management Information Base (MIB) modules, the instructions when executed causing a computing device to:
- transmit a query from a Network Management Station (NMS) to a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent associated with a network device for an enterprise number identifying a vendor of the network device;
- receive at the NMS, in response to the query, an enterprise number identifying a vendor of the network device;
- transmit a first request from the NMS to a MIB module repository located externally to the NMS, the agent and the network device, the first request utilizing the received enterprise number and requesting verification that the MIB module repository holds at least one MIB module associated with the vendor of the network device;
- determine, at the NMS using the received enterprise number, whether a local MIB database in the NMS holds at least one MIB module associated with the vendor of the network device, and
- if the local MIB database in the NMS holds at least one MIB module associated with the vendor of the network device:
- transmitting a second request from the NMS to the MIB module repository, the second request requesting all of the MIB modules for the identified vendor that are not present in the local MIB database that are present in the MIB module repository and any updates for a MIB module present in the local MIB database that is also present in the MIB module repository, or
- if the local MIB database in the NMS does not hold at least one MIB module associated with the vendor of the network device:
- transmitting a second request from the NMS to the MIB module repository, the second request requesting all of the MIB modules associated with the vendor that are present in the MIB module repository;
- receiving at the NMS the MIB modules for the identified vendor requested in the second request;
- install in the local MIB database the received MIB modules for the identified vendor;
- request verification of support by the SNMP agent for each of the MIB modules that were installed in the local MIB database following the second request;
- receive verification of support from the SNMP Agent for at least one of the installed MIB modules;
- and
- load the at least one verified installed MIB module into a MIB object database on the NMS to enable management of the SNMP agent.
11 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.