Automated discovery and procurement of management information bases (MIBs)
AssigneeEXFO Service Assurance Inc.
InventorsDeborah Primerano, Nicholas W. Saparoff
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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.
Claims20
A non-transitory medium holding computer-executable instructions for acquiring and deploying Management Information Base (MIB) modules, the instructions when executed causing a least one 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 to obtain an enterprise number identifying a vendor of the network device;
- receive at the NMS, in response to the query, the enterprise number identifying the vendor of the network device;
- verify by using the enterprise number in a communication between the NMS and a MIB module repository that the MIB module repository holds at least one MIB module associated with the vendor of the network device, the MIB module repository located externally to the NMS, the agent and the network device;
- identify at the NMS, using the received enterprise number, whether a local MIB database in the NMS holds any MIB modules associated with the vendor of the network device;
- transmit a request from the NMS to the MIB module repository based on the identifying, the 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;
- receive at the NMS the MIB modules for the identified vendor requested in the request;
- and
- install in the local MIB database the received MIB modules for the identified vendor.
A computer-implemented method for acquiring and deploying 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 to obtain an enterprise number identifying a vendor of the network device;
- receiving at the NMS, in response to the query, the enterprise number identifying the vendor of the network device;
- verifying by using the enterprise number in a communication between the NMS and a MIB module repository that the MIB module repository holds at least one MIB module associated with the vendor of the network device, the MIB module repository located externally to the NMS, the agent and the network device;
- identifying at the NMS, using the received enterprise number, whether a local MIB database in the NMS holds any MIB modules associated with the vendor of the network device;
- transmitting a request from the NMS to the MIB module repository based on the identifying, the 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;
- receiving at the NMS the MIB modules for the identified vendor requested in the request;
- and
- installing in the local MIB database the received MIB modules for the identified vendor.
A non-transitory medium holding computer-executable instructions for acquiring and deploying Management Information Base (MIB) modules, the instructions when executed causing a least one 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 to obtain an enterprise number identifying a vendor of the network device;
- receive at the NMS, in response to the query, the enterprise number identifying the vendor of the network device;
- verify by using the enterprise number in a communication between the NMS and a MIB module repository that the MIB module repository holds at least one MIB module associated with the vendor of the network device, the MIB module repository located externally to the NMS, the agent and the network device;
- identify at the NMS, using the received enterprise number, whether a local MIB database in the NMS holds any MIB modules associated with the vendor of the network device;
- transmit a request from the NMS to the MIB module repository based on the identifying, the request requesting any newer versions of a MIB module that is present in the local MIB database and that is also present in the MIB module repository;
- receive at the NMS the MIB modules for the identified vendor requested in the request;
- and
- install in the local MIB database the received MIB modules for the identified vendor.
A computing device apparatus for acquiring and deploying Management Information Base (MIB) modules, comprising:
- a network interface;
- and
- a Network Management Station (NMS) executing on the computing device, the NMS configured to:
- transmit a query to a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent associated with a network device to obtain an enterprise number identifying a vendor of the network device;
- receive at the NMS, in response to the query, the enterprise number identifying the vendor of the network device;
- verify by using the enterprise number in a communication between the NMS and a MIB module repository that the MIB module repository holds at least one MIB module associated with the vendor of the network device, the MIB module repository located externally to the NMS, the agent and the network device;
- identify at the NMS, using the received enterprise number, whether a local MIB database in the NMS holds any MIB modules associated with the vendor of the network device;
- transmit a request from the NMS to the MIB module repository based on the identifying, the 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;
- receive at the NMS the MIB modules for the identified vendor requested in the request;
- and
- install in the local MIB database the received MIB modules for the identified vendor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.