JP3102045B2 - Network management information collection method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention can be used in the industrial field of developing an application system for supporting the operation and maintenance of a network consisting of transmission, switching and computer equipment. Specifically, network management information used by a management application or the like that uses collection of management information in a network management system constructed based on the provisions of OSI management (a global standard for network management systems), which is being standardized by ISO Regarding collection method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, networks were relatively small, so that management and maintenance of the networks were relatively easy. However, with the diversification of devices that make up the network and the complexity of the connection types, operation and maintenance work requires a great deal of man-hours. In order to manage the network in a unified manner, the information structure and access protocol are standardized and managed. Standardization work has been undertaken to do so. However, since there is no definition of an implementation method for realizing these, there are various implementation methods, and a method of realizing an information collection interface specified by ISO as a function and newly developing an application that uses the interface. ,
An implementation method using object-oriented programming has been proposed.

[0003]

In the above-described management information collection method which is a part of the network management function defined in the ISO, the method of newly developing the collection function as an ISO protocol requires a large number of development steps and a new method. There is a problem that the created network management application is not operated in a non-ISO environment.

[0004] An object of the present invention is to use the ISO environment in an existing environment because it is still several years before it is widely used for business use, and it can be easily ported to the ISO environment. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for collecting network management information that enables efficient execution of the network management information.

[0005]

The network management information collecting method according to the present invention is introduced in a hierarchical structure based on an inclusion relation on a network system, which is a standard network management information structure of ISO, and a general-purpose OS such as UNIX. By mapping between the hierarchical structures of the file system, in the management information collection requested by the network management application, the management target name to be searched,
The management attribute name is the directory name on the file system,
It is characterized by converting the file into a file name, making the reading and writing of the file correspond to the start of a management object / attribute search processing program corresponding to the file, and collecting network management information.

[0006]

According to the present invention, it is possible to collect management information such as the status of the constituent devices and connection relations in a large-scale network based on a structural model defined as a standard by the ISO, and the management application is aware of the lower-level protocol. Without compromising with the ISO standard and ensuring operation in existing environments. Further, since the present invention uses a file system adopted in an existing general-purpose OS, the number of development steps can be significantly reduced as compared with the new development of the ISO standard.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The configuration of an embodiment of the network management information collecting method according to the present invention will be described.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an apparatus for implementing the network management information collecting method of the present invention.

The request information analysis unit 201 performs processing 1 described later.
As described in 01, an item of an information collection request from a management application using the network management information collection method of the present invention is analyzed, and a requested management target / management attribute is specified.

The management target → directory conversion unit 202
The management target / management attribute based on the standard management information model analyzed by the request information analysis unit 201 corresponds to the process 103 and process 105 described later.
Convert to file name.

The file name → program conversion unit 203
Corresponding to a process 106 described later, the file name obtained by the management target → directory conversion unit 202 is interpreted as a program name, and an instruction to start a program existing under the designated directory is sent to each search processing control unit 204. Request.

Each search processing control unit 204 executes a program instructed to be activated by the file name → program conversion unit 203, and manages its operation status. If the individual search programs are interrupted for some reason and the information collection fails, error processing is performed. If the information collection is successful, the result is output to the result storage unit 206.

Each search program 205 is a group of information collection programs realized according to the type and storage location of information indicated by the management target / management attribute. For example, device status information and the like are stored in a device register, so that the device communicates with the device to acquire information, and if the information is stored in a memory, a file, a database, or the like, the information is accessed by accessing the information. To collect.

The result storage unit 206 temporarily stores the management information collection results of the individual search processing programs 205, and sequentially stores the results until a series of processes determined in processes 102 and 104 described later is completed. Upon completion, the information collection result is delivered to the management application using the network management information collection method of the present invention.

Next, the network management information collecting method of the present invention will be described step by step. FIG. 1 shows the procedure for implementing the network management information collection method of the present invention.

Process 101 Analyzes a request for information collection from a network management application using the network management information collection method of the present invention. In other words, it extracts what information (management attribute) of which device (management target) is requested. When there are a plurality of information collection targets, the management attributes requested for each management target are listed to form a set of information collection requests for one management target, and the set is further listed and held for a plurality of management targets. I do. This processing is performed by the request information analysis unit 201 shown in FIG.
Corresponding to the processing in.

Process 102 It is determined whether or not the information collection request for each management target exists in the list of management target sets created in process 101. Subsequent processing is repeatedly performed until the set of the management target for which the information collection is requested disappears from the list. If the list is empty, the process ends.

Process 103 Determines the position of the requested managed object on the structural model indicating the inclusion relation of the system, and determines the directory on the file system corresponding to the highest level of the predefined inclusion relation. Set the directory name corresponding to the requested management target included in. This processing corresponds to the processing in the management target → directory conversion unit 202 in FIG.

Process 104 The management target is fixed, and it is determined whether the list of management attributes defined to represent the characteristics of the management target and requested to collect information by the process 101 is empty. If the list is empty, the process returns to step 101 to process a different information collection request. Until the list becomes empty, information of the requested management attribute is collected while repeating the subsequent processing.

Process 105 A file name that exists under the directory set in process 103 and corresponds to the management attribute is determined. Rules for uniquely converting names between management attribute names and file names are defined,
The attribute name is set according to the conversion rule. This processing corresponds to the processing in the file name → program conversion unit 203 in FIG.

Process 106 The directory name set by processes 103 and 105+
The program indicated by the file name is started from the network management application. This processing corresponds to the processing in each search processing control unit 204 in FIG.

Process 107 The program started in process 106 is for performing information retrieval processing of the management target / management attribute corresponding to the directory name / file name indicated by the program name, and according to the characteristics of each management information. Perform search processing. For example, device status information is stored in a device register.
Information is obtained by communicating with the device, and if the information is stored in a memory, a file, a database, or the like, the information is collected by accessing the information. This processing corresponds to each search program 205 in FIG.

Process 108 The result obtained by process 107 is communicated to the management application, the process returns to process 104, and processes 105 to 108 are repeated for the next management attribute. This processing corresponds to the processing in the result storage unit 206 in FIG.

According to the procedure described above, the network management information collecting method according to the present invention is realized.

By using such a network information collection method, it is possible to collect information on devices constituting a network in an existing communication environment.

[0026]

By using the network management information collection method according to the present invention, information indicating the specifications and status of transmission, exchange, and computer equipment constituting a network can be obtained.
It is possible to collect network management information such as information indicating a connection relationship required for network management and diagnosis of a fault occurring on the network while maintaining consistency with the ISO standard.

Since the file system adopted by the existing general-purpose OS is used, the management application embodying the present invention can be used immediately. Further, since the management information structure model defined by ISO is conscious, The man-hours for shifting to a product group that is defined by the ISO as an environment and that guarantees interconnection can be reduced compared to new development.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a network management information collection method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of an apparatus for implementing the network management information collecting method of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 201 request information analysis unit 202 management target → directory conversion unit 203 file name → program conversion unit 204 individual search processing control unit 205 individual search program 206 result storage unit

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] In a network management system, a mapping is performed between a hierarchical structure and a file system installed in a general-purpose OS based on an inclusion relationship of the management target on the network system, and a network management application is provided. In the attribute search requested by, the managed object name and managed attribute name to be searched are replaced with the directory name and file name on the file system, and the file is accessed to access the managed object / attribute corresponding to the file. By executing a processing program to perform the attribute search, the collection of management information specified by the ISO as a global standard for managing the transmission, switching equipment and computer equipment connected to the network in a unified manner is defined as the lower level of communication. Even if the layer is not an ISO standard Network management information collecting method characterized by consistency with ISO standard in publication level.