KR100534619B1 - Apparatus and method of network management - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is to more efficiently manage a network that is increasingly decentralized and enlarged. In the case where an XML-based manager manages a network through an XML / SNMP gateway connected to the gateway, the gateway is assigned a unique index to each gateway. The present invention proposes a network management apparatus and method for increasing the management efficiency of a network by allowing a user to respond only to a request matching an index.

Description

Network management apparatus and method {APPARATUS AND METHOD OF NETWORK MANAGEMENT}

The present invention relates to a management apparatus and method for network elements, and more particularly, to an integrated network management apparatus and method for managing an SNMP agent of a network element in a single XML-based manager on a distributed network.

In general, the Internet has used Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) as a standard network protocol for managing network devices such as hosts, routers or switching hubs. SNMP has been adopted as an Internet standard and has been recommended to be supported by all network devices.

In SNMP, communication occurs between a manager (Manager, managing side, also known as SNMP manager) on a management terminal and an agent (Agent, managing side, also known as SNMP agent) on a network device to be managed. Refers to an application program with built-in SNMP, such as running network management software. Agents are implemented as resident processes (execution processes) on network devices that are managed by hosts, routers, and access servers. Agents manage MIB (Management Information Base) variables on network devices. SNMP accesses and manages network devices by accessing MIB variables managed by agents.

1 is a diagram according to the prior art, illustrating the operation of an SNMP agent.

The agent (or SNMP agent, hereinafter referred to as " SNMP agent ") 130 of FIG. 1 is a generic term for a network element to be managed, and is referred to as a simple network management protocol (SNMP) agent application. Indicates. The Management Information Base (MIB) 136 represents SNMP management information provided by the corresponding network element. An EMS (External Management System) (or SNMP Manager, hereinafter referred to as " SNMP Manager ") 100 represents an SNMP management application running on a Network Management Station (NMS).

As shown in FIG. 1, the management of a system for a conventional SNMP protocol is a form of exchanging an SNMP protocol data unit (PDU) with an SNMP manager 100 through a user datagram protocol (UDP) port 161. Trap PDU is transmitted to UDP 162. PDUs such as GET / GETNEXT / SET related to SNMP operation are exchanged with EMS 100 using UDP 161.

Hereinafter, network elements (for example, hosts, routers, X terminals, terminal servers, printers, etc.) to be managed in a TCP / IP network are referred to as an SNMP agent 130 and an NMS as an SNMP manager 100.

The SNMP manager 100 requests the SNMP agent 130 to set a value of the management target MIB 136 or read a value. The SNMP agent 130 sends a response to the request from the SNMP manager 100. The SNMP agent 130, which is an application on a network element running SNMP management software, may be managed by the SNMP manager 100. The SNMP agent 130 transmits management information to the SNMP manager 100 in response to a request for collecting information from the SNMP manager 100. In addition, the SNMP agent 130 asynchronously provides the SNMP manager 100 with information on events that occur even when there is no request to collect information from the SNMP manager 100.

SNMP is defined in IETF RFC1157, MIB (Management Information Base) in IETF RFC1231, and Structure of Management Information (SMI) in IETF RFC1155.

However, as the management form of the network is changed based on XML (eXtensible Markup Language), a number of methods for converting the existing SNMP MIB structure into XML schemas have been proposed, and XML / SNMP for interworking between the XML-based manager and the existing SNMP agent 130 is provided. Gateway research is also in progress. The XML / SNMP gateway automatically generates XML schema definitions based on SNMP Structure of Management Information (SMI) information and includes management using them.

2 is a block diagram of an XML-based network management system using an XML / SNMP gateway according to the prior art.

The XML-based manager 210 of FIG. 2 manages an XML-based network. The XML / SNMP gateway 220 performs a MIB / XML conversion function of the existing SNMP agent 130 and a signal transmission function between the XML-based manager 210 and the SNMP agent 130. That is, the XML / SNMP gateway 220 converts the information collection request of the XML-based manager 210 received in the form of XML into a MIB and transmits the information to the SNMP agent 130. The response or trap is converted into XML and transmitted to the XML-based manager 210.

Currently, various companies are studying various XML conversion protocols. For example, equipment vendors such as Cisco and Juniper Networks have their own X Bit Map (XBM) agents to manage their devices. Martin-Flatin proposes model-level and metamodel-level in protocol conversion of SNMP MIB to XML. Avaya Labs Reserch also presented an XML-based management interface for devices equipped with SNMP agents. Other work on converting ASN.1 grammars into XML has been presented by T. Imamura, H. Naruyama-IBM Reserch (2001).

3 is a block diagram of an XML / SNMP gateway according to the prior art.

The structure of the conventional XML / SNMP gateway 220 and the parsing of the SNMP MIB will be described with reference to FIG. 3. The XML decoder 302 of FIG. 3 sends a request such as GET / GETNEXT / SET received from the XML-based manager 210 according to the XML schema of the XML DOM (Document Object Model) 304. Switch to interpretable grammar. The XML DOM 304 defines a list of XML grammars. The XML DOM 304 has a mapping function and a check function according to the XML grammar. The XML encoder 310 converts the response of the SNMP agent 130 or the SNMP trap message into an XML grammar that the XML-based manager 210 can interpret according to the XML schema of the XML DOM 304. The MIB Translator 314 analyzes the SMI Syntax of the MIB file written in ASN.1 and converts it into XML Grammar, saves it as an XML DOM 304, and creates an XML Schema document. do. XSL (XML Stylexheet Language) converter 308 defines the display format.

In FIG. 3, the operation ① is a process of receiving a request from the XML-based manager 210 and delivering it to the SNMP agent 130, and delivering a response from the SNMP agent 130 to the XML-based manager 100. Operation ② is a process of delivering a trap message of the SNMP agent 130 to the XML-based manager (210). Operation 3 is an update process of the XML DOM 304.

In the prior art, which does not use the XML-based management technique, in managing the SNMP-based network, there is less scalability as the management target increases, and the efficiency thereof is reduced. In addition, in the method of managing a network based on XML, it is difficult to manage the existing SNMP agent 130 as it is. To this end, a new XML / SNMP gateway 220 should be developed to allow the XML-based manager 210 to manage various types of SNMP agents having various MIBs.

In addition, it is necessary to find a way to manage multiple XML / SNMP gateways 220 distributed by a single XML-based manager 210 that are distributed in a huge network that is gradually increasing in size and increasing in management.

An object of the present invention is to provide a network management apparatus and method capable of integrated management of an SNMP agent of a large network by managing an XML / SNMP gateway in which one XML-based manager is distributed.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a network management apparatus and method having a structure that can flexibly cope with network scalability.

The present invention is to integrate and manage huge network elements by allowing a simple network management protocol (SNMP) agent distributed in a network to be managed by one eXtensible Markup language (XML) -based manager. For this purpose, we propose an XML gateway for each SNMP agent and propose an indexing algorithm for the integration of each XML / SNMP gateway.

The present invention assigns a unique index to each XML / SNMP gateway and distinguishes each XML / SNMP gateway according to the index.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a distributed network including at least one network connected to an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) based manager and at least one network including a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent connected to the gateway. A unique index is assigned to each gateway to be stored, the index assigned to each gateway is stored, and when a management information collection request signal is transmitted to the SNMP agent connected to each gateway, the unique index assigned to the gateway is transmitted together. The XML-based manager to store the unique index allocated from the manager, and parse the index included in the signal received from the XML-based manager, and only when the index matches the index assigned to the XML-based manager. Depending on the signal received from A network management device including a gateway that performs another request.

In addition, the apparatus of the present invention is a distributed network in which at least one network including a gateway connected to an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) based manager and a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent connected to the gateway is present. A unique index is assigned to each gateway to be stored, the index assigned to each gateway is stored, and when a management information collection request signal is transmitted to the SNMP agent connected to each gateway, the unique index assigned to the gateway is transmitted together. Network management including an XML-based manager, and a gateway for storing the unique index assigned by the manager, and transmits to the XML-based manager including the index assigned to the trap message received from the SNMP agent connected to the manager; Device.

In addition, the method of the present invention is a distributed network in which at least one network including a gateway connected to an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) based manager and a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent connected to the gateway is present. A first step in which the gateway is assigned a unique index, a second step of receiving a management information request signal from an SNMP agent connected to it from the XML-based manager, and parsing the index included in the received signal; And a fourth step of determining whether an index included in the signal matches the index assigned to the user, and a fourth step of performing a request according to the signal if the index included in the signal matches the index assigned to the user. Network management method.

In addition, the method of the present invention is a distributed network in which at least one network including a gateway connected to an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) based manager and a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent connected to the gateway is present. A first step of assigning a unique index and a second step of transmitting a trap message received from the SNMP agent to the XML-based manager including the index assigned to the trap message. .

The term " index algorithm " used in the present invention means a device identification method of assigning a unique index to each device and using the index to distinguish each device.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

4 is a diagram illustrating a management structure of an XML / SNMP gateway having a distributed structure according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, at least one network (eg, network A and network B) is connected to one XML-based manager 210. The XML-based manager 210 is connected to an XML / SNMP gateway 220 located in each network. The XML / SNMP gateway 220 is connected to the SNMP agents 130 present in the network elements in each network.

As shown in FIG. 4, the XML-based manager 210 according to the present invention allocates an index to each connected XML / SNMP gateway 220 and performs an network management with reference to the assigned index. It includes an index storage unit 416 for storing the index assigned to each XML / SNMP gateway 220. The allocation of each index is made at the time of adding the XML / SNMP gateway 220 according to the initial configuration of the network and the change of the system. Each time a new XML / SNMP gateway 220 is added, an index assigned to the newly added XML / XNMP gateway 220 is added to the index storage unit 416. The XML-based manager 210 performs management information request and response processing for the SNMP agent 130 according to the index assigned to each XML / SNMP gateway 220.

The XML / SNMP gateway 220 according to the present invention includes an index parsing unit, and requests management information for the SNMP agent 130 from the XML-based manager 210 and the SNMP agent 130 according to the index assigned thereto. To handle the response.

The XML-based manager 210 of FIG. 4 has an index and network information of an XML / SNMP gateway 220 of a distributed network. The XML-based manager 210 is connected to the XML / SNMP gateway 220 of each network and maintains their information. The XML-based manager 210 uses the XML / SNMP gateway 220 to which the SNMP agent 130 is connected to obtain management information from a specific SNMP agent 130.

The XML / SNMP gateway 220 interprets the index information included in the request received from the XML-based manager 210 and performs an operation. The XML / SNMP gateway 220 adds its index field to the response received from the SNMP agent 130 and transmits it to the XML-based manager 210.

The XML / SNMP gateway 220 converts MIB messages of the SNMP agent 130 of each network into XML, or interprets XML requests received from the XML-based manager 210, converts them into MIBs, and then delivers them to the SNMP agent 130. It plays a role. When the XML / SNMP gateway 220 is connected to the XML-based manager 210, the XML / SNMP gateway 220 receives and maintains index information about the network to which it belongs. The XML / SNMP gateway 220 converts the SNMP agent messages into XML and transmits the SNMP agent messages to the XML-based manager 210 along with the index information of the network.

The SNMP agent 130 processes only the SNMP request of the XML / SNMP gateway 220 regardless of the index information of the network including the SNMP agent 130. The SNMP agent 130 performs a MIB operation on the SNMP request received from the XML / SNMP gateway 220. Refer to IETF RFC 1157, IETF RFC1231, and IETF RFC1155 for detailed operation.

Before describing the operation of the present invention, two operations of SNMP will be described.

SNMP is a communication method between manager and agent. It is a request / response type of "polling," in which the manager sends an information acquisition request to an agent and the agent responds to it. Two types of notification "traps (event notifications)" are specified.

Polling is a request / response type of communication where an administrator sends a request message to an agent and the agent sends a response message. In general network monitoring, the administrator sends a message indicating a variable information acquisition request (GetRequest) and a next variable information acquisition request (GetNextRequest) to the agent to acquire a MIB variable value on the network device. The agent returns the MIB variable value requested by the manager in a variable information get response message.

A trap is used by an agent to send an event to a manager when an event such as a failure or state change occurs in a network device. When an event occurs in the network device, the agent sends an event notification message that traps it to a predetermined administrator. The event trap message includes the time when the event occurred, the event type, and the like. Events that can notify event trap messages include interface failures, restarts of network devices, and receipt of unauthorized messages. The administrator can see the event notification message and know when and what failure occurred.

Referring to Figure 5, the operation at the time of polling and trap according to the present invention will be described.

5 is a diagram illustrating an operation of an XML / SNMP gateway and an XML-based manager in a distributed network structure.

Hereinafter, the XML-based manager 210 is referred to as the manager 210, and the XML / SNMP gateway 220 is referred to as the gateway 220.

First, the operation of the manager 210 will be described.

In operation 500, the manager 210 makes a connection request to the gateway 220-a of the network to be managed (for example, the gateway of network A). In step 502, the manager 210 receiving the response signal for the connection request from the gateway 220-a checks the gateway information table, that is, the index storage unit 416, managed by the gateway 220 in step 504. The new index not assigned to the gateway is assigned to the gateway 220-a. In this case, the manager 210 stores information such as an address of the network A and an index of the gateway 220-a in a table form, and one or more gateways (or networks) may be connected to one manager. have. On the other hand, the index allocation may be made at the request of the gateway 220-a.

In step 506, the gateway 220-a stores the index allocated from the manager 210. The gateway 220-a has a table that stores the index assigned by the manager 210 and information of the manager 210. This table is particularly useful when there is more than one manager 210 to manage the network.

In step 508, the gateway 220-a transmits a response signal to the manager 210 to the assigned index. In operation 510, the manager 210 updates the index storage unit 416 by adding an index allocated to the gateway 220-a. Thereafter, the messages between the manager 210 and the gateway 220-a are exchanged in the form of XML.

In operation 512, the manager 210 requests management information from the gateway 220-a. At this time, the manager 210 transmits index information of the target gateway 220-a together. This index is an arbitrary integer that does not overlap and does not have to be contiguous. The manager 210 classifies each network by reading index information received from the gateway 220-a, and displays the management information of different networks by using the same.

Next, the operation of the gateway 220-a will be described.

In step 514, the gateway 220 parses the index included in the request message received from the manager 210 and checks whether the index matches the information. As a result of parsing, if the index received from the manager 210 is an inappropriate value, the gateway 220-a ignores or returns a request from the manager 210. If the index received from the manager 210 is a valid value, the gateway 220-a converts the XML into an SNMP MIB through the XML decoder 302 of FIG. 3 and transmits the XML to the SNMP agent 130 in step 520.

When the gateway 220-a receives the response signal from the SNMP agent 130, the gateway 220-a converts the XML signal into an XML schema through the XML encoder 310 in step 528. In step 530, the gateway 220-A adds its index information to the message converted into XML and transmits the index information to the manager 210.

Steps 512 to 530 above are for transmitting and receiving a polling message.

In contrast, the transmission of the trap message is performed as follows.

When the gateway 220-a receives a trap message from the SNMP agent 130 in step 542, the gateway 220-a converts the message received through the XML encoder 310 into an XML schema in step 544, and adds its index information. In step 546, the manager 210 transmits the information to the manager 210.

That is, in the operations of the manager 210 and the gateway 220-a according to the present invention, a process for indexes is newly added.

On the other hand, the operation of the SNMP agent 130 is the same as the operation of the existing SNMP protocol, the value of the MIB with the request from the manager 210 through the gateway 220-a gateway (220-a) To send). When a trap occurs, the SNMP agent 130 transmits the same to the gateway 220-a. In addition, the SNMP agent 130 does not consider the index used between the manager 210 and the gateway 220-a.

According to the present invention, when the MIB is added to or deleted from the system, the MIB converter of FIG. 3 applies and converts the XML DOM to the XML DOM in the form of XML. Management becomes easier. In addition, by placing an XML / SNMP gateway between the XML-based manager and the SNMP agent without changing the operation of the SNMP agent, the XML-based manager can easily manage different SNMP agents. In addition, by assigning non-redundant indexes to distributed XML / SNMP gateways, XML-based managers can manage multiple networks without confusion. Regardless of which network you manage, you can add or delete networks.

By applying the present invention as described above, MIB can be added or deleted freely, an existing SNMP agent can be managed using an XML-based manager, and a large network set can be managed by one manager.

1 is a diagram according to the prior art, illustrating the operation of an SNMP agent.

2 is a block diagram of an XML-based network management system using an XML / SNMP gateway according to the prior art.

3 is a block diagram of an XML / SNMP gateway according to the prior art.

4 is a diagram according to the present invention, illustrating a management structure of an XML / SNMP gateway having a distributed structure.

5 is a diagram according to the present invention, illustrating the operation of an XML / SNMP gateway and an XML-based manager in a distributed network architecture.

Claims (9)

A distributed network in which at least one network includes a gateway connected to an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) -based manager and a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent connected to the gateway, A unique index is assigned to each of the connected gateways, the index assigned to each gateway is stored, and a unique index assigned to the gateway is transmitted when a management information collection request signal is transmitted to the SNMP agent connected to each gateway. An XML-based manager that sends them together, Store the unique index assigned from the manager, parse the index included in the signal received from the XML-based manager, according to the signal received from the XML-based manager only when the index matches the index assigned to it A network management device comprising a gateway that performs a request. The network management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the gateway transmits an index assigned to the gateway when transmitting the management information collected from the SNMP agent to the XML-based manager in response to a request from the XML-based manager. The network management apparatus of claim 2, wherein the XML-based manager determines which gateway is a signal received through an index included in the received signal. The method of claim 2, wherein the gateway converts the XML grammar signal received from the XML-based manager into a MIB of SNMP and transmits the signal to the SNMP agent, and converts the SNMP MIB signal received from the SNMP agent into a signal of XML grammar. Network management device to transmit to the XML-based manager. A distributed network in which at least one network includes a gateway connected to an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) -based manager and a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent connected to the gateway, A unique index is assigned to each of the connected gateways, the index assigned to each gateway is stored, and a unique index assigned to the gateway is transmitted when a management information collection request signal is transmitted to the SNMP agent connected to each gateway. An XML-based manager that sends them together, A network management apparatus comprising a gateway for storing a unique index assigned by the manager and including the index assigned to the trap message received from an SNMP agent connected to the manager and transmitting the index to the XML-based manager. A distributed network in which at least one network includes a gateway connected to an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) -based manager and a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent connected to the gateway, A first step in which the gateway is assigned a unique index, A second step of receiving a management information request signal from an SNMP agent connected to the XML-based manager; A third process of parsing an index included in the received signal and determining whether the index included in the signal matches an index assigned to the received signal; And performing a request according to the signal if the index included in the signal matches the index assigned to the signal. The method of claim 6, The fourth process is a process of collecting management information from the SNMP agent requested by the XML-based manager and transmitting it to the XML-based manager. 8. The network management method of claim 7, wherein the management information is transmitted to the XML-based manager including the index assigned to the management information. A distributed network in which at least one network includes a gateway connected to an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) -based manager and a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent connected to the gateway, A first step in which the gateway is assigned a unique index, And receiving a trap message from the SNMP agent, and including the index assigned to the trap message to the XML-based manager.