EP0919089A1 - Gestion de postes de travail informatiques - Google Patents

Gestion de postes de travail informatiques

Info

Publication number
EP0919089A1
EP0919089A1 EP97940122A EP97940122A EP0919089A1 EP 0919089 A1 EP0919089 A1 EP 0919089A1 EP 97940122 A EP97940122 A EP 97940122A EP 97940122 A EP97940122 A EP 97940122A EP 0919089 A1 EP0919089 A1 EP 0919089A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
workstations
network
program
policy group
policy
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP97940122A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Inventor
Bahman Rafatjoo
Thomas Munk-Jakobsen
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Metrix Sarl
Original Assignee
Metrix S A
Metrix SA
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Metrix S A, Metrix SA filed Critical Metrix S A
Publication of EP0919089A1 publication Critical patent/EP0919089A1/fr
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L41/00—Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
    • H04L41/08—Configuration management of networks or network elements
    • H04L41/0894—Policy-based network configuration management

Definitions

  • the subject of this application is concerned with modern networks of computers. With the advent of reliable Local Area Networks (LANs) and good quality Wide Area Networks (WANs) it has been possible to interconnect low cost powerful personal computers and file / print server equipment. Such networks of computers have grown very quickly in recent years so that it is not uncommon to find networks ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of computer (nodes) all within the same commercial organisation. Companies usually develop such networks to cover a number of main sites which will be served by LANs and interconnected via WAN links. This structure is in marked contrast to the structure of data networks of 10 years ago where computer terminals were connected directly (or via concentrators) to one or a very few large mainframe computers.
  • LANs Local Area Networks
  • WANs Wide Area Networks
  • a method of managing a plurality of computer workstations interconnected by a network including at least one policy group, the method including the steps of: receiving data relating to the policy group definition; generating a program representative of the policy group definition data ; sending the generated program to each of the plurality of workstations ; instructing the workstations to check, by employing the program, whether or not each respective workstation belongs or does not belong to the at least one policy group; and returning the results of the checking step form each work station to at least one managing station.
  • This invention solves the above problems firstly by allowing the network administrator (i.e. the user of the network management system) to be able to define the membership conditions corresponding to each group which he wishes to create, and then to have them sent to all of the workstations on the network as a script or program data for execution within each agent locally.
  • each workstation will check periodically whether or not it fulfils any group membership and if so it will transmit a trap or event message to the network management station. This in turn on receiving these traps will update its database to reflect this.
  • the membership of each group is checked independently by each workstation, the effect is one of producing an inventory in real time of network status. Policies can therefore be managed with an assurance of accurate and timely information.
  • the novelty of the above approach is in respect of the fact that the decisions for group membership are taken by each workstation itself and independently of any others.
  • the stations are capable of receiving and processing the definition information, be it in the form of a definition file or in the form of an executable script or program which is generated at the management station.
  • This implies the presence of some form of management agent in the workstations, and a communications sub-system which can send to and receive transmissions from the management system, which itself will update its database to record any changes .
  • Figure 1 shows a computer network
  • Figure 2 shows a network management system employing the invention
  • Figure 3 is a flow diagram of an operation according to the invention.
  • Figure 1 shows a standard node computer network 10 which has plural interconnected user workstations 11. The workstations are managed from a main network management station 12.
  • the problem cited above of managing the workstations 11, can be seen in this context as one of updating (reading from or writing to) database entries and as a consequence from/to the real workstation agents.
  • the numbers of workstations 11 start to become large (i.e. from many hundreds to tens of thousands) then, although powerful management systems 12 can access these volumes automatically, it becomes impossible for the human operator to search through such volumes and indicate which agents need to be contacted.
  • the main difficulty then is in being able to define which groupings are significant and to define which of the (maybe thousands of) nodes should belong to which groups.
  • the method of the invention can be employed on network management systems 12 of the type managing the network 10 of figure 1.
  • Such a system 12 is shown in figure 2 and generally consists of the following components: 1.
  • a database for registering network events and recording network component information.
  • a communications sub-system for reading and updating network component status
  • the management database 3 which contains a data record for each of the devices 11 (nodes hubs routers etc.) which are to be found on the network 10.
  • a record will contain information such as the node's network address, its physical parameters and may also contain data related to its identification in the company's environment, such as who is the responsible user and where it is located. Database techniques are used to manage this information on larger scale management systems because of the extent of the information, the numbers of nodes involved and the inter-relationships which may exist between co-operating network devices 11.
  • Manageable devices 11 are those end stations which can be interrogated and updated from the management system 12.
  • This interrogation and updating is performed by sending messages (from the communications sub-system 4) to control programs (known as agents) which reside and are always active locally in the end stations ll.
  • agents are very common in network devices (such as bridges and routers) but are only just becoming available for user workstations.
  • step 3 The steps required for the implementation of the invention are shown in fig 3.
  • the actions are initiated by a network administrator who will decide on the group membership conditions and configure his management station 12 accordingly (step 1). This is then compiled into scripts or programs (step 2) which are sent to all workstation agents on the network 10 (step 3) .
  • step 2 the scripts or programs
  • step 3 the local agent will add it to his list of active group conditions and periodically will check the workstation 11 to see if any changes have taken place which affect the membership conditions.
  • the rate at which this checking (polling) takes place is given by the script, since some conditions are more dynamic than others.
  • a typical check on available disk space might be once every 15 seconds, whereas that for installed software need only be once every 10 minutes. Note that the agent will perform these checks independently of the workstation 11 being connected to the network 10, and will signal them as and when it is reconnected. This is particularly useful for portable PCs.
  • the agent Whenever a change is detected which affects the membership of one or more defined groups, the agent causes a trap message to be sent to the management station 12 to signal this event (step 5) .
  • This trap is used to update the database entries for each group and may also (optionally) generate an alarm condition for the administrator (step 6) .

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Computer And Data Communications (AREA)
  • Small-Scale Networks (AREA)

Abstract

La présente invention concerne un procédé permettant de gérer plusieurs postes de travail informatiques interconnectés dans un réseau, lesdits postes de travail informatiques comprenant au moins un groupe d'action. Ledit procédé comprend une étape de réception de données relatives à la définition du groupe d'action et une étape de création d'un programme représentatif des données de définition du groupe d'action. Le programme créé est envoyé à chacun des postes de travail et chaque poste de travail respectif reçoit la consigne de vérifier, au moyen du programme, s'il appartient ou non à l'au moins un groupe d'action. Les résultats de la vérification provenant de chaque poste de travail sont envoyés à au moins un poste de gestion.
EP97940122A 1996-08-27 1997-08-25 Gestion de postes de travail informatiques Withdrawn EP0919089A1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB9617859 1996-08-27
GBGB9617859.5A GB9617859D0 (en) 1996-08-27 1996-08-27 Management of workstations
PCT/EP1997/004614 WO1998009402A1 (fr) 1996-08-27 1997-08-25 Gestion de postes de travail informatiques

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0919089A1 true EP0919089A1 (fr) 1999-06-02

Family

ID=10798975

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP97940122A Withdrawn EP0919089A1 (fr) 1996-08-27 1997-08-25 Gestion de postes de travail informatiques

Country Status (4)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0919089A1 (fr)
AU (1) AU735348B2 (fr)
GB (1) GB9617859D0 (fr)
WO (1) WO1998009402A1 (fr)

Families Citing this family (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US7237243B2 (en) * 2001-06-11 2007-06-26 Microsoft Corporation Multiple device management method and system
EP1514183A2 (fr) * 2002-06-20 2005-03-16 BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS public limited company Ordinateur reparti
GB0230331D0 (en) 2002-12-31 2003-02-05 British Telecomm Method and apparatus for operating a computer network
US7676559B2 (en) * 2003-06-24 2010-03-09 Alcatel Lucent Real-time policy evaluation mechanism

Family Cites Families (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4385384A (en) * 1977-06-06 1983-05-24 Racal Data Communications Inc. Modem diagnostic and control system
US5193152A (en) * 1989-11-03 1993-03-09 Racal-Datacom, Inc. Network management system with group naming

Non-Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
See references of WO9809402A1 *

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
AU4207297A (en) 1998-03-19
GB9617859D0 (en) 1996-10-09
WO1998009402A1 (fr) 1998-03-05
AU735348B2 (en) 2001-07-05

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