JP2008071197A - Device information acquisition method for acquiring information from device by snmp message, and information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device information acquisition method and an information processor, capable of performing efficient acquisition of information from a device. <P>SOLUTION: The device information acquisition method for acquiring information from a device by SNMP message comprises a setting step S802 for setting, when all of a plurality of values contained as a table in the information is acquired by use of Get Bulk Request, an OID showing a range of information and the number of pieces of information to be acquired at once from the device to the Get Bulk Request; a message transmitting step S803 for transmitting a first SNMP message requesting acquisition of values of information by a predetermined number of pieces from the OID to the device; and a message receiving step S804 for receiving a second SNMP message from the device as an answer to the first SNMP message transmitted in the message transmitting step S803. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a device information acquisition method and an information processing apparatus that acquire information from a device using an SNMP message.

  With the spread of network systems such as the Internet and Intranet, the importance of network management has recently been recognized. SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is a protocol for managing network systems by monitoring devices connected to the network via the network, and is widely used as a monitoring tool for realizing high-quality network system management at low cost. is doing.

  FIG. 1 shows an example of a network system managed by SNMP. The network system 10 in FIG. 1 includes one terminal device 100 and three devices 110, 120, and 130 connected to each other via a network 140 such as a local area network (LAN).

  The terminal device 100 is an information processing device such as a personal computer (PC) that monitors each of the devices 110, 120, and 130 via the network 140, and generally includes software 102 called a manager.

  The devices 110, 120, and 130 are digital devices such as network printers, intelligent hubs, and routers to be monitored on the network 140 managed by the terminal device 100, and interfaces 112, 122 that are generally called agents, respectively. And 132 are incorporated. Each of the devices 110, 120, and 130 is provided with management information areas 114, 124, and 134 that hold information about the devices. This management information area is generally called a MIB (Management Information Base).

  The agents 112, 122, and 132 of each device acquire device information with reference to the MIBs 114, 124, and 134 in response to a request from the manager 102 incorporated in the terminal device 100. The manager 102 determines the current device status from the contents of the MIBs 114, 124 and 134 acquired by the agents 112, 122 and 132.

  FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing the structure of the MIB. The MIB stores information called an object. Objects are managed in a tree structure according to information elements, and each is assigned an identifier called an object ID (OID). The OID is represented by a branch number assigned to each hierarchy of the tree structure. For example, the OID of the object 210 is represented as “1.3.3.6.1.2.1.1”. The manager requests the agent to acquire the device information and change the setting by specifying the OID.

In SNMP, an SNMP message is used to acquire information and change settings of a device to be monitored. The SNMP message has version information, community name, and PDU (Protocol Data Units). The PDU is data corresponding to an SNMP command, and the most common SNMPv1 (version 1) has the following types.
(1) PDU of SNMP message transmitted from manager to agent
(1-1) GetRequest: Request information acquisition of the object of the specified OID (1-2) GetNextRequest: Request information acquisition of the next object hierarchically of the specified OID (1-3) SetRequest: Specify the specified OID Request to change object information (2) PDU of SNMP message sent from agent to manager
(2-1) GetResponse: Response to the request from the manager (2-2) Trap: Voluntary notification of the state of the device With these PDUs, SNMP can request information and its response, information setting request and its response, In addition, there are three operation modes of notification of device state change. Further, in other versions such as SNMPv2 (version 2) and v3 (version 3), GetBulkRequest is added in addition to GetNextRequest. Thereby, the manager can acquire a predetermined number of pieces of information on a plurality of continuous objects. In this case, when the upper limit of the data size that can be transmitted at a time on the agent side is exceeded, only information that fits within the transmittable data size is normally acquired.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of the data structure of the SNMP message. As shown in FIG. 3, the SNMP is basically realized by UDP (User Datagram Protocol). The SNMP message 301 has an area 302, 303, and 304 for storing version information, community name, and PDU, respectively, following the IP header and the UDP header. The community name is used as a password between the manager and the agent, and the agent compares the name of the community to which the agent belongs and the community name contained in the SNMP message sent from the manager, and only if they match. Accepts requests from managers.

  As described above, PDU includes GetRequest, GetNextRequest, GetBulkRequest, SetRequest, GetResponse, and Trap, but only Trap has a data structure different from its use. FIG. 3 shows a PDU data structure other than Trap.

The PDU area 304 includes areas 305, 306, 307, 308, and 309 in which PDU type, request ID, error status, error index, and variable binding list are stored. The PDU type area 305 stores a value corresponding to the type of PDU described above. The request ID area 306 stores a value indicating a request ID for associating a request from the manager with a response from the agent. The error status area 307 stores a value indicating an error status notified from the agent to the manager when there is an error in the SNMP message requested by the manager. There are the following types of error status.
(1) noError: no error (2) tooBig: when the size of the PDU exceeds the limit (3) noSuchName: when the requested object does not exist (4) badValue: when a conflicting value is included in SetRequest (5) readOnly: When SetRequest is requested for an object that can only be read (6) genError: error other than the above In the PDU at the time of the request from the manager to the agent, the error status is set to noError. The error index area 308 stores a value indicating an error index indicating which data included in the PDU has an error when an error occurs.

  Information of one or more objects is stored in the variable binding list area 309, and each piece of information includes an OID 310 and its value 312. The OID 310 is represented by a value obtained by adding an instance identifier to the actual OID assigned to each object. The instance identifier is set to “0” when the object has only a single value. On the other hand, when an object has a plurality of values in a table format, an instance identifier represented by a number that is not necessarily continuous with “1” or more is assigned to each value in the table. In this case, conventionally, it is possible to acquire all the information in the table by using GetNextRequest as a PDU and repeatedly calling it.

  FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram in the case of obtaining all values of an object having a plurality of information as a table. It is assumed that the OID of the object from which information is acquired is “1.2.3.4”, and the table contains eight values from the first to the eighth. Further, it is assumed that the OID of the next object stored in the variable binding list area in which this object is stored is “1.2.3.5”.

  First, in step S401, the manager 102 requests GetNextRequest to request the agent 112 to acquire information on the next object in the hierarchy of the object whose OID is “1.2.3.4”. send. In response to this, in step S402, the agent 112 designates the next OID “1.2.3.4.1” in the dictionary order of the OID “1.2.3.4” designated by GetNextRequest. The object information, that is, the first value that the object whose OID is “1.2.3.4” has in the table format is acquired from the MIB 114 (see FIG. 1), and the OID “1.2.3” is obtained. ... 4.1 ”is notified to the manager 102 by GetResponse.

  If such exchanges between the manager 102 and the agent 112 are repeated nine times in total, the manager 102 has the OID of “1.2.3.5” at the ninth time, that is, in step S418. Get object information. As a result, the manager 102 determines that all the values of the object whose OID is “1.2.3.4” have been acquired because the beginning of the OID is no longer “1.2.3.4”. Complete the information request operation.

  Next, FIG. 5 is a sequence diagram when the manager makes an acquisition request for information on a plurality of objects using one SNMP message. The acquisition request includes discontinuous OIDs “1.1.5.0”, “1.1.20.0”, “1.1.2.0”, “1.3.8.0”, “1 1.13.0 "," 1.8.12.0 "," 1.1.9.0 "," 1.1.29.0 "and" 1.9.1.0 "respectively. Suppose that it is made with respect to information of nine objects.

  First, in step S <b> 501, the manager 102 sends a GetRequest to the agent 112 to request acquisition of information on an object whose OID is “1.1.5.0”. In response to this, in step S502, the agent 112 obtains the information of the object assigned the OID “1.1.5.0” designated by GetRequest from the MIB 114 (see FIG. 1), and the OID. The manager 102 is notified by GetResponse together with “1.1.5.0”.

  Thereafter, similarly, the manager 102 designates the OID of the object whose information is to be acquired and sends a GetRequest to the agent 112. On the other hand, the agent 112 receives the OID designated by the GetRequest. Information is returned to the manager 102 as a GetResponse. In order for the manager 102 to acquire all information, such exchanges between the manager 102 and the agent 112 are repeated nine times in total.

  Referring back to FIG. 3, as is apparent, the SNMP message 301 can store requests for multiple objects as a single message. That is, information acquisition and setting change can be requested for a plurality of objects by one SNMP message. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, it is possible to request acquisition of information from a plurality of objects at once, instead of requesting acquisition of information from each of a plurality of objects. However, there is a problem that when requesting information acquisition for a large number of objects at once, it exceeds the limit on the data size that can be transmitted at one time in response, resulting in an error. . In addition, when a part of the requested object cannot be processed on the agent side, processing for other objects is not executed, and there is a problem that data acquisition and setting from the manager side becomes a significant obstacle.

In order to solve these problems, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-296457 (Patent Document 1) discloses an object analysis step for determining whether or not a plurality of objects are included in an SNMP message when the SNMP message is an error. And a single object dividing step for dividing the object into a single object, and an SNMP message dividing and transmitting step for generating and transmitting an SNMP message for each single object. Disclosed is a method and apparatus that can normally acquire and set data for an object that can be limitedly processed.
JP 11-296457 A

  However, in Patent Document 1, when an SNMP message is an error, an object to be transmitted in one packet is divided into a single object, so there is a problem that the time required from the start of data acquisition to the end of acquisition becomes long.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 4, GetBulkRequest used in SNMPv2 and SNMPv3 has a problem that it is not used when all of the values of an object having a plurality of values are acquired continuously as a table.

  In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a device information acquisition method and an information processing apparatus that enable efficient information acquisition from a device.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, the device information acquisition method of the present invention is a device information acquisition method for acquiring information from a device by an SNMP message, and uses GetBulkRequest for all of a plurality of values included in the information as a table. A setting step for setting the GetBulkRequest to the OID indicating the range of the information and the number of pieces of information to be obtained at a time from the device, and obtaining the value of the information by the number from the OID. A message transmission step of transmitting a first SNMP message requesting to the device to the device, and a message of receiving a second SNMP message from the device as a response to the first SNMP message transmitted in the message transmission step. Receiving step.

  As a result, GetBulkRequest used in SNMPv2 and SNMPv3 can be used even when acquiring all of the values of a table having multiple values in succession, enabling efficient information acquisition from the device. A device information acquisition method can be provided.

  Preferably, in the device information acquisition method of the present invention, whether the information of the second SNMP message received in the message receiving step is within the range of the OID indicating the range of the information of the first SNMP message is determined. A determination step for determining, and in the determination step, when information that is not within the range of the OID exists in the information of the second SNMP message, it is determined that acquisition of the information from the device is completed. , Only the information within the range of the OID can be extracted from the information of the second SNMP message.

  As a result, it is possible to acquire only necessary appropriate information.

  In order to achieve the above object, the device information acquisition method of the present invention is a device information acquisition method for acquiring information from a device by using an SNMP message, and acquires a plurality of pieces of information using GetRequest, GetNextRequest, or GetBulkRequest. A setting step for setting the number of pieces of information acquired from the device at a time in the GetRequest, GetNextRequest, or GetBulkRequest, and the number of pieces of information that have not been acquired among the plurality of pieces of information in the setting step. In the comparison step, and in the comparison step, when the number is larger than the number of the unacquired information, a request is made to acquire all the unacquired information, and the number is not acquired. A message sending step for sending a first SNMP message requesting to obtain the number of pieces of unacquired information, and the first SNMP sent in the message sending step. Receiving a second SNMP message as a response to the message from the device.

  Conventionally, it is known that it is possible to request acquisition of information for a plurality of objects at once using GetRequest, GetNextRequest, or GetBulkRequest, but in this way the number of information acquired from the device is set. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the probability of occurrence of an error due to exceeding the data size limit at the time of response from the device, and to reduce the time required from the start to the end of information acquisition, It is possible to provide a device information acquisition method that enables efficient information acquisition from the device.

  Preferably, in the device information acquisition method of the present invention, when the second SNMP message received in the message receiving step is an error, a third SNMP message that requests to divide and acquire information from the device. A message re-sending step for re-sending the message to the device.

  Conventionally, when an error occurs when acquiring a plurality of pieces of information, the information transmitted in one packet is divided into a single piece of information. Thus, the information is not limited to a single piece of information. By dividing the request into multiple parts and reducing the data size to be transmitted at one time, it is possible to obtain information normally as long as the reduced data size does not exceed the upper limit that can be transmitted. The problem that the time required from the acquisition start to the acquisition end becomes long can be avoided.

  More preferably, the third SNMP message retransmitted in the message re-sending step can request that the information be obtained by dividing the information one by one from the device.

  If an error occurs when acquiring multiple pieces of information, for example, the device is not configured to acquire multiple pieces of information, for example, by switching to a method for acquiring single pieces of information. Thus, even in an environment where a plurality of information cannot be acquired at a time, the information can be normally acquired.

  Preferably, in the device information acquisition method of the present invention, when the second SNMP message received in the message receiving step is an error, the number set in the setting step is subtracted to obtain information on the device. A message re-sending step of re-sending the third SNMP message requesting the acquisition to the device.

  When an error occurs because the number of pieces of information acquired at one time is too large, the number of pieces of information that can be acquired at one time can be normally acquired from the device by reducing the number of pieces of information. it can.

  Preferably, the device information acquisition method of the present invention transmits a first SNMP message requesting to acquire information using GetBulkRequest to the device in the message transmission step. When the received second SNMP message includes only a part of the information requested for acquisition in the message transmission step, only the remaining information requested for acquisition in the message transmission step is requested for acquisition again. A reacquisition message sending step for sending the message.

  Conventionally, when GetBulkRequest is used, if the upper limit of the data size that can be transmitted at once is exceeded, it is known that only information that fits within the transmittable data size is normally acquired. Furthermore, by requesting re-acquisition only for those that have not been normally acquired, useless processing can be omitted, and information acquisition from the device can be made more efficient.

  More preferably, the number of the third message set in the setting step can be reduced, and the device can be requested to obtain the remaining information again.

  If an error occurs because the number of pieces of information to be acquired at one time is too large, by reducing the number in this way, only the number that can be acquired at a time more reliably in the next information acquisition. Information can be acquired normally from the device.

  Preferably, in the device information acquisition method of the present invention, in the message transmission step, a first SNMP message requesting to acquire information using GetRequest or GetNextRequest is transmitted to the device, and in the message reception step. If the received second SNMP message is an error, and if it corresponds to a version of SNMP that can use GetBulkRequest, the GetBulkRequest requests acquisition again for the information requested for acquisition in the message sending step. And a re-acquisition message transmission step of transmitting a message of 3, and if it does not correspond to the version, a fourth S requesting to acquire and acquire information divided from the device one by one The MP message may have a message retransmission step of retransmitting to the device.

  This makes it possible to perform optimal processing corresponding to the SNMP version, eliminate unnecessary processing, and make information acquisition from the device more efficient.

  In order to achieve the above object, a device to which an acquisition request is transmitted by the device information acquisition method of the present invention transmits information in response to the acquisition request.

  As a result, it is possible to reduce the load on the device from which information is acquired and the load on the network between the device that requests acquisition and the device.

  In order to achieve the above object, the information processing apparatus of the present invention is an information processing apparatus that acquires information from a device by an SNMP message, and uses GetBulkRequest for all of a plurality of values included in the information as a table. From the OID setting means for setting the OID indicating the range of the information in the GetBulkRequest, the acquisition number setting means for setting the number of information to be acquired from the device at one time, and the OID. Transmission / reception means for transmitting a first SNMP message requesting to acquire the value of the information by the number to the device and receiving a second SNMP message as a response to the first SNMP message from the device Can have.

  As a result, GetBulkRequest used in SNMPv2 and SNMPv3 can be used even when acquiring all of the values of a table having multiple values in succession, enabling efficient information acquisition from the device. An information processing apparatus can be provided.

  In order to achieve the above object, the information processing apparatus of the present invention is an information processing apparatus that acquires information from a device using an SNMP message, and acquires a plurality of pieces of information using GetRequest, GetNextRequest, or GetBulkRequest. The unacquired list that lists the unacquired information scheduled to be acquired from the device, and the number of information to be acquired from the device at a time are set in the GetRequest, GetNextRequest, or GetBulkRequest, and the number is set in the unacquired list. Obtained number setting means for comparing with the number of unacquired information listed, and when the obtained number setting means determines that the number is larger than the number of unacquired information, obtains all of the unacquired information Request to do When the acquired number setting means determines that the number is smaller than the number of the unacquired information, a first SNMP message is transmitted to request acquisition of the number of the unacquired information, and the first Transmitting / receiving means for receiving a second SNMP message as a response to the SNMP message from the device.

  Conventionally, it has been known that it is possible to request acquisition of information for a plurality of objects all at once using GetRequest, GetNextRequest, or GetBulkRequest. Information processing that enables efficient information acquisition from devices by reducing the probability of error caused by exceeding the data size limit when responding from devices by setting to adapt to the number of acquired information An apparatus can be provided.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a device information acquisition method and an information processing apparatus that enable efficient information acquisition from a device.

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

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment.

  An information processing apparatus 600 in FIG. 6 is an information processing apparatus capable of executing a network management program according to the present invention, and includes a drive device 61, an auxiliary storage device 62, a memory device 63, which are interconnected by a bus 66, An arithmetic processing device 64 and an interface device 65 are included. A program executed by the information processing apparatus 600 is provided by a recording medium 67 such as a CD-ROM.

  The drive device 61 is a device for reading the recording medium 67. When the recording medium 67 recording the program is set in the drive device 61, the program is installed from the recording medium 67 to the auxiliary storage device 62 via the drive device 61. The auxiliary storage device 62 is a device that stores an installed program and also stores necessary files and data. The memory device 63 is a device that reads a program from the auxiliary storage device 62 and stores it when there is an instruction to start the program. The arithmetic processing device 64 is a device that operates the information processing device 600 in accordance with a program stored in the memory device 63. The interface device 65 is a device for connecting the information processing device 600 to an external network or a public line.

  The information processing apparatus 600 executes a program stored in the recording medium 67 to monitor a device installed in the network system as shown in FIG. 1 and incorporating the SNMP agent via the network.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration according to the present invention in the information processing apparatus of FIG.

  In FIG. 7, the information processing apparatus includes an SNMP manager 602 and input means 603.

  The SNMP manager 602 is a software module for monitoring a device in which an SNMP agent is incorporated via a network. The SNMP manager 602 communicates with the agent to transmit / receive an SNMP message, and the transmission / reception unit 604 communicates with the agent. The acquisition information database (DB) 606 for storing the object information obtained by the above, the OID setting means 608 for setting the OID of the object information acquired from the agent, and the object information acquired from the agent by one communication And number setting means 610 for setting the number.

  The acquisition information DB 605 plans to acquire, but has not yet acquired information, lists and stores an unacquired list 612, an acquisition request list 614 that lists and stores information for making an acquisition request to the agent, And a final result list 616 that stores the acquired information in a list.

  The input unit 603 functions as an interface for receiving a setting value input by a user via an input device (not shown) such as a keyboard and a mouse and sending it to the SNMP manager 602.

  When acquiring information on an object from the agent, the input unit 603 sends an information acquisition request input by the user to the SNMP manager 602 together with the number of pieces of object information to be acquired and their OIDs. The SNMP manager 602 lists the information requested for information acquisition by the user and stores it in the unacquired list 612 in the acquisition information DB 606. Further, the SNMP manager 602 lists information to be acquired from the agent based on the user input such as the number of object information to be acquired and their OIDs, and stores the information in the acquisition request list 614 in the acquisition information DB 606. To do. The transmission / reception unit 604 refers to the settings of the OID setting unit 608 and the acquisition count setting unit 610 and the acquisition request list 614, and transmits an SNMP message related to the information acquisition request to the agent. Further, the transmission / reception means 604 receives an SNMP message related to a response sent from the agent. Information on objects included in the SNMP message sent from the agent is listed and stored in the final result list 616 in the acquisition information DB 606, and at the same time, deleted from the unacquired list 612. The SNMP manager 602 repeats the above operation until there is finally no information stored in the unacquired list 612.

  Hereinafter, the information acquisition operation by the information processing apparatus of FIG. 7 will be described with a specific example.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart for obtaining all values of an object having a plurality of information as a table in the present invention.

  When the user informs the manager 602 via the input means 603 to make an information acquisition request for an object having a plurality of information as a table, first, in step S801, the acquisition information DB 606 clears the contents. , And nothing is stored. Next, in step S802, based on the value input from the user via the input unit 603, the OID setting unit 608 and the acquisition number setting unit 610 set the acquisition start OID and the acquisition number, respectively. The acquisition start OID indicates that, when a plurality of pieces of information are acquired at a time, information after the next OID is acquired in the dictionary order of the OID. The acquisition number represents the number of pieces of information that can be acquired at a time when a plurality of pieces of information are acquired.

  In step S803, the transmission / reception unit 604 creates an SNMP message based on the acquisition start OID and the acquisition number set by the OID setting unit 608 and the acquisition count setting unit 810, and transmits the SNMP message to the agent. That is, the transmission / reception means 604 sends GetBulkRequest to the agent so as to make an acquisition request for a predetermined number of information from the acquisition start OID. Thereafter, in step S804, the transmission / reception unit 604 receives an SNMP message sent as a response (GetResponse) from the agent. Thereby, the transmission / reception means 604 can acquire the information requested for acquisition in the previous step.

  After the information acquisition, in step S805, the OID setting unit 608 determines whether or not the head portion of the acquired information OID exceeds the head portion of the acquisition start OID. Here, the head part of the OID is a part excluding the instance identifier given to the suffix of the OID.

  If the head part of the acquired information OID does not exceed the head part of the acquisition start OID, in step S806, the transmission / reception means 604 lists all the acquired information and obtains the final result in the acquisition information DB 606. Store in list 616. Next, in step S807, the OID setting unit 608 acquires the last OID in the acquired information and resets it as the acquisition start OID. Then, it returns to step S803 and the subsequent steps are repeated.

  On the other hand, if the head part of the OID of the acquired information exceeds the head part of the acquisition start OID, in step S808, the transmission / reception means 604 includes the head part of the OID of the acquisition start OID in the acquired information. Only those that do not exceed the head are listed and stored in the final result list 616 in the acquisition information DB 606.

  Finally, in step S809, the transmission / reception unit 604 returns the contents of the final result list 616, that is, the acquired information list to the user as an acquisition result.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the GetBulkRequest used in SNMPv2 and SNMPv3 can be used even when all of the values of an object having a plurality of values are continuously acquired as a table.

  In order to clarify the effect of the present invention, the case where the present invention is applied to the operation according to the prior art described with reference to FIG. 4 will be described.

  FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram when the present invention is applied to the operation according to the prior art shown in FIG. Similar to the operation of FIG. 4, the OID of the object from which information is acquired is “1.2.3.4”, and the table contains eight values from the first to the eighth. . Further, it is assumed that the OID of the next object stored in the variable binding list area in which this object is stored is “1.2.3.5”. However, in this embodiment, it is further assumed that the number of acquisitions that can be acquired at one time is set to five.

  First, in step S901, the manager 602 requests the agent 112 to acquire information using GetBulkRequest by specifying the acquisition start OID and the acquisition number as “1.2.3.4” and “5”, respectively. In response to this, in step S <b> 902, the agent 112 sees the next OID “1.2.3.4.1” or later in the dictionary order of the acquisition start OID “1.2.3.4” designated by GetBulkRequest. Five pieces of information are acquired from the MIB 114 (see FIG. 1), and their OIDs “1.2.3.4.1”, “1.2.3.4.2”, “1.2.3” are obtained. .4.3 ”,“ 1.2.3.4.4 ”, and“ 1.2.3.4.5 ”are notified to the manager 602 by GetResponse.

  Next, in step S903, the manager 602 newly designates “1.2.3.4.5”, which is the last in the dictionary order, among the OIDs of the previously acquired information as a new acquisition start OID, and again acquires the number of acquired items. Is designated as “5”, and information acquisition is requested to the agent 112 by GetBulkRequest. In response to this, in step S904, the agent 112 looks in the dictionary order of the acquisition start OID “1.2.3.4.5” specified by GetBulkRequest, and the next OID “1.2.3.4.6”. The subsequent five pieces of information are acquired from the MIB 114 and their OIDs “1.2.3.4.6”, “1.2.3.4.7”, “1.2.2.3.4.8”. ”,“ 1.2.3.5 ”, and“ 1.2.3.5.1 ”are notified to the manager 602 by GetResponse.

  At this point, the manager 602 has acquired 10 pieces of information after the OID “1.2.3.4.1”, but the acquired information includes information that does not need to be acquired originally. May be. In the present embodiment, information on OIDs in which the head part obtained by removing the instance identifier from the OID is not “1.2.3.4” is not an acquisition target. Accordingly, eight pieces of information excluding information whose head part is “1.2.3.5” are finally returned to the user as acquisition results.

  Therefore, the communication generated between the manager and the agent is 18 times in total in the prior art, but is reduced to 4 times in the present embodiment.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart when the manager makes an acquisition request for information on a plurality of objects using one SNMP message in the present invention.

  When the user informs the manager 602 via the input means 603 to make an information acquisition request for a plurality of objects each having a discontinuous OID, first, in step S1001, the acquisition information DB 606 displays the information A plurality of pieces of information requested to be acquired are listed and stored in the unacquired list 612. In step S <b> 1002, the acquisition number setting unit 610 sets the acquisition number based on a value input from the user via the input unit 603. In step S1003, the acquisition information DB 606 clears the contents of the acquisition request list 614 and the final result list 616 so that nothing is stored.

  In step S <b> 1004, the acquisition number setting unit 610 determines whether the previously set acquisition number is larger than the number of information listed in the non-acquisition list 612.

  If the acquired number is larger, in step S1005, the acquisition information DB 606 lists all the information listed in the non-acquisition list 612 and stores it in the acquisition request list 614 as well. On the other hand, if the acquired number is smaller, in step S1006, the acquired information DB 606 lists only the acquired number out of the information listed in the unacquired list 612 and stores it in the acquisition request list 614.

  In step S1006, the transmission / reception unit 604 creates an SNMP message for requesting acquisition of information listed in the acquisition request list 614, and transmits it to the agent. That is, the transmission / reception unit 604 sends GetRequest, GetNextRequest, or GetBulkRequest to the agent so as to make an acquisition request for a predetermined number of pieces of information to be acquired. Thereafter, in step S1007, the transmission / reception means 604 receives the SNMP message sent as a response (GetResponse) from the agent.

  After receiving the message, in step S1009, the transmission / reception means 604 determines whether or not the SNMP message includes the requested information, that is, whether or not the information has been successfully acquired.

  If all the requested information has been successfully acquired, in step 1011, the transmission / reception means 604 lists all the acquired information and stores it in the final result list 616 in the acquisition information DB 606. If a part of the requested information has been successfully acquired, in step S1010, the acquisition number setting unit 610 subtracts the acquisition number from the current value and resets it, and then acquires it in step S1011. All of the information is listed and stored in the final result list 616 in the acquisition information DB 606.

  After the acquired information is listed in the final result list 616, or at the same time, the acquisition information DB 606 deletes the acquired information from the unacquired list 612. Next, in step S1013, the acquisition information DB 606 determines whether there is information listed in the unacquired list 612.

  If there is information listed in the unacquired list 612, the process returns to step S1003 and the subsequent steps are repeated. On the other hand, if it does not exist, in step S1014, the transmission / reception unit 604 returns the contents of the final result list 616, that is, the list of acquired information to the user as an acquisition result.

  If it is determined in step S1008 that information acquisition has failed, the transmission / reception unit 604 returns to the user as an acquisition result that the information could not be acquired.

  As described above, when acquiring information of a plurality of objects, the success or failure of the information acquisition is dealt with by resetting the number of acquisitions to be requested next, and efficient information acquisition becomes possible. Further, when information acquisition fails, an acquisition request is made again only for information that could not be acquired, so that more efficient information acquisition is possible.

  In order to clarify the effect of the present invention, the case where the present invention is applied to the operation according to the prior art described with reference to FIG. 5 will be described.

  FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram when the present invention is applied to the operation according to the prior art shown in FIG. Similar to the operation of FIG. 5, the acquisition request includes discontinuous OIDs “1.1.5.0”, “1.1.20.0”, “1.1.2.0”, “1.3. 8.0 "," 1.1.13.0 "," 1.8.12.0 "," 1.1.9.0 "," 1.1.29.0 "and" 1.9. It is assumed that this is done for information of nine objects each having “1.0”. However, in this embodiment, it is further assumed that the number of acquisitions that can be acquired at one time is set to five.

  First, in step S1101, the manager 602 gives the agent 112 an OID of “1.1.5.0”, “1.1.20.0”, “1.1” .2.0 ”,“ 1.3.8.0 ”, and“ 1.1.13.0 ”, a GetRequest is sent to request acquisition of information on five objects. In response to this, in step S1102, the agent 112 causes the OIDs “1.1.5.0”, “1.1.20.0”, “1.1.2.0”, and “1” specified by GetRequest. .3.8.0 ”and“ 1.1.13.0 ”are acquired from the MIB 114 (see FIG. 1) and notified to the manager 602 by GetResponse together with their OIDs.

  In step S <b> 1103, the manager 602 changes the number of acquisition from five to four in order to make an acquisition request for the remaining four pieces of information to be acquired, and then the OID is “1.8.12.0. ”,“ 1.1.9.0 ”,“ 1.1.29.0 ”, and“ 1.9.1.0 ”to request to get information on the four objects, GetRequest send. In response to this, in step S1103, the agent 112 causes the OIDs “1.8.12.0”, “1.1.9.0”, “1.1.29.0”, and “1” specified by GetRequest. .9.1.0 ”is acquired from the MIB 114 and notified to the manager 602 through GetResponse along with their OIDs.

  Therefore, the communication generated between the manager and the agent is 18 times in total in the prior art, but is reduced to 4 times in the present embodiment. Furthermore, in the present invention, the number of acquisitions to be requested next can be reset depending on the number of pieces of information that have not yet been acquired, not limited to the success or failure of information acquisition, so that unnecessary information is acquired. Is also excluded.

[Modification]
Although the best mode for carrying out the invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the embodiment described in the best mode. Modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

  For example, in the embodiment of the present invention, the present invention is realized by a program stored in a memory such as a hard disk (HDD) and a read-only memory (ROM) of the information processing apparatus. It may be realized as hardware.

  Further, in the above embodiment, when there is an error in all or part of information acquisition, the number of preset acquisitions is reduced so that information can be normally acquired from the device after the next time. Alternatively, it may be dealt with by requesting the device to divide and acquire the information. In addition, for example, in an environment where a plurality of information cannot be acquired at one time for some reason, such as the device is not configured to acquire a plurality of information, May be requested.

  In addition, it is possible to combine the above-described embodiments, and when there is an error in all or part of information acquisition, it is possible to perform an optimal error process according to the SNMP version.

An example of the network system managed by SNMP is shown. It is a conceptual diagram which shows the structure of MIB. An example of the data structure of an SNMP message is shown. It is a sequence diagram in the case of acquiring all the values of the object which has several information as a table in a prior art. It is a sequence diagram when a manager makes an acquisition request for information of a plurality of objects by one SNMP message in the prior art. It is a figure showing an example of the hardware constitutions of the information processing apparatus in this embodiment. It is a figure showing an example of the function structure which concerns on this invention in the information processing apparatus of FIG. It is a flowchart in the case of acquiring all the values of the object which has several information as a table in this invention. It is a sequence diagram at the time of applying this invention to the operation | movement by the prior art shown by FIG. It is a flowchart in case the manager makes an acquisition request for information of a plurality of objects by one SNMP message in the present invention. It is a sequence diagram at the time of applying this invention to the operation | movement by the prior art shown by FIG.

Explanation of symbols

102, 602 Manager 112, 122, 132 Agent 114, 124, 134 MIB
301 SNMP message 304 PDU
310 OID
600 Information processing apparatus 603 Input unit 604 Transmission / reception unit 606 Acquisition information DB
608 OID setting means 610 Acquisition number setting means 612 Non-acquisition list 614 Acquisition request list 616 Final result list 67 Storage medium

Claims (12)

A device information acquisition method for acquiring information from a device by an SNMP message,
When all of a plurality of values included in the information as a table are acquired using GetBulkRequest,
A setting step of setting an OID indicating the range of the information and the number of pieces of information acquired at a time from the device in the GetBulkRequest;
A message transmission step of transmitting to the device a first SNMP message requesting to acquire the value of the information by the number from the OID;
A device information obtaining method comprising: a message receiving step of receiving a second SNMP message as a response to the first SNMP message transmitted in the message transmitting step from the device. A determination step of determining whether the information of the second SNMP message received in the message reception step is within the range of the OID indicating the range of the information of the first SNMP message;
In the determination step, when there is information that is not within the range of the OID in the information of the second SNMP message, it is determined that the acquisition of information from the device is completed, and the information of the second SNMP message The apparatus information acquisition method according to claim 1, wherein only information within the range of the OID is extracted. A device information acquisition method for acquiring information from a device by an SNMP message,
When acquiring multiple information using GetRequest or GetNextRequest or GetBulkRequest,
A setting step of setting the number of pieces of information acquired at a time from the device in the GetRequest, GetNextRequest, or GetBulkRequest;
A comparison step of comparing the number set in the setting step with the number of pieces of information not acquired among the plurality of pieces of information;
In the comparison step, when the number is larger than the number of unacquired information, a request is made to acquire all the unacquired information, and the number is smaller than the number of unacquired information. A message sending step for sending a first SNMP message for requesting acquisition of the number of pieces of unacquired information;
A device information obtaining method comprising: a message receiving step of receiving a second SNMP message as a response to the first SNMP message transmitted in the message transmitting step from the device. If the second SNMP message received in the message receiving step is an error,
3. The device information acquisition method according to claim 1, further comprising a message retransmission step of retransmitting a third SNMP message that requests to divide and acquire information from the device to the device.   5. The device information acquisition method according to claim 4, wherein the third SNMP message retransmitted in the message retransmission step requests to acquire information from the device by dividing it one by one. If the second SNMP message received in the message receiving step is an error,
2. The message re-transmission step further comprising a step of re-sending a third SNMP message for requesting the device to acquire information by subtracting the number set in the setting step to the device. Or the apparatus information acquisition method of 3 description. In the message transmission step, when a first SNMP message requesting to acquire information using GetBulkRequest is transmitted to the device,
When the second SNMP message received in the message reception step includes only a part of the information requested for acquisition in the message transmission step, only the remaining information requested for acquisition in the message transmission step is obtained again. The apparatus information acquisition method according to claim 3, further comprising a reacquisition message transmission step of transmitting a third message requesting the device.   The device information acquisition method according to claim 7, wherein the third message subtracts the number set in the setting step and requests the device to acquire the remaining information again. In the message sending step, a first SNMP message requesting to acquire information using GetRequest or GetNextRequest is sent to the device, and the second SNMP message received in the message receiving step is an error. In case,
When it corresponds to the SNMP version that can use GetBulkRequest, it has a reacquisition message transmission step of transmitting a third message requesting acquisition again by the GetBulkRequest for the information requested to be acquired in the message transmission step,
In the case of not corresponding to the version, there is a message retransmission step of retransmitting a fourth SNMP message for requesting to acquire information obtained by dividing the information from the device one by one. The device information acquisition method according to claim 3.   A method for transmitting information in response to the acquisition request in a device to which the acquisition request is transmitted by the device information acquisition method according to any one of 1 to 9. An information processing apparatus that acquires information from a device by an SNMP message,
When all of a plurality of values included in the information as a table are acquired using GetBulkRequest,
OID setting means for setting an OID indicating the range of the information in the GetBulkRequest;
An acquisition number setting means for setting the number of pieces of information acquired at a time from the device in the GetBulkRequest;
A first SNMP message requesting to acquire the value of the information by the number from the OID is transmitted to the device, and a second SNMP message as a response to the first SNMP message is received from the device. And an information processing apparatus. An information processing apparatus that acquires information from a device by an SNMP message,
When acquiring multiple information using GetRequest or GetNextRequest or GetBulkRequest,
An unacquired list that lists unacquired information scheduled to be acquired from the device;
An acquisition number setting means for setting the number of information to be acquired from the device at a time in the GetRequest, GetNextRequest, or GetBulkRequest, and comparing the number with the number of unacquired information listed in the unacquired list;
When the acquired number setting means determines that the number is larger than the number of unacquired information, the acquisition number setting means requests to acquire all of the unacquired information, and the acquired number setting means determines that the number is the unacquired information. If it is determined that the number is less than the number of the unacquired information, a first SNMP message requesting to acquire the number of the unacquired information is transmitted, and a second SNMP message as a response to the first SNMP message is transmitted. An information processing apparatus comprising: transmission / reception means for receiving from the device.

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