JPH1165968A - Method and system for managing network - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and a system for managing network with which the correction of a software at a managing device with the introduction of new type communication equipment or the version-up of the software is unnecessitated. SOLUTION: A managing program server 60 is provided while loading a program in which an operating procedure function or protocol transforming function including procedure transformation required for operating a software mounted on communication equipment (NE) is described in a JAVA language, and when a managing device 50 is to manage NE 10 according to a request or notice, a relevant program is downloaded from the managing program server 60 and executed by a JAVA language program download part 511 when a JAVA language program executing part 512 is not equipped with a function corresponding to the object NE and the contents of the request or notice.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network management method and system for managing a network composed of a plurality of communication devices, particularly a network in a multi-vendor environment from a distance.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Network management involves operating a plurality of communication devices (Network Element: hereinafter referred to as NE) such as switches, routers and hubs arranged in a network to set various states of the network. It manages failures and operates the network smoothly.

[0003] As a network management method, ITU-T
Recommendation M. At 3010, a manager-agent system is recommended. In the manager-agent method,
The device to be managed and the device to be managed are related by a manager and an agent. The agent has a set of managed objects (hereinafter, referred to as MOs) that represent actual hardware and software resources in an abstracted manner. The manager executes a management operation command for the MO provided by the agent, and notifies the manager of an event report from the MO provided by the agent.

[0004] As described above, in the manager-agent type network management, an operation is executed in the form of a command to the management object and a notification from the management object using an object-oriented concept.

FIG. 1 shows a management model of a manager-agent system. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an NE, and reference numerals 2 and 3 denote management devices. The NE 1 is various communication devices to be managed, and includes an agent 4 and an MO provided to the agent 4.
It consists of group 5. The management device 2 directly manages the NE 1 and includes a manager 6, an agent 7, and an MO group 8 provided in the agent 7. The management apparatus 3 provides a human machine interface (HMI) or the like for accessing the agent 7 to the administrator, and 9 is its manager.

The management device 2 manages the NE 1 when working as a manager, and is managed by the management device 3 when working as an agent.

[0007] In the above configuration, the management device 3 recognizes the network resource as the MO group 8 and issues a command to a specific MO. The management device 2 receives an instruction from the management device 3, operates according to the definition of the designated MO, and issues an instruction to the MOs of the MO group 5 when necessary. Specifically, the software of the management apparatus 2 is implemented by software (processing program and management data) installed in the NE 1 according to a determined procedure or by performing protocol conversion such as procedure conversion or data conversion. Perform necessary network management by operating the management function.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a conventional network management system using the above-described manager / agent system. In the figure, reference numeral 10 denotes a NE having an agent 11 and 20 denotes a management device having a management application 21. , 30 are management devices having an operation unit 31.

The agent 11 of the NE 10 corresponds to software installed in the NE, executes a processing request of the management application 21, returns a processing response,
A change in the status in the server 10 is reported to the management application 21 as a notification.

The management application 21 of the management device 20
Corresponds to software for executing the functions of the agent, the MO group, and the manager of the management device (7, 8, and 6 in FIG. 1, respectively), receives an operation request from the operation unit 31, and operates in the NE 10 according to the corresponding operation procedure. Requests processing to the agent 11, and the agent 11
And returns the processing result of the received notification information to the operation unit 31.
Send to

The operation unit 31 of the management device 30
It corresponds to the software that executes the manager function of the management device (9 in FIG. 1), and the administrator performs necessary operations and monitors alarm information from the NE.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 41 denotes a management interface for connecting the NE 10 and the management device 20, and reference numeral 42 denotes a management interface for connecting the management devices 20 and 30, and these management interfaces 41 and 42 are unified. Is desirable.

[0013]

However, in a multi-vendor environment, the software installed in the NE usually differs depending on its model, vendor, and version, and the management interface 41 is not always unified. In particular, since switches, routers, hubs, and the like installed in the premises system provide interfaces for managing functions provided by individual vendors, the management device 20 is always aware of each NE to be operated. It had to be loaded with the software created.

Therefore, with the replacement of NEs from other vendors, the introduction of new models of NEs, and the upgrading of software installed in the NEs, frequent correction and re-introduction of software of the management device 20 cannot be avoided. In the worst case, there is a problem that the operation of the management device 20 must be stopped.

[0015] An object of the present invention is to provide a network management method and a network management system that do not require modification of software of a management device when a new type of NE is introduced in a multi-vendor environment or software version installed in the NE is upgraded. Is to do.

[0016]

According to the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an operation procedure function necessary for operating software installed in each communication device, a protocol conversion function including a procedure conversion, and the like are provided in an interpreter language. And managing the communication device, the management device downloads an interpreter language program corresponding to the communication device to be managed from the management program server and executes the program.

According to the present invention, NE introduction of a new model and NE
It is necessary to create an interpreter language program necessary for the management and add it to the management program server when upgrading the software to be installed in the server, but the program of the management device itself does not need to be modified.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

As the interpreted language, the JAVA language or the like can be used. In the following description, it is assumed that the JAVA language is used as the interpreted language. In addition, JAVA
In a language and its execution environment, a function of downloading and incorporating a program from a server at the time of execution is realized as a basic function.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the network management system according to the present invention. In FIG. 3, the same components as those in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals. That is, 10 is an NE having the agent 11, 30 is a management device having the operation unit 31, 50 is a management device, and 60 is a management program server.

The management device 50 includes a management application 51
The management application 51 includes a JAVA language program download unit 511 for downloading a JAVA language program, and a dynamically imported Java program.
And a JAVA language program execution unit 512 for executing the VA language program.

The management program server 60 stores a JAVA language program, and responds to the request with a corresponding JAVA language program.
It is for distributing language programs as responses.

FIG. 4 shows an outline of a processing flow in the management device 50.

In the above configuration, when the administrator performs an operation, the operation unit 31 transmits the contents of the operation of the administrator to the management device 50 together with information for identifying the NE to be operated as a command. The contents of the operation include information reading and information writing to the designated MO. Here, the identification information of the NE includes an identifier of a management object (MO) representing the NE and an IP address of the NE (Intern).
et Protocol Address) can be used.

The management application 51 of the management device 50 that has received the command passes the contents of the received operation and information identifying the NE to be operated to the JAVA language program download unit 511 as a processing request.

Java language program download unit 5
11 accesses the agent 11 of the NE 10 based on the identification information of the NE, and acquires information that can specify the nature of the NE. Information that can specify the nature of the NE includes a vendor name, an NE type, a version of software installed in the NE, and the like. For example, sysDesc under the system group defined as management information (MIB) in the Internet standard SNMP management
The r, sysObjectID can be used as information that can specify the nature of the NE.

Next, the JAVA language program download unit 511 already exists in the JAVA language program execution unit 512 from the information which can specify the acquired properties of the NE and the contents of the requested operation. 1. Operation procedure functions required to operate software installed in the target NE It is determined whether the protocol conversion function including the procedure conversion for communicating with the target NE can be executed, and if the corresponding function exists, the content of the operation is described in the JAVA language program execution unit 5.
Hand over to 12. If there is no corresponding function, a request for downloading a new function is made to the management program server 60, and the downloaded JAVA language program is dynamically loaded into the JAVA language program execution unit 512 as a new function. After that, the operation content is passed to the JAVA language program execution unit 512.

The JAVA language program execution unit 512
It requests the agent 11 of the NE 10 to perform processing according to the NE-compatible function that already exists or is dynamically loaded by the JAVA language program download unit 511, and returns the processing result from the agent 11 to the operation unit 31.

Next, the operation when a notification is sent from the NE 10 will be described.

The management application 51 of the management device 50 that has received the notification transmitted from the agent 11 of the NE 10 passes the content of the received notification and information for identifying the notified NE to the JAVA language program download unit 511 as a processing request. .

Java language program download unit 5
11 accesses the agent 11 of the NE 10 based on the identification information of the NE, and acquires information that can specify the nature of the NE.

Next, the JAVA language program download unit 511 already exists in the JAVA language program execution unit 512 based on the information that can specify the acquired properties of the NE and the content of the received notification. It is determined whether or not it can be executed by a processing procedure function necessary for processing the notification content from the target NE. If the corresponding function exists, the content of the notification is transmitted to the JAVA language program execution unit 5.
Hand over to 12. If there is no corresponding function, a request for downloading a new function is made to the management program server 60, and the downloaded JAVA language program is dynamically loaded into the JAVA language program execution unit 512 as a new function. After that, the notification content is passed to the JAVA language program execution unit 512.

The JAVA language program execution unit 512
The content of the notification is processed according to the NE-compatible function that already exists or is dynamically loaded by the JAVA language program download unit 511, and the notification is sent to the management device 30 as necessary.

The management program server 60 has an operation procedure function necessary for operating software installed in each NE, a processing procedure function necessary for processing notification contents issued by each NE, a communication device and a management device. A JAVA language program for realizing a protocol conversion function and the like including a procedure conversion with the device is stored in advance, and in response to a request from the JAVA language program download unit 511, the corresponding J
The AVA language program is returned as a response. If a new model NE is introduced or the software version installed on the NE is upgraded, the necessary functions will be
It is created in the A language and added to the management program server 60. The management program server 60 is connected to each management device via an information transfer network so as to be accessible from a plurality of management devices.

In the above description, the management device is divided into two, but this is to show that the management device can be divided into two in consideration of the correspondence to a plurality of networks described below. Yes, the two management devices can be the same device, in which case the operation unit 31, the JA
The VA language program download unit 511 and the JAVA language program execution unit 512 may be realized by the same application existing on the same device.

FIG. 5 is another example of the embodiment of the network management system of the present invention.
This is an example of a case where the user belongs to one of a plurality of networks divided for organizational or other reasons.

In FIG. 5, NEs 71, 72, 73 and 74 have the function of the agent 11 in FIG. Reference numerals 75 and 76 denote management devices corresponding to the management device 50 in FIG. 3, and have the functions of the JAVA language program download unit 511 and the JAVA language program execution unit 512 in FIG. Reference numeral 77 denotes a management device corresponding to the management device 30 in FIG. 3, and has a function of the operation unit 31 in FIG.

Reference numeral 78 denotes a management program server corresponding to the management program server 60 shown in FIG. Also, 7
Reference numeral 9 denotes an information transfer network for sharing information of the management program server 78. Reference numeral 81 denotes a network configured by the NE 71, which is managed by the management device 75. Reference numeral 82 denotes a network composed of NEs 72, 73, and 74, which is managed by the management device 76.

In the above configuration, the management devices 75 and 76
Downloads the shared information of the management program server 78, and in the same manner as in the above-described embodiment, N in the network managed by each.
E is operated and monitored.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention, there are provided: It is possible to hide the NE model, version, protocol, etc. from the manager that provides the HMI function, and it is possible to create a management device that is unaware of the NE model, vendor, and version under management. . It is possible to create a management device that automatically responds to the introduction of a new model of NE and the upgrade of the software installed in the NE without directly modifying the software installed in the management device, and to stop the management device. No need to do New NE compatible software or upgraded software only needs to be installed in the management program server installed in one place, and the work becomes much more efficient than installing it in all management devices. 4. In the past, it was necessary to load all software corresponding to the NE that could be managed in advance, so a high-performance machine had to be used. NE compatible software
Since only the NEs that are automatically managed are provided, if the number of NEs to be managed is small, the amount of software is small, and there are advantages such as being able to be mounted on a low-performance machine. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a management model of a manager-agent system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional network management system.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of an embodiment of a network management system according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an outline of processing in the management device.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing another example of the embodiment of the network management system according to the present invention;

[Explanation of symbols]

10, 71, 72, 73, 74 ... NE, 11 ... agent, 30, 77 ... management device, 31 ... operation unit, 50, 75, 76 ... management device, 51 ... management application, 511 ... JAVA language program download unit, 512 ... JAVA language program execution unit, 60,
78: management program server, 79: information transfer network, 8
1,82 ... Network.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Mori Chikara 3-19-2 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Japan Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Inventor Wataru Takita 3-19 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo No. 2 Inside Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Inventor Kotoshi 1-3-1 Gotenyama, Musashino City, Tokyo NTT Advanced Technology Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Eisaku Morita Musashino, Tokyo 1-3-3 Gotenyama, NTT-NTT Advanced Technology Co., Ltd.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A network management method for remotely managing a network including a plurality of communication devices by a management device, including an operation procedure function and a procedure conversion required to operate software installed in each communication device. Prepares a management program server that stores programs that implement protocol conversion functions, etc. When managing communication devices, the program corresponding to the communication device to be managed is transferred from the management program server to the management device and executed. And the network management method. 2. A management program server, comprising: an operation procedure function required to operate software installed in each communication device; a processing procedure function required to process notification contents issued by each communication device; A plurality of programs that describe at least a part of a program that implements a protocol conversion function including a procedure conversion between the management device and the management device in an interpreter language, stores a plurality of programs, distributes a program requested by the management device, Obtaining information that can specify the property of the communication device to be managed from the communication device, and information that can specify the property of the communication device and the content of the operation to be performed on the communication device or the notification received from the communication device. From the content of the above, determine whether the necessary management functions are implemented,
If not implemented, download from the management program server a program corresponding to information that can specify the characteristics of the communication device and the content of the operation to be performed on the communication device or the content of the notification received from the communication device,
2. The network management method according to claim 1, wherein the network management method is dynamically loaded and executed as its own program. 3. A network management system for remotely managing a network constituted by a plurality of communication devices by a management device, including an operation procedure function and a procedure conversion necessary for operating software installed in each communication device. A management program server that stores a program that implements a protocol conversion function and the like, and a management device that acquires a program corresponding to the communication device to be managed from the management program server and executes the program when managing the communication device. Characterized network management system. 4. An operation procedure function required to operate software installed in each communication device, a processing procedure function necessary to process notification contents issued by each communication device, and a communication function between the communication device and the management device. A management program server that stores a plurality of programs in which at least a part of a program that realizes a protocol conversion function including a procedure conversion between them is described in an interpreter language and distributes a program requested by the management device; Information that can specify the characteristics of the communication device is acquired from the communication device, and necessary information is obtained from the information that can specify the characteristics of the communication device and the content of the operation to be performed on the communication device or the content of the notification received from the communication device. Determines whether or not the appropriate management functions are implemented, and if not, the information and communication that can specify the characteristics of the communication device A management device that downloads, from the management program server, a program corresponding to the content of the operation to be executed on the device or the content of the notification received from the communication device, and dynamically loads and executes the program as its own program. The network management system according to claim 3, wherein: 5. The network according to claim 3, wherein the network is divided geographically and systematically, a management device is provided for each of the divided networks, and each management device and the management program server are connected by an information transfer network. Or the network management system according to 4.