 |
Claims  |
|
|
We claim:
1. A hierarchical network management system, comprising:
a plurality of agents, connected to a communication network, for managing
and controlling information, respectively, of a plurality of resources;
a sub-manager, having a predetermined agent group under management, for
managing and controlling a portion of management objects of said
communication network through said predetermined agent group; and
an integration manager for managing and controlling all management objects
of said hierarchical communication network through said sub-manager,
said hierarchical network management system using an SNMP as a
communication protocol between said agents and said sub-manager and
between said sub-manager and said integration manager, respectively, and
said hierarchical network management system having periodic collecting
means for periodically collecting within said sub-manager management
objects of a management range of said sub-manager through said
predetermined agent group, and for posting collected information to said
integration manager at a reference request of said integration manager.
2. A hierarchical network management system according to claim 1, wherein
said periodic collecting means periodically collects management objects
including management objects which are not loaded with agents or which are
not started yet.
3. A hierarchical network management system according to claim 1, wherein
said periodic collecting means concentrates a plurality of information
relating to each agent managed by a plurality of identifiers and posts
said concentrated result to said integration manager, at a reference
request of said integration manager.
4. A hierarchical network management system according to claim 1, further
including means in said sub-managers for analyzing an SNMP trap received
from an agent that exists in the management range of said sub-manager and
for relaying a plurality of SNMP traps to said integration manager as a
sub-manager single extension trap.
5. A hierarchical network management system according to claim 1, further
including real-time collecting means in said sub-manager for real-time
collecting a status of agents which belong to the management range of said
sub-manager and for posting collected information to said integration
manager, at a reference request of said integration manager.
6. A hierarchical network management system according to claim 5, wherein
said real-time collecting means selects objects for a real-time collection
by referring to management objects that have been collected by said
periodical collecting means.
7. A hierarchical network management system according to claim 5, wherein
said real-time collecting means concentrates a plurality of information
relating to each agent managed by a plurality of identifiers and posts a
concentrated result to said integration manager, at a reference request
from said integration manager.
8. A hierarchical network management system, comprising:
a plurality of agents connected to a first communication network;
a sub-manager connected to said first communication network and having a
predetermined agent group within said plurality of agents under
management;
an integration manager connected to a second communication network and
having said sub-manager under management; and
a communication path for combining said first and second communication
networks,
wherein each of said agents manages and controls management objects
relating to structure information and status information of each of a
plurality of resources,
said sub-manager manages and controls management objects of said first
communication network through said predetermined agent group,
said integration manager accesses said sub-manager through said
communication path to thereby manage and control a hierarchical
communication network structures by said first and second communication
networks through said sub-manager, and
said sub-manager includes means for functioning as an agent to said
integration manager and for functioning as a manger to said agents, so
that a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) can be employed as a
communication protocol between each of said plurality of agents and said
sub-manager and between said sub-manager and said integration manager
through said communication path.
9. A hierarchical network management system, comprising:
a plurality of lower communication networks;
a plurality of agents connected to each of said lower communication
networks;
a plurality of sub-managers connected to respective ones of said lower
communication networks, each of said plurality of sub-managers having
under management a predetermined agent group, within the plurality of
agents connected to a respective one of said lower communication networks;
an integration manager connected to a higher communication network and
having said plurality of sub-managers under management of said integration
manager; and
a communication path for connecting said plurality of lower communication
networks and said higher communication network,
wherein each of said agents manages and controls management objects
relating to structure information and status information of each of a
plurality of resources,
each of said sub-managers manages and controls management objects of a
respective one of said lower communication networks through the agent
group under management of said sub-manager,
said integration manager accesses said sub-managers through said
communication path to thereby manage and control management objects of a
hierarchical communication network structured by said higher communication
network through said plurality of sub-managers, and
said each of said sub-managers includes means for functioning as an agent
to said integration manager and for functioning as a manager to said
agents, so that a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) can be
employed as a communication protocol between each of said sub-managers and
said integration manager through said communication path.
10. A hierarchical network management system according to claim 8, wherein
said means for functioning as said agent to said sub-manager processes a
management object of said first communication network collected through
said agent group under management of said sub-agent into a Management
Information Base (MIB) value for responding to said integration manager at
an inquiry from said integration manager.
11. A hierarchical network management system according to claim 9, wherein
said means for functioning as said agent to each of said sub-managers
processes a management object of said lower communication network
collected through an agent group under management of said sub-agent into a
Management Information Base (MIB) value for responding to said integration
manager at an inquiry from said integration manager.
12. A system for hierarchically managing a communications network,
comprising:
a plurality of resources;
a plurality of agents, connected to the communications network, for
managing management objects of respective ones of said plurality of
resources;
a sub-manager for managing, through management of a predetermined group of
agents within said plurality of agents, a portion of the management
objects of said plurality of resources, said sub-manager communicating
with said plurality of agents using a simple network management protocol;
an integration manager for managing, through said sub-manager, all of said
management objects of said plurality of resources;
a communications path connecting said integration manager to said
sub-manager, said integration manager communicating with said sub-manager
along said path using a simple network manager protocol; and
collecting means for periodically collecting within said sub-manager,
through said predetermined group of agents, management objects lying in a
management range defined for said sub-manager, and for posting to said
integration manager information including said collected management
objects in response to a reference request issued from said integration
manager.
13. The system recited in claim 12, wherein said management objects include
management objects of structure information and status information.
14. A hierarchical network management system, comprising:
a first communications network;
a plurality of agents connected to said first communications network;
a plurality of groups of resources, each of said plurality of agents
managing management objects of a respective group of said plurality of
groups of resources;
a sub-manager, connected to said first communications network, for
managing, through management of a predetermined group of agents within
said plurality of agents, management objects of resources being managed by
said predetermined group of agents, said sub-manager communicating at
least with said predetermined group of agents through a simple network
management protocol;
a second communications network;
a communications path for connecting said first and second communications
networks;
an integration manager, connected to said second communications network,
for managing said sub-manager, said integration manager communicating with
said sub-manager through said communications path using a simple network
management protocol and cooperating with said sub-manager to manage a
hierarchical communications network which includes said first and second
communications networks; and
means, within said sub-manager, for functioning as an agent to said
integration manager and for functioning as a manger to said predetermined
group of agents.
15. The hierarchical network management system recited in claim 14, wherein
said management objects include management objects of structure
information and status information.
16. A hierarchical network management system, comprising:
a plurality of lower-level communications networks;
a plurality of sets of agents, each set of agents connected to a respective
one of said plurality of lower-level communications networks, with the
agents in each set of agents managing management objects of respective
ones of a plurality of resources;
a plurality of sub-managers connected to respective ones of said
lower-level communications networks, each of said sub-managers managing,
through management of a predetermined group of agents within the set of
agents connected to the lower-level communication network to which said
each sub-manager is connected, management objects being managed by said
predetermined group of agents, each sub-manager communicating with at
least the predetermined group of agents being managed by said each
sub-managers using a simple network management protocol;
a higher-level communications network;
a communications path for connecting said higher-level communications
network to said plurality of lower-level communications networks;
an integration manager, connected to said higher-level communications
network, for managing said plurality of sub-managers to control management
objects being managed by the agents in the predetermined groups of agents
being managed by said sub-managers, said integration manager communicating
with said plurality of sub-managers through said communications path using
a simple network management protocol;
wherein each of said plurality of sub-managers includes means for
functioning as an agent to said integration manager and for functioning as
a manager to each agent in the set of agents being managed by said each of
said plurality of sub-managers.
17. The hierarchical network management system recited in claim 16, wherein
said management objects include management objects of structure
information and status information. |
|
 |
|
 |
Claims |
|
|
|
Description |
|
|
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a hierarchical network management system,
and relates more particularly to a hierarchical network management system
which hierarchically manages network resources by agents, sub-managers and
an integration manager and which uses SNMP (Simple Network Management
Protocol) as a communication protocol among them.
In general, a management system of a communication network is structured by
two types of sub-systems, managers and agents. A manager manages and
controls network resources in agent unit. An agent manages and controls
management objects such as structure information and status information in
resource unit of the communication network.
There exist two international standards relating to management of
communication networks, IAB (Internet Activities Board) management
standard and OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) management standard. In
the networks which use these management standards, their network resources
are being managed in the following manner.
(1) Network management systems which use the management standard
When a communication network becomes large scale, the communication network
is divided into a plurality of communication networks (hereinafter to be
referred to as "sub-networks"), and a manager and agents are provided for
each sub-network so that network resources of each sub-network are
managed.
In this case, in carrying out resource management based on the IAB
management standard, an SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is used.
The standard relating to the SNMP is prescribed by RFC 1157, "A Simple
Network Management Protocol".
(2) Hierarchical network management system which uses both the OSI
management standard and the IAB management standard
A sub-manager manages each LAN (Local Area Network) based on the IAB
management standard, and the sub-manager and its higher level integration
manager manages the network resources based on the OSI management
standard, as described in "Integrated OSI Network Management for
Distributed LAN Domains", Miyauchi et al., Information Processing Society
of Japan, June 1993 issue, pp. 1426-1440, hereinafter to be referred to as
"reference literature (1)".
Reference literature (1) proposes to achieve hierarchical network
management by combining both the OSI management and the SNMP management.
In other words, in this network, the sub-manager manages the network
resources according to the IAB management standard, converts this
management to management based on the OSI management standard and
transfers the converted management to the integration manager. The
integration manager then manages all of the resources of the network.
In managing a large-scale network, it is certainly effective to manage the
network by a hierarchical structure from the viewpoint of deleting
management packet and simplifying the manager.
However, no consideration is given to hierarchical management in the
above-described network management system which uses the SNMP of the IAB
management standard. Accordingly, even if a sub-manager is provided
between the manager and the agents, it is not possible to achieve
hierarchical management if the structure of management information to be
transmitted between the manager and the sub-manager and the method for
focusing the management information are not completed. In other words, one
problem is that it is not possible to achieve a hierarchical network
management system for managing and controlling a group of agents.
In this case, according to the standard of SNMPv2 (SNMP version 2), it is
possible to notice an event from one manager to another manager. However,
no consideration is given to hierarchical management in SNMPv2 as is the
case with the SNMP. Accordingly, even if a sub-manager is provided between
the manager and the agents, it is not possible to achieve the hierarchical
management if the structure of management information to be transmitted
between the manager and the sub-manager and the method for focusing the
management information are not completed.
On the other hand, in the OSI management system described in reference
literature (1), the sub-manager should have both communication service of
the OSI standard for achieving the OSI management standard and
communication service of the IAB standard for achieving the IAB management
standard, so that there is a problem that the sub-manager becomes large in
scale.
In the LAN, communication service of the IAB standard is used, and it is a
normal application of the communication network that communication service
of the IAB standard is used between LANs. Accordingly, in the management
system described in reference literature (1), it is necessary to use the
OSI management standard although the IAB management standard is used in a
WAN (Wide Area Network). There is also a problem that the sub-manager is
large in structure.
Further, when the integration manager hierarchically manages the
communication network, which is managed by a plurality of management
standards, by integrating the communication network, it is necessary to
give advance consideration to the agency and distribution, etc., for
reducing the load of conversion of management information and the load of
the integration manager. However, no consideration is given to the agency,
decentralization, etc., in management system of the reference literature
(1). Therefore, there is a problem that, as the network becomes larger in
scale, the number of management packets which are used at the time of
exchanging management information between the integration manager and the
sub-manager increases.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a first object of the present invention to provide a hierarchical
network management system which can hierarchically manage a large-scale
communication network by sub-managers of a simple structure based on an
SNMP of the IAB management standard.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide a hierarchical
network management system which can transmit management information
between an integration manager and sub-managers based on a small volume of
management packets and which can manage a large-scale communication
network with low traffic and at low cost.
In order to achieve the first object, the present invention is
characterized in that, basically, an SNMP is used as a communication
protocol between an agent and a sub-manager and between a sub-manager and
an integration manager, respectively, and that a periodical collecting
unit is provided within a sub-manager which periodically collects
management objects of a range of self-management through agents which
belong to the same management range and which causes a sub-manager to post
to the integration manager the collected information at a reference
request from the integration manager. In this system, a sub-manager
behaves as a manager to its agents and behaves as an agent to the
integration manager.
In order to achieve the second object, the present invention is
characterized in that a sub-manager concentrates a plurality of
information from each agent which is managed by a plurality of identifiers
at a reference request from the integration manager and posts the
concentrated information to the integration manager by using an SNMP as a
communication protocol.
According to the above unit, a periodical collecting unit within a
sub-manager periodically collects management objects of a self-management
range through agents which belong to the same management range and posts
the collected information to the integration manager at a reference
request from the integration manager.
In this case, the collected information is held in a format called MIB
(Management Information Base) which is a set of a plurality of management
objects expressed in a tree structure, is accessed at a reference request
from the integration manager and is posted to the integration manager.
With the above-described structure, it is possible to hierarchically manage
a large-scale communication network based on a single protocol called an
SNMP of the IAB standard and that it is possible to simplify the structure
of a sub-manager because of the simple protocol.
A sub-manager concentrates a plurality of management objects from each
agent which is managed by a plurality of identifiers and posts the
concentrated result to the integration manager. Accordingly, it is
possible to transmit management information between the integration
manager and a sub-manager with a small volume of management packets and
that it is possible to reduce the load of the integration manager.
Further, it is possible to manage a large-scale communication network with
low traffic and at low cost.
A network manager at the integration manager side can confirm agent
structure information and status information of a sub-manager management
range by referring to the periodical collection MIB of the sub-manager to
meet an application.
Further, when a sub-manager collects management objects in real time and
posts the collected management objects to the integration manager, the
integration manager can accept the latest status of a sub-manager
management range with small resources (CPU power and memory capacity) and
with small number of management packets.
Further, when the integration manager manages TCP connection information of
sub-manager management range as a real-time collection MIB, there is an
effect that it is possible to specify an IP node and service of high
traffic within a management range of a sub-manager 10 with small operation
of the integration manager.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a system structure diagram for showing one embodiment of the
communication network management system in which an integration manager,
sub-managers and agents are arranged.
FIG. 2 is a logical relation diagram for showing a logical relationship
between the integration manager, sub-managers and agents shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is a functional structure diagram for showing a detailed structure
of a sub-manager which is a key element of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for showing an example of the definition
(part 1) of the periodical collection MIB which is a sub-manager extension
MIB.
FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for showing an example of the definition
(part 2) of the periodical collection MIB which is a sub-manager extension
MIB.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram for showing an example of the definition
(part 3) of the periodical collection MIB which is a sub-manager extension
MIB.
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram for showing an example of the definition
(part 1) of the real-time collection MIB which is a sub-manager extension
MIB.
FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram for showing an example of the definition
(part 2) of the real-time collection MIB which is a sub-manager extension
MIB.
FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram for showing an example of the definition
(part 3) of the real-time collection MIB which is a sub-manager extension
MIB.
FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram for showing an example of the definition
of a sub-manager extension trap.
FIG. 11 is a diagram for showing a correspondence table of management
objects for converting from the MIB-II to a sub-manager extension MIB.
FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram for showing the contents of
smgIpNodeContext which is a sub-manager extension MIB.
FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram for showing the contents of
smgSumTcpContext which is a sub-manager extension MIB.
FIG. 14 is a diagram for showing a correspondence table of the periodical
collection MIB to be totaled.
FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram for showing an example of the environment
setting file.
FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram for showing an example of the contents of
the management range table.
FIG. 17 is an outline PAD diagram of the monitoring method (main) of a
management range.
FIG. 18 is an outline PAD diagram of the initial setting of a management
range.
FIG. 19 is an outline PAD diagram of the monitoring of a management range.
FIG. 20 is an outline PAD diagram of a router determination.
FIG. 21 is an outline PAD diagram of a ping processing.
FIG. 22 is an outline PAD diagram of a total processing.
FIG. 23 is an updated outline PAD diagram of a management range.
FIG. 24 is an outline PAD diagram of an updating processing.
FIG. 25 is an outline PAD diagram of an allocation method in the
communication control function.
FIG. 26 is an outline PAD diagram of an allocation method in the
sub-manager agent function.
FIG. 27 is an explanatory diagram for showing an example of the contents of
the periodical collection MIB value management table.
FIG. 28 is an outline PAD diagram of the collection data base management
function.
FIG. 29 is an explanatory diagram for showing an example of the graph
display in the integration manager of a collected value which is the
periodical collection MIB.
FIG. 30 is an explanatory diagram for showing an example of the TCP
connection to which the concentration function is applied.
FIG. 31 is an explanatory diagram for showing the format of the index and
value of tcpConnState of MIB-II.
FIG. 32 is an explanatory diagram for showing the format of the index and
value of smgSumTcpContext of the real-time collection MIB.
FIG. 33 is an explanatory diagram of the conversion between the
tcpConnState of MIB-II and smgSumTcpContext of the real-time collection
MIB.
FIG. 34 is an explanatory diagram for showing a sequence of the index of
the real-time collection MIB.
FIG. 35 is an outline PAD diagram of the concentrating method (main) of a
management range.
FIG. 36 is an outline PAD diagram of the concentrating method (get
processing) of a management range.
FIG. 37 is an outline PAD diagram of the concentrating method (get issuing)
of a management range.
FIG. 38 is an outline PAD diagram of the concentrating method (get-next
processing) of a management range.
FIG. 39 is an outline PAD diagram of the concentrating method (next index
calculation) of a management range.
FIG. 40 is an outline PAD diagram of the concentrating method (get-next
issuing) of a management range.
FIG. 41 is a conversion diagram for converting an SNMP trap to a sub-manger
extension trap.
FIG. 42 is a conversion diagram for converting an SNMP trap to a sub-manger
extension trap.
FIG. 43 is an outline PAD diagram of the deleting system of an SNMP trap.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
One embodiment of the present invention will be explained in detail with
reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a system structure diagram for showing one embodiment of the
communication network to which the present invention is applied. A
plurality of LANs 1, 2 and 3 are connected by a WAN (Wide Area Network) 4.
Among these LANs, to the LAN1, a plurality of agents 20a-1 and 20a-2 for
managing and controlling management objects such as structure information
and status information in network resource unit and an agent-unloaded IP
(Internet Protocol) node 30a are connected. Further, through the agents
20a-1 and 20a-2, a sub-manager 10a for managing and controlling the
management objects within the LAN1 is connected.
To the LAN2, a plurality of agents 20b-1 and 20b-2 for managing and
controlling management objects such as structure information and status
information in network resource unit are connected. Further, a sub-manager
10b for managing and controlling the management objects under the
management of the agents 20b-1 and 20b-2 is connected to the LAN2.
Further, an agent 20c and an agent-unloaded IP node 30a are connected to
the LAN2 and a sub-manager 10c for managing and controlling the management
objects under the management of the agent 20c is also connected to the
LAN2.
In other words, in the LAN2, the management objects are managed by the two
sub-managers 10b and 10c.
On the other hand, to the LAN3, a plurality of agents 20-1 and 20-2 are
connected. Further, an integration manager 50 for managing and controlling
the management objects under the management of the agents 20-1 and 20-2
and for managing and controlling the management objects under the
management of the WAN4 and the sub-managers 10a, 10b and 10c through the
WAN4 and the sub-managers 10a, 10b and 10c is connected to the LAN3. In
other words, the integration manager 50 for hierarchically managing all of
the resources of the network is connected to the LAN3.
FIG. 2 is a diagram for showing the logical relationship of the agents,
sub-managers and the integration manager. Between the sub-manager 10a
connected to the LAN1 and the agents 20a-1 and 20a-2, the management
objects are managed by using the SNMP of the IAB management standard and
ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol). Between the sub-manager 10a and
the agent-unloaded IP node 30a, the management objects are managed by
using the ICMP. To the sub-manager 10a, a collection MIB data base 170a
for holding a set of a plurality of management objects that have been
collected through the agents of the management range in a format called
the MIB, (Management Information Base) which is expressed in a tree
structure, is connected.
Similarly, between the sub-manager 10c connected to the LAN2 and the agent
20c, the management objects are managed by using the SNMP of the IAB
management standard and the ICMP. Between the sub-manager 10c and the
agent-unloaded IP node 30c, the management objects are managed by using
the ICMP. To the sub-manager 10c, a collection MIB data base 170c for
holding a set of a plurality of management objects that have been
collected through the agents of the management range in a format called
the MIB (Management Information Base), (hereinafter to be referred to as
"the MIB format") which is expressed in a tree structure, is connected.
The sub-manager 10b and the agents 20b-1 and 20b-2 are connected to the
integration manager 50 in a similar logical relationship.
FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram for showing one embodiment of the
internal structure of the sub-manager 10, which is structured by the
following functional module:
(1) communication control function 100
(2) management range monitoring function 110
(3) collection data base management function 120
(4) self-agent function 130
(5) sub-manager agent function 140
(6) concentration function 150
(7) trap management function 160
Details of each function are as described below.
(1) communication control function 100
Under the IAB management standard, the protocol for network management is
called SNMP. This standard is prescribed by the RFC 1157, "A Simple
Network Management Protocol".
The corresponding communication control unit 100 receives an SNMP request
from the integration manager 50 and the sub-manager 10 itself to the
corresponding sub-manager and an SNMP trap.
The SNMP request is a request from the integration manager 50 to the
sub-manager for obtaining management objects, and a request from the
sub-manager 10 to the agent 20 for obtaining management objects.
An SNMP request that has been received within the communication control
unit 100 is posted to the self-agent function 130 or to the sub-manager
agent function 140 according to the management object identifier which
exists within the protocol, and the result of the requested work done is
responded to the integration manager 50 or to the sub-manager 10 itself
which are the SNMP requesters. A received SNMP trap is posted to the trap
management function 160.
(2) management range monitoring function 110
By referring to the environment setting file 180 assigned by the network
manger of the sub-manager 10, the management range monitoring function 110
obtains the range of the IP address which has been assigned as the
management range of the sub-manager 10. The management range monitoring
function 110 periodically issues an SNMP request and an ICMP echo request
for obtaining a specified management object defined by the MIB-II, to a
specified IP address group (regardless of whether an agent is loaded or
not), and obtains an SNMP response and an ICMP echo response which are the
result of the requests.
In this case, a polling interval of the SNMP request and the ISMP echo
request to be periodically issued and a community name to be described on
the SNMP protocol are obtained by referring to the environment setting
file 180.
The management range monitoring function 110 produces information of the
MIB format from the result periodically obtained, stores the information
of the latest MIB format in the memory, delivers this information to the
collection data base management function 120 and makes the collection data
base management function 120 to store the delivered information in the
collection MIB data base 170.
The management range monitoring function 110 also enables the concentration
function 150 to refer to the information regarding the IP address and
status of the management range and information of whether an agent is
loaded or not.
Further, the management range monitoring function 110 enables the trap
management function 160 to refer to the information regarding the IP
address of the management range and index numbers.
When there has been a change to the information which structures a value of
the collection MIB such as an addition or a deletion of the IP node of the
management range, the management range monitoring function 110 issues a
sub-manager extension trap for posting the change of the information to
the integration manager 50.
The standard of the MIB-II is prescribed in RFC 1213, "Management
Information Base for Network Management of TCP/IP Based Internets:
MIB-II".
(3) collection data base management function 120
When information which constitutes a value of the collection MIB has been
inputted from the management range monitoring function 110, the collection
data base management function 120 stores this information in the
collection MIB data base 170. When a request for obtaining the collection
MIB value has been inputted from the sub-manager agent function 140, the
collection data base management function 120 builds each information that
structures the value of the collection MIB into a management object format
and responds the collection MIB value to the sub-manager agent function
140.
(4) self-agent function 130
The self-agent function 130 manages the host in which the sub-manager 10
exists. An SNMP request to the MIB-II and the agent extension MIB from the
integration manager 50 and the sub-manger 10 itself is inputted to the
self-agent function 130 from the communication control function 100, and
the self-agent function 130 outputs the requested SNMP to the
communication control function 100.
The environment setting file 180 refers to the self-agent function 130 for
a community name (a password for deciding whether to make a response to an
SNMP request or not).
(5) sub-manager agent function 140
An SNMP request to the sub-manager extension MIB from the integration
manager 50 is inputted from the communication control function 100, and
the sub-manager agent function 140 allocates the destination from which
the requested SNMP is to be obtained based on the management object
identifier described in the protocol of the SNMP request.
To be more specific, according to the present invention, in order to
provide to the integration manager 50 the management information that has
been collected or concentrated by the sub-manager 10, the sub-manager
extension MIB which includes the collection MIB and the real-time
collection MIB is defined.
The periodical collection MIB is the MIB of the management information
which has been periodically collected by the sub-manager 10 from the IP
node group of the management range.
The real-time collection MIB is the concentration in the MIB format of the
management object information which has been prepared by the sub-manager
10 for the sub-manager to respond to the integration manager 50, by
real-time collecting and concentrating (deleting or processing unnecessary
information) the management object information of the management range at
the reference request of the integration manager 50.
In the case of a reference request to the periodical collection MIB, the
sub-manager agent function 140 requests the collection data base
management function 120 to obtain the MIB value and the sub-manager agent
function 120 obtains the result from the collection MIB data base 170.
In the case of a reference request to the real-time collection MIB, the
sub-manager agent function 140 requests the concentration function 150 to
obtain the MIB value, and obtains the result from the concentration
function 150.
The sub-manager agent function 140 outputs the obtained result to the
communication control function 100.
The environment setting file 180 refers to a community name (a password for
deciding whether to respond to an SNMP request or not) in the sub-manager
agent function 140.
(6) concentration function 150
When a request for obtaining the real-time collection MIB value has been
inputted from the sub-manager agent function 140 to the concentration
function 150, the concentration function 150 issues an SNMP request to the
IP node group which is loaded with an agent of the management range. After
a response to the request has been received, the concentration function
150 carries out a concentration processing and returns the concentrated
MIB value to the sub-manager agent function 140.
The environment setting file 180 refers to a community name described in
the protocol at the time of issuing the SNMP request.
(7) trap management function 160
When the SNMP trap is posted to the trap management function 160 from the
communication control function 100, the trap management function 160
summarizes a plurality of SNMP traps posted within a predetermined time as
one sub-manager extension trap and relays the sub-manager extension trap
to the integration manager 50.
The environment setting file 180 refers to a time interval for issuing the
sub-manger extension trap and a community name and others described in the
protocol, in the trap management function 160.
The logical structure of the sub-manager extension MIB which is the main
element of the present invention, the method of determining and the method
of monitoring the management range of the sub-manager, the method of
allocating an SNMP request that has been received by the sub-manager, the
method of managing the collection MIB, the method of concentrating the
collection MIB and the method of managing the SNMP tr | | |
