Compaq Information Technologies Group, L.p.

Compaq Computer Corporation, Inc.

James A Rozzi

Steven E Fairchild

John M Hemphill

Richard A Stupek, Jr

William D Justice, Jr

A programmable operational system for managing devices participating in a network including a collection of notices, operation logic that filters the collection of notices based on at least one criteria and that generates at least one operation indicative of a state change of the network, and an automation engine that uses the at least one operation to perform at least one process in response one or more operations. The collection of notices, generated by a plurality of routines, are indicative of the state of hardware, software, and user actions that comprise the network including the state or status of one or more of the devices participating in the network. The operation logic may include an operation engine and one or more operational groups. Each operational group may further include one or more operations, each including a filter and configuration information. The operation logic may further generate at least one job and store the job into memory, where each job references an operation. The operation logic invokes a helper process to facilitate execution of each operation by the automation engine. Thus, the process executed in response to the one or more operations may be implemented to provide an appropriate response to changes in the network.

Programmable operational system for managing devices participating in a network

An active self discovery system and method for a network. The network includes a management server having a corresponding server address and one or more managed devices. The management server includes a management database that is used to store management information and corresponding network addresses for each of the managed devices. Each managed device includes an active discovery agent that initiates management by sending its management information and network address to the management server. The managed device sends its management information upon initialization or anytime after the device becomes active on the network. Also, the managed device sends updated management information to the management server if and when the management information changes. Such changes include any status or configuration changes of the managed device or a new network address if the device's address is dynamically changed. Communication may be according to HTTP, where the management information is sent using HTTP post transactions. The HTTP post transactions may comprise HTML forms field formatted data and/or a tagged entity body with a MIME descriptor.

Active self discovery of devices that participate in a network

A network including one or more network subnets, a plurality of network participating devices (NPDs) and at least one management server. Each NPD initializes, gathers its status information and sends an initial beacon packet on each subnet to which it is coupled. The beacon packets are preferably confined to the subnet and are not copied to other subnets. For each subnet, each NPD collects beacon packets sent by other NPDs on the same subnet and stores the status information into a local status database including consolidated state information of all the NPDs in the group. For each subnet, each NPD periodically sends subsequent beacon packets with its status information so that all of the active NPDs have the most recent status information for all other NPDs of the same subnet. For each subnet, each NPD examines its configuration and determines whether it can serve as a group master. If a NPD can serve as master, it periodically determines whether it is ASC group master of each subnet to which it is coupled using the same criterion as the other NPD(s) on the same subnet. The same criterion is used to ensure a single master, so that only one ASC group master is selected for each group or subnet.

Automatic state consolidation for network participating devices

An event notification system for a network including a managed device that includes one or more management agents that detect one or more management events of a plurality of possible management events. The managed device further includes event notification logic that generates an event notification message (ENM) which includes event related information. The ENM is written using a markup language, such as XML, to encode the event related information based on the management event. The ENM may include executable code written in a scripting language or the like, that when executed, causes at least one action to be performed. A management server is provided that includes an event processor that executes the code to perform the desired actions in response to the particular management event. The event related information may further include a URL to locate one or more information files in the network that provides further information about the management event. The event notification logic transmits the ENM to the management server using an HTTP post transaction to ensure delivery.

Management event notification system using event notification messages

A management server for a network that facilitates and performs programmable event driven processing including event detection logic that receives and processes any of a plurality of event notifications transmitted via the network and that invokes at least one corresponding construction. Each event notification corresponds to the occurrence of management events and supports registration of listeners of each management event. The management server further includes executable components that each performs a basic function and a construction editor that enables access of the plurality of executable components. The construction editor facilitates defining a relationship between the executable components to generate constructions and performs registration of the constructions with the event detection logic as a listener of management events. Each construction, when invoked, executes its components according to the defined relationship to perform at least one desired management operation.

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Harris County, TX, United States of America

James A Rozzi