Cisco Technology, Inc.

Yassin Movassaghi

David Delano Ward

Kapil Jain

Sukumar Puvvala

Neal McDonnell

Michelle Diane Hawke

Mark Allen Freskos

Charles M Letchworth

George Suwala

Xiaobing Xie

Dhanendra Jain

C Michael Letchworth

John Mark Cooper

Patrick Joseph Smears

A method and apparatus for modifying the configuration of a network device, such as a router, using a two-stage configuration model is provided. A first request for a change in configuration of a network device is received. Configuration data that describes the change in configuration of the network device is stored in a buffer. A second request to modify the current operational state of the network device to reflect the configuration data stored in the buffer is received. An exclusive lock on the network device is obtained. The current operational state of the network device is modified to reflect the configuration data stored in the buffer. Multiple users may modify the network device without interfering with one another because conflicts are avoided through use of an exclusive lock. Requests of different management operations may be contained within XML documents that are transmitted from the client to the network device.

Two-stage network device configuration process

Configuration versioning and partitioning are provided as methods for managing large configuration for a network element such as a router or switch. In one aspect, a method performed in a network element, the network element comprising a plurality of software components that control operations and features of the network element, wherein operations and features of the network element are defined in part by a configuration, comprises creating and storing one or more configuration partition namespaces each comprising a version identifier and one or more configuration tuples; associating one or more of the configuration partition namespaces in a configuration partition; associating one of the software components and the one or more configuration partition namespaces; and creating and storing information identifying one of the software components, its associated configuration partition namespaces, and the version identifier of each of the configuration partition namespaces.

Managing network device configuration using versioning and partitioning

A method and apparatus for modifying the configuration of a network device, such as a router, using a two-stage configuration model is provided. A first request from a user for a change in configuration of a network device is received. Configuration data associated with the first request is stored. A second request to modify the configuration of the network device to reflect the configuration data is received. An exclusive lock on the network device is assigned to the user preventing other users from modifying the configuration of the network device. The current operational state of the network device is modified to reflect the configuration data, which is then stored in a device configuration database. Users can view configuration history data to view prior configurations of the network device. Multiple users may modify the network device without interfering with one another because conflicts are avoided through use of an exclusive lock.

Configuration commit database approach and session locking approach in a two-stage network device configuration process

An end-to-end approach is provided for developing and maintaining network device management applications. The approach includes an XML-based development environment for network device management applications that uses Management Data API (MDA) schemas that define a hierarchical data model for components supported by a network device. The XML-based development environment also uses XML schemas to define a common XML-based interface used by management applications to access management data maintained on the network device. The approach provides programmatic access to network device management data and management data schema with an XML-based data model and interface that is consistent across all network device components. The approach includes mechanisms for automatically generating XML requests that conform to a hierarchical data model from requests that conform to a table-based data model. The approach also includes mechanisms for automatically extracting data from XML replies and conforming to the table-based data model.

Server-side XML-based development environment for network device management applications

Growing community of inventors

Raleigh, NC, United States of America

Yassin Movassaghi