Active self discovery of devices that participate in a network

Abstract

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.