Policy-driven automatic network fault remediation

Abstract

A policy-driven automatic network remediation service is described, which resides on the network and is triggered when a network fault is detected. Once triggered, the service automatically connects to network devices in the topological locale of the detected fault and collects diagnostic information from the affected area, running diagnostics which are appropriate to the fault type. The service can validate a set of preconditions prior to taking remedial action. For example, the service can empirically validate that the network topology is actually as expected and that automatic remediation would be safe and would not compromise network availability or redundancy. Diagnostic information can be recorded in a trouble ticket to support post-event auditing. Once the preconditions have been validated, the service can automatically take corrective action based on the type of the fault, such as shutting down an interface on a particular network device.