Patent ID: 7698394
Filing Date: 2010-04-13
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. An automated setup method in a first configurable network device (CND) associated with device-specific setup information (DSSI), the CND operably coupled to a distributed network comprising a DSSI server having a DSSI server identifier, a policy server having a policy server identifier, and an authentication server having an authentication server identifier, the method comprising the steps of: storing the DSSI at the DSSI server, the DSSI comprising the policy server identifier and the authentication server identifier; storing policy information for the CND at the policy server; storing authentication information for the CND at the authentication server; retrieving the DSSI for the CND from the DSSI server, wherein the DSSI includes a DSSI server identifier associated with the DSSI server, wherein retrieving the DSSI is performed using the DSSI server identifier, and wherein the DSSI includes system settings, chassis and interface settings, Internet Protocol routing information, device-specific setup (DSS) policy information, DSS authorization and security settings, accounting settings, simple network management protocol, server load balancing properties, web accesses. properties, domain name service, group mobility advertisement protocol, virtual local area network advertisement Protocol, and asynchronous transfer mode setup information; determining that a shared resource server (SRS) having shared resource information (SRI) stored thereon is accessible by the CND, wherein said SRI is accessible from the SRS by the DSSI server dependent upon a SRS identifier included in the DSSI; retrieving the SRI for the CND from the SRS thereby causing a local copy of the SRI and the DSSI to be retained at the CND; repeating the DSSI retrieving step one or more times while the CND is in a standard operational state in response to determining that the SRS is not accessible by the CND; caching the DSSI acquired in the retrieving step in a CND memory; and determining whether or not the SRS is accessible includes determining if the DSSI includes an identifier corresponding to the SRS; and after the step of retrieving the associated DSSI, determining whether the current DSSI server identifier retrieved from the DSSI server is different than a previous DSSI server identifier retained in CND memory and retrieving DSSI from the DSSI server using the current DSSI server identifier retrieved if different than the previous DSSI server identifier.