Computer management system and associated management information base

Abstract: A method of managing a plurality of networked manageable devices which include at least one file server having a system board, a drive array subsystem associated with the file server and a server manager installed in the file server for monitoring the system board from a manager console using a management information base or "MIB". First, second and third plurality of objects which describe the system board, the drive array subsystem and the server manager, respectively, are collected and assembled into a MIB. The assembled MIB is then used to manage the file server.

Description: A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The invention relates to a computer management system and, more particularly, to a computer management system having plural instrumentation agents for querying manageable devices to collect object data and an associated enterprise management information base (or "MIB") for storing object data in accordance with a specified MIB architecture. Description of Related Art The Internet community has defined an organizational framework of data and provides a naming authority allowing any company or group to define information within the framework in a way that allows any or all of this data to coexist. Under the control of the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (or "CCITT") and the International Organization for Standardization (or "ISO"), the organizational framework has been constructed as a tree. The root of the tree is managed by CCITT and ISO. Extending from the root of the tree are a series of branches defined by CCITT and ISO. However, while the branch is initially defined by the managing authority, authority for the branch may then be given to another organization for defining the child branches for that branch. FIG. 1 illustrates the structure of the organizational framework defined by the Internet community and is included here so that the relationship of the enterprise MIB subject of the present application and the remainder of the Internet community will be clear. Every piece of information within the organizational framework is configured in a formal grammar and referred to by its full name so that it can be unambiguously specified, thereby making information transfers within an interoperable network system possible. A series of dotted decimal notations, each separated by periods, specifies all of the branches needed to reach a particular item. For example, all items originating in a private enterprise would be headed by the notation "1.3.6.1.4.1". From a specific private enterprise, an item would be identified using the name 1.3.6.1.4.1.XXX.YY where "XXX" is an identifier assigned to that enterprise by the ISO and "YY" is an identifier assigned to that particular item by enterprise "XXX" under the authority of the ISO. Simple Network Management Protocol (or "SNMP") is a protocol widely used within the Internet community for interoperable network management The SNMP protocol defines a set of commands that a management application may use to retrieve or change the value of items that a management agent is making available. The Internet community also maintains a series of documents which describe the communication protocols used by the community. These documents are called "Request for Comments" and are commonly referred to as "RFCs". Each RFC is assigned a number to identify the document. For example, RFC 1212 defines the formal grammar for a SNMP MIB. A MIB is a data base that describes a set of items that management applications and agents use to report and control managed devices. A description of a MIB starts with a line that states the name of the MIB being defined. Typically, the name of the MIB is followed by an import statement which allows the MIB writer to specify information from other well known MIBs that are referred to in the MIB being defined. Within a MIB is a structure for organizing managed items. To form the structure, the MIB defines a group or groups for organizing related pieces of information. A group is defined by stating a name for the group and showing how the group fits into the tree. Typically, all group definitions are placed immediately following the IMPORTS statement. Groups may contain information in the form of items or "objects", sub-groups, or a combination of the two. Similarly, each sub-group is configured like a group. Within a group or sub-group, data may be organized in one of two basic methods. A scalar item is a single piece of information that is within a group. For example, the total memory in a server is a scalar item. A table is a structure for organizing data that requires more information to uniquely identify a single data item within a group of similar items. An example of an item that is best organized in a table is an EISA board ID. It is necessary for someone requesting an EISA board ID to specify the EISA board to which they are referring. Each item, either scalar or part of a table, defined in a MIB includes a description which explains the item. Typically, the description includes SYNTAX, ACCESS, STATUS and DESCRIPTION clauses. The SYNTAX clause specifies the type of information which the item contains. Information types typically specified by the SYNTAX clause include INTEGER, OCTET STRING, Counter and DisplayString. INTEGER specifies that the value of the item should be interpreted as a number. OCTET STRING specifies that the value of the item should be interpreted as a string of octets, each having a value between 0 and 255. Counter specifies that the item is an INTEGER that has an implied range of zero to FFFFFFFF. DisplayString specifies that the item is an OCTET STRING where each octet is restricted to a printable ASCII character. The ACCESS clause specifies the ways the item may be used and shows the actions which the agent may support for the item. ACCESS may be read-only, read-write or not-accessible. Read-only means that the value of the item may be retrieved by a management application but may not be altered. Read-write means that the item may be read and/or altered by a management application. Not-accessible is given as the access for organizational constructs that do not represent data items. Not-accessible is used only for table features and should not be used for a scaler item. The STATUS clause specifies whether the item is required for an agent that supports the defined group. A STATUS of mandatory means that the item will always be present if the defined group is supported by the agent. A STATUS of optional means that a particular implementation has the option of supporting the item. The DESCRIPTION clause contains a double quote delimited text description of the item. Finally, the item definition ends by specifying how the item fits into the MIB tree. The group the item belongs to is given, followed by the unique branch number within the group for the item. To organize a table requires the use of two additional operators, the SEQUENCE operator and the SEQUENCE OF operator. The SEQUENCE operator allows the definition of a new type that consists of several standard types in a specific order. The SEQUENCE OF operator allows the definition of a list of zero or more of the same type of elements. A table is formed by defining a SEQUENCE, typically called a table entry. A table is defined as a SEQUENCE OF the table entry type. As there is no data that is uniquely referred to by the name of the table or entry, the STATUS of the table and the table entry is not-accessible. The INDEX clause specifies the items that can be used to uniquely identify an element in the table. A MIB may also contain trap definitions. A trap is a notification sent by the SNMP agent to a management consol. The trap is sent to inform the management console about an event that has occurred on the managed system. The trap definition begins with the name of the trap, followed by the term TRAP-TYPE. An ENTERPRISE clause follows to indicate the MIB in which the trap is defined. An optional VARIABLES clause may also be included to specify additional information that will be sent in the trap. Typically, the additional information contained in the VARIABLES clause will be items defined in the MIB identified in the ENTERPRISE clause. A DESCRIPTION clause which explains the significance of the trap and the conditions that would cause it to be sent follows. Finally, the trap is given a number to identify it. The number will be unique within the scope of the ENTERPRISE. Both the enterprise name and the trap number are used by the management station to uniquely determine the identity of a received trap. In S . R . Reasoner: "Management by proxy agent", pages 190-195: Wescon Conference Record Vol.35 November 1991 there is disclosed a system and method for managing networked devices using SNMP, but this reference does not describe the functions provided by the system and method of the present invention. The present invention is characterised over this reference. According to the invention, there is provided a method for managing, using a management application running on a management console, a plurality of networked manageable devices which include at least one file server using a constructed management information base (hereafter MIB), said at least one file server having a system board, a drive array subsystem associated with said file server, and a server manager installed in said file server, the method being characterised by the steps of collecting a plurality of objects describing said system board in a first subMIB; collecting a plurality of objects describing said drive array subsystem in a second subMIB; collecting a plurality of objects describing said server manager in a third subMIB; assembling said MIB from said first subMIB containing said plurality of objects describing said system board, said second subMIB containing said plurality of objects describing said drive array subsystem, and said third subMIB containing said plurality of objects describing said server manager; and managing said file server from said management console using said assembled MIB by monitoring performance of said system boards using said plurality of objects describing said system board contained in said first subMIB; by monitoring performance of said drive array subsystem using said plurality of objects describing said drive array subsystem contained in said second subMIB; and by monitoring performance of said server manager using said plurality of objects describing said system board contained in said third subMIB. A fourth subMIB may contain selected ones of the objects which describe a server manager installed on the system board. Various ones of the subMIBs may be further organized to contain a first child group which contains selected ones of the plurality of objects which describe a revision level of a software management agent (18) installed on the system board, drive array subsystem or server manager, respectively, a second child group containing selected ones of the plurality of objects which describe components of the system board drive array subsystem, or server manager, respectively, and a third child group containing selected ones of the plurality of objects which describes traps generated by the drive array subsystem or the server manager, respectively. The manufacturer specific component child group of the system board may be further organized to include an interface child group which contains selected ones of the plurality of component objects which contain information specific to a software management agent installed in said system board, an asset management child group which contains selected ones of the plurality of component objects which contain asset management information, a security child group which contains selected ones of the plurality of component objects which contain information describing security features specific to the manufacturer and a system board child group which contains selected ones of the plurality of component objects which contain object instances describing the system board. The drive array subsystem component child group may be further organized to include an interface child group which contains selected ones of the plurality of component objects which contain information specific to the drive array subsystem software management agent, a controller child group which contains selected ones of the plurality of component objects which contain information specific to controllers and/or accelerator cards associated with the drive array subsystem, a logical drive child group which contains selected ones of the plurality of component objects which contain information specific to a logical drive associated with the drive array subsystem, a physical drive child group which contains selected ones of the plurality of component objects which contain information specific to a logical drive associated with the drive array subsystem and a spare drive child group which contains selected ones of the plurality of component objects which contain information specific to a spare drive associated with the drive array subsystem. Further, the server manager component group may be organized to include an interface child group containing selected ones of the plurality of component objects which contain information specific to a software management agent installed in the server manager, a controller child group containing selected ones of the plurality of component objects which contain configuration information specific to the server manager, an object child group containing selected ones of the plurality of objects whose values represent objects innately monitored by the server board and objects containing information describing the server board, an asynchronous communication child group containing selected ones of the plurality of objects which contain information reporting the status of asynchronous communication ports installed on the server board and an alert group containing selected ones of the plurality of objects which contain information regarding the off-the-network alerting capabilities of the server manager. The invention also includes a management system for managing a file server having a system board, a drive array subsystem associated with said file server and a server manager for monitoring said system board, the management system comprising: a Network (14); a management information base(hereafter MIB) coupled to said Network (14), said MIB including at least: a first subMIB containing a plurality of objects describing said system board; a second subMIB containing a plurality of objects describing said drive array subsystem; and a third subMIB (232.4) containing a plurality of objects describing said server manager; a first software management agent installed in said system board and coupled to said Network (14), said first software management agent supporting said first subMIB by transporting said plurality of objects describing said system board to said first subMIB; a second software management agent installed in said drive array subsystem and coupled to said Network (14), said second software management agent supporting said second subMIB by transporting said plurality of objects describing said drive array subsystem to said second subMIB; a third software management agent installed in said server manager and coupled to said Network (14), said third software management agent supporting said third subMIB by transporting said plurality of objects describing said server manager to said third subMIB; and a management application coupled to said Network (14), said file server being managed by monitoring, using said management application, performance of said system board, said drive array subsystem and said server manager using said plurality of objects describing said system board, said drive array subsystem and said server manager respectively contained in said first subMIB, said second subMIB and said third subMIB. The component child group for the drive array subsystem may be further comprised of a first component child group containing selected ones of the plurality of component objects containing information specific to a software management agent installed in said drive array subsystem, a second child group containing selected ones of the plurality of component objects containing information specific to controllers and/or accelerator cards associated with said drive array subsystem, a third child group which contains selected ones of the plurality of component objects containing information specific to a logical drive associated with the drive array subsystem and a fourth child group which contains selected ones of the plurality of component objects containing information specific to the spare drive associated with the drive array subsystem. Further, the component child group for the server manager may comprise a first component child group containing selected ones of the plurality of component objects which contain information specific to a software management agent installed in the server manager, a second component child group containing selected ones of the plurality of component objects which contain objects which describe the configuration of the system manager, a third component child group containing selected ones of the plurality of component objects which contain information specific to objects collected by the server manager, a fourth component child group containing selected ones of the plurality of component objects which contain information related to an asynchronous communication port of the server manager, and a fifth child group containing selected ones of the plurality of component objects which contain information related to off-the-network alert capabilities of the server manager. The present invention may be better understood, and its numerous objects, features and advantages will become apparent to those skilled in the art by reference to the accompanying drawing, in which: FIG. 1 is a tree illustrating the organizational framework defined by CCITT and ISO for an interoperable network of data; FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a computer management system and associated MIB constructed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention; FIG. 3 is an expanded block diagram of the computer management system of FIG. 2; FIG. 4A is a tree illustrating the organization of an enterprise MIB used in conjunction with the computer management system and associated MIB of FIGS. 2 and 3; FIG. 4B is an inheritance tree illustrating a MIB revision group commonly configured for each subMIB of the enterprise MIB of FIG. 4A; FIG. 4C is an inheritance tree illustrating a trap history group similarly configured for plural subMIBs of the enterprise MIB of FIG. 4A; FIG. 5A is an inheritance tree illustrating a first subMIB of the enterprise MIB of FIG. 4A; FIG. 5B is an inheritance tree illustrating a processor child group of a component group of the subMIB of FIG. 5A; FIGS. 5C-1 through 5C-8 is an inheritance tree illustrating an EISA non-volatile memory child group of the component group of the subMIB of FIG. 5A; FIG. 5D is an inheritance tree illustrating a ROM child group of the component group of the subMIB of FIG. 5A; FIG. 5E is an inheritance tree illustrating a serial port child group of the component group of the subMIB of FIG. 5A; FIG. 5F is an inheritance tree illustrating a parallel port child group of the component group of the subMIB of FIG. 5A; FIG. 5G is an inheritance tree illustrating a floppy disk child group of the component group of the subMIB of FIG. 5A; FIG. 5H is an inheritance tree illustrating a fixed disk child group of the component group of the subMIB of FIG. 5A; FIG. 6A is an inheritance tree illustrating a second subMIB of the enterprise MIB of FIG. 4A; FIG. 6B is an inheritance tree illustrating a system board child group of a component group of the subMIB of FIG. 6A; FIG. 7A is an inheritance tree illustrating a third subMIB of the enterprise MIB of FIG. 4A; FIG. 7B-1 through 7B-2 is an inheritance tree illustrating an interface child group of a component group of the subMIB of FIG 7A; FIG. 7C-1 through 7C-2 is an inheritance tree illustrating a controller child group of the component group of the subMIB of FIG. 7A; FIG. 7D is an inheritance tree illustrating a logical drive child group of the component group of the subMIB of FIG. 7A; FIG. 7E is an inheritance tree illustrating a spare drive child group of the component group of the subMIB of FIG. 7A; FIG. 7F is an inheritance tree illustrating a physical drive child group of the component group of the subMIB of FIG. 7A; FIG. 8A is an inheritance tree illustrating a fourth subMIB of the enterprise MIB of FIG. 4A; FIG. 8B is an inheritance tree illustrating an interface child group of a component group of the subMIB of FIG. 8A; FIG. 8C is an inheritance tree illustrating a controller child group of the component group of the subMIB of FIG. 8A; FIG. 8D-1 through 8D-2 is an inheritance tree illustrating an object data child group of the component group of the subMIB of FIG. 8A; FIG. 8E is an inheritance tree illustrating an asynchronous communication child group of the component group of the subMIB of FIG. 8A; and FIG. 8F is an inheritance tree illustrating an alert child group of the component group of the subMIB of FIG. 8A. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring first to FIG. 2, and in accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a computer management system which uses a combination of "management" or "instrumentation" agents and an enterprise MIB to manage a manageable device or devices from a management console shall now be described in greater detail. The management system 8 includes at least one manageable device 10 to be managed at a manager station or console 12. Preferably, the manager console 12 should be a computer system having a 386 CPU, 6 Mbyte RAM, 30 Mbyte ROM, a VGA color or higher resolution graphics controller supported by Microsoft Windows, a network interface card compatible with the NetWare open data link interface (or "ODI"), a Microsoft Windows compatible mouse, a Microsoft Windows compatible printer and Microsoft Windows 3.0 or 3.1. Although only one manageable device 10 is illustrated in FIG. 2, it is specifically contemplated any number or types of manageable devices 10 may be managed at the manager console 12. The manageable device or devices 10 may include any number or combination of intelligent hardware device capables of supporting a software configured management agent 18 therein for interacting with the management system 8 in a manner to be more fully described below. For example, a bridge for interconnecting similar LAN segments, a router for interconnecting dissimilar LANs, a concentrator connected to data terminal equipment (or "DTE") and a file server or other DTE are all manageable devices which may be managed by the management system. For ease of discussion, however, the remainder of this document will assume that the collection of manageable devices 10 interconnected with the manager console 12 for the management thereof consists of a single file server 10 containing plural manageable devices such as industry-standard architecture components, an EISA bus, an intelligent drive array subsytem and a server manager board. The manageable device 10 and the manager console 12 are interconnected by a network 14 which provides a communications pathway for information to be transferred between the two. For example, an ethernet or token ring type network would be suitable for use as the network 14. Furthermore, the network 14 may be a local area network (or "LAN"), a wide area network (or "WAN") , or, more typically, a collection of interconnected LANs and WANs, also known as an "internet". Installed at the manager console 12 is shell software having a suitable management platform 15, for example, an application process interface (or "API") for the operation of the management application 16. For example, Microsoft Windows would be a suitable platform 15 from which the management application 16 may be launched. In one embodiment of the invention, the management application 16 may coexist with Netware Management System (or "NMS") software manufactured by Novell, Inc., Openview network manager software manufactured by Hewlett Packard or another third party network management systems. For example, it is specifically contemplated that the management application 16 may be launched from Novell's NetWare Management Map focussed on a selected server. Alternately, the management application 16 may operate independent from the NetWare Management System products if the file server 10 is running NetWare v.3.11 or higher. Once launched, the management application 16 running on the platform 15 performs specific management tasks by interacting with the management agent 18. The management application 16 and the management agent 18 communicate over the network 14 using management application protocols within the TCP/IP protocol suite, preferably the Simple Network Management Protocol (or "SNMP"). Monitored data will be transferred from the managed device 10 to the management application 18 using the SNMP "get request" operation in which the current value(s) associated with a declared variable (or list of variables) relating to a managed object is requested or "polled" by the management application 16 and the "get-next-request" in which the next value associated with a variable, such as a table, that comprises a list of elements, is requested or "polled" by the management application 16. Asynchronous traps, for example, alerts and other fault conditions will be immediately transported from the managed device 10 to the management application 18 using the "trap" operation where a network administrator physically located at the manager console 12 would be notified, either audibly or visually, of the existence of, information regarding the cause of, and possible solutions to, the alert. In this manner, the management agent 18 collects management information about the file server 10 or other manageable devices and provides that information, which is generally referred to as a management information base (or "MIB") to a network administrator physically located at the manager console 12. The management information provided to the network administrator can be used to monitor the performance of the file server 10 and to respond to alerts as they occur. In this manner, the network admisistrator can perform "on the network" management" management of the file server 10 or other manageable device. Other functions which can be performed by the network administrator using the management information include security management, fault analysis and configuration management. Referring next to FIG. 3, the computer management system 8 will now be described in greater detail. As may now be seen, the file server 10 is now designated as a NetWare server, thereby indicating that the managed server 10 is running NetWare v3.11 or greater. Installed on the netware server 10 is an SNMP agent 28 for transporting data from a managed device or devices to the management application 16. The SNMP agent is a collection of software capable of querying manageable devices and providing information to the managment application 16 using operations defined as part of the SNMP protocol. Manageable devices such as ISA CMOS 20, the battery backed up RAM in the real time clock installed in the system board, EISA NVRAM 22, the battery backed up non-volatile memory containing the EISA configuration of the file server 10, server manager board 24, a management device which contains configuration and real time monitored information on the file server 10, and intelligent drive array controller 26, which contains configuration, real time monitor and performance array on the intelligent drive array 26, are instrumented for interfacing with the SNMP agent 28 using base system instrumentation agent 30, server manager instrumentation agent 32 and drive array instrumentation agent 34, respectively. Instrumentation agents 30, 32 and 34 are NetWare loadable modules (or "NLMs") used so that the information regarding the managed device can be transferred to th application 16. As will be more fully discussed below, these instrumentation agents for the managed devices support separate subMIBs for the managed devices, thereby permitting the organization of managed information described herein. More specifically, the base system instrumentation agent 30 is NLM software connected to provide industry-standard architectural information about the system configuration. This information includes product and model information, processor type, diskette type, hard drive type, EISA board configuration, system ROM version, installed memory, video subsystem and serial and parallel port configurations. It may also provide product ID, serial number and security configuration. The disk drive array instrumentation agent 32 is NLM software for managing the drive array controller 26. Again using SNMP, the drive array instrumentation agent 34 will gather information including controller configuration, Compaq 4-MB array accelerator write cache configuration and status, if installed, logical drive configuration and status, physical drive configuration and status and spare drive configuration and status. Finally, the server manager instrumentation agent 32 is NLM software used to manage a server manager 24 and is necessary only if the file server 10 has a server manager board installed therein. A server manager board innately monitors and process objects indicative of computer system performance and actual and/or potential computer systems failures, determines alert conditions based upon the innately monitored and processed objects, reports alert conditions in either an in-band or out-of band mode and provides for correction action to be taken from a remote location. The exact configuration of a server manager board is disclosed at length in the copending U.S. patent applications Serial No. 07/720,259, filed June 24, 1991, entitled "Computer System Manager" and previously incorporated by reference. The information gathered by the server manager instrumentation agent 32 includes server manager board configuration information and monitored item information maintained on the server manager board. From the SNMP agent, information which forms part of the MIB may be transported over the network 14 using the IPX or IP protocol stack to the manager console 12 where Novell SNMP DDE server software 36 is installed so that the management data can be received at or transmitted from the manager console. The manager console 12 is further provided with a Btreive database 38 where object information from the MIB gathered over time by the management application 16 may be stored for later access, either by the management application 16 or another application running on the manager console 12. For example, object information which would be transmitted to the btrieve database 38 for storage would be all alerts transmitted to the management application 16 in the form of traps where they would be assembled as an alert log and information received in response to the polling of monitored items which would be assembled in the btreive database 38 in a manner which would enable trend analysis and reporting. Referring next to FIG. 4A, an enterprise MIB 232 subject of the present invention and located at branch 1..4.6.1.4.232 of the CCITT/ISO organization framework for data illustrated in FIG. 1 will now be described in greater detail. The enterprise MIB 232 defines the set of all manageable object instances and traps known to the agent, instrumentation agent and the user interface application included as part of the computer management system of FIGS. 2-3. The management application 16 uses the enterprise MIB 232's definition of object instances and traps to manage the manageable devices 10. The variables identified will be read by the management application 16 and be graphically displayed at the workstation 12. The asynchronous traps generated by the SNMP agent supported by the instrumentation will be collected and displayed by the application 16. The enterprise MIB 232 is organized to include a number of subMIBs, each describing a component in a managed server. The subMIBS include a standard equipment subMIB located at branch 232.1, a manufacturer specific system subMIB located at branch 232.2, a drive array subMIB located at branch 232.3 and a server manager subMIB located at branch 232.4. Each subMIB 232.1, 232.2, 232.3, and 232.4 includes a mibRev childgroup located at branch 232.1.1, 232.2.1, 232.3.1 and 232.4.1, respectively, and a component child group located at branch 232.1.2, 232.2.2, 232.3.2 and 232.4.2, respectively. The drive array subMIB and the server manager subMIB also include a traps child group located at branch 232.3.3 and 232.4.3, respectively. Of these, the mibRev child group for a subMIB contains information about the revision of the enterprise 232 to which the SNMP agent conforms and includes an indication as to that subMIB's last revision, the component child group for a subMIB details all object instances for the components of that subMIB and the traps child group contains a trap log history which will enable the management application 16 to determine alerting events that have occurred within the computer system 8. Referring next to FIG. 4B, the mibRev child group commonly configured for each subMIB of the enterprise MIB shall now be described in greater detail. Each mibRev child group is located at branch 232.M.1, where M = the subMIB containing that mibRev child group. In this embodiment of the invention, M=(1,2,3,4), thereby indicating that all of the subMIBS are provided with a mibREV child group. Each mibRev child group a major revision object located at branch 232.M.1.1 and a minor revision object located at branch 232.M.1.2. The management application 16 obtains this information from the management agent 18 to determine if they are both using the same definition for the MIB. If the major revision object indicates a revision change, a very significant change in the information supported by the subMIB has occurred and indicates that an upgrade should be made to ensure correct interpretation of data. For example, if the management application 16 and agent 18 for a subMIB are using a MIB definations having different major revision level, the older of the two should be upgraded. However, if the minor revision object indicates a revision change, the revision should not significantly change the interpretation of data. The formal organization of the mibRev child group is as follows: Referring next to FIG. 4C, the traps child group, which is similarly configured for the drive array and server manager subMIBs of the enterprise MIB, shall now be described in greater detail. Each traps child group maintains information about the number of traps issued by the corresponding parent subMIB and maintains a table of immediately prior traps issued. In this manner, the management application 16, when accessing the management agent 18, may acquire recent status information regarding the manageable device 10. Each traps child group is located at branch 232.T.3, where T = the subMIB containing a traps child group. In this embodiment of the invention, T=(3,4), thereby indicating that a traps child group is provided for the drive array and server manager subMIBs. Each traps child group includes a trap packets object located at branch 232.T.3.1, a maximum size trap log object located at branch 232.T.3.2 and a trap log table located at branch 232.T.3.3. The trap log table has an entry N located at branch 232.T.3.3.N for each trap issued by the subMIB. For each entry N, the trap log table includes a log index object located at branch 232.T.3.3.N.1, a trap type object located at branch 232.T.3.3.N.2 and a trap time object located at branch 232.T.3.3.N.3. Finally, each subMIB having a traps child group includes a series of trap definitions specific to that subMIB which identifies to the management application 16 the exact type of trap maintained by the trap child group. Further details regarding the traps child group may be found by reference to the formal organizational framework of the traps child group set forth below: Referring next to FIG. 5A, the StdEquipment subMIB located at branch 232.1 will now be described in greater detail. The StdEquipment subMIB consists of data that describes the devices typically found on the system board of the file server 10 being managed. IMPORT statements used in the StdEquipment subMIB are as follows: Import Defined by enterprises RFC1155SMI DisplayString RFC1158-MIB OBJECT-TYPE RFC-1212 As previously discussed, the StdEquipment subMIB includes two child groups, the mibRev child group located at branch 232.1.1 and the component child group located at branch 232.1.2. The mibRev child group contains information regarding the revision of the subMIB to which the SNMP agent conforms and is configured as previously described with respect to FIG. 4B and the component child group contains information describing equipment typically found on PC, ISA and EISA architectures. This information is contained in plural child groups of the component group. The component group's child groups are a processor group located at branch 232.1.2.2, a memory group located at branch 232.1.2.3, an ISA CMOS group located at branch 232.1.2.4, an EISA non-volatile memory group located at branch 232.1.2.5, a ROM group located at branch 232.1.2.6, a keyboard group located at branch 232.1.2.7, a video group located at branch 232.1.2.8, a serial port group located at branch 232.1.2.9, a parallel port group located at branch 232.1.2.10, a floppy disk group located at branch 232.1.2.11 and a fixed disk branch located at branch 232.1.2.12. Referring next to FIG. 5B, the proccessor child group located at branch 232.1.2.2 will now be described in greater detail. As is well known to those skilled in the art, a processor is an electronic component that performs general purpose processing which may be used with or without a coprocessor and a coprocessor is a electronic that performs special purpose processing. The processor child group describes the processor and coprocessors in the file server 10 using a plurality of object instances. More specifically, the processor child group describes the processors and coprocessors in the file server 10 using two tables, a processor table located at branch 232.1.2.2.1 and a coprocessor table located at branch 232.1.2.2.2. The processor table includes an entry N located at branch 232.1.2.2.1.N for each of N processors in the system. Similarly, the coprocessor table includes an entry N located at branch 232.1.2.2.2.N for each of N coprocessors in the system. Each entry, whether in the processor or coprocessor table, provides identification, description and speed information for a particular processor or coprocessor. Each processor entry 232.1.2.2.1.N contains four objects, a unit index object located at branch 232.1.2.2.1.N.1, a slot object located at branch 232.1.2.2.1.N.2, a name object located at branch 232.1.2.2.1.N.3 and a speed object located at branch 232.1.2.2.1.N.4, each of which is described at greater detail in the formal organization of the processor table set forth below: The coprocessor table, on the other hand, contains six objects, a unit index object located at branch 232.2.2.2.N.1, a chip index object located at branch 232.2.2.2.N.2, a slot object located at branch 232.2.2.2.N.3, a name object located at branch 232.2.2.2.N.4, a speed object located at branch 232.2.2.2.N.5 and a type object located at branch 232.2.2.2.N.6, each of which is described at greater detail in the formal organization of the coprocessor table set forth below: Returning momentarily to FIG. 5B, the memory child group located at branch 232.1.2.3 and ISA CMOS child group located at branch 232.1.2.4, respectively of the StdEquipment subMIB will now be described in greater detail. The memory child contains a base memory object located at branch 232.1.2.3.1 and a total memory object located at branch 232.1.2.3.2 that describe the amount of base and total memory, respectively, installed on the file server 10. The formal organization of the memory child group is as follows: The ISA CMOS group provides raw data regarding the CMOS variables common among industry standard PCs, including the ISA CMOS real time clock, security, and configuration which is interpretable by the manager application 16. More specifically, the ISA CMOS group contains a raw data object located at branch 232.1.2.4.1 configured as a continuous 64 byte octet string and formally organized in accordance with the following: Referring next to FIGS. 5C1-8, the EISA non-volatile memory (or "NVRAM") child group located at branch 232.1.2.5 will now be described in greater detail. The EISA NVRAM child group contains a set of tables that detail, by slot and function, the configuration information stored in an EISA bus architecture. The EISA NVRAM child group includes an EISA slot table located at branch 232.1.2.5.1, an EISA function table located at branch 232.1.2.5.2, an EISA memory table located at branch 232.1.2.5.3, an EISA interrupt table located at branch 232.1.2.5.4, an EISA data memory access (or "DMA") table located at branch 232.1.2.5.5, an EISA port table located at branch 232.1.2.5.6, an EISA free form table located at branch 232.1.2.5.7 and and EISA initialization table located at branch 232.1.2.5.8. The EISA slot table located at branch 232.1.2.5.1 contains an entry N located at branch 232.1.2.5.1.N for each configured card installed in the system. For each entry N, the EISA slot table contains a slot index object located at branch 232.1.2.5.1.N.1, a raw object located at branch 232.1.2.5.1.N.2, a board ID object located at branch 232.1.2.5.1.N.3, a board name object located at branch 232.1.2.5.1.N.4 and an EISA configuration utility revision level object located at branch 232.1.2.5.1.N.5. The formal organization of the EISA slot table located at branch 232.1.2.5.1 is as follows: Continuing to refer to FIGS. 5C1-8, and, in particular, to FIG. 5C-2, the EISA function table will now be described in greater detail. The EISA function table located at branch 232.1.2.5.2 contains an entry N located at branch 232.1.2.5.2.N for each function performed by a configured card. For each entry N, the function table contains a slot index object located at branch 232.1.2.5.2.N.1, a function index object located at branch 232.1.2.5.2.N.2, a status object located at branch 232.1.2.5.2.N.3, a type object located at branch 232.1.2.5.2.N.4, an EISA configuration revision level object located at branch 232.1.2.5.2.N.5 and a selection object located at branch 232.1.2.5.2.N.6. The formal organization of the EISA function table is as follows: Continuing to refer to FIG. 5C1-8 and, in particular to FIG. 5C-3, the remaining tables included in EISA NVRAM child group will now be described in greater detail. The remaining tables (the EISA memory table, the EISA interrupt table, the EISA DMA table, the EISA port table, the EISA free form table and the EISA initialization table) detail the resources used by each function of each configured card. More specifically, for each EISA memory configuration installed, the memory table located at branch 232.1.2.5.3 has an entry N which includes a slot index object located at branch 232.1.2.5.3.N.1, a function index object located at branch 232.1.2.5.3.N.2, an allocation index object located at branch 232.1.2.5.3.N.3, an address start object located at branch 232.1.2.5.3.N.4, a size object located at branch 232.1.2.5.3.N.5, a share object located at branch 232.1.2.5.3.N.6, a memory type object located at branch 232.1.2.5.3.N.7, a cache type object located at branch 232.1.2.5.3.N.8, an access object located at branch 232.1.2.5.3.N.9, a decode object located at branch 232.1.2.5.3.N.10 and a data size object located at branch 232.1.2.5.3.N.11. The formal organization of the memory table located at branch 232.1.2.5.3 is as follows: Referring next to FIG. 5C-4, the EISA interrupt table will now be described in greater detail. The EISA interrupt table located at branch 232.1.2.5.4 includes an entry N for each interrupt configuration N. Each entry N includes a slot index object located at branch 232.1.2.5.4.N.1, a function index object located at branch 232.1.2.5.4.N.2, an allocation index object located at branch 232.1.2.5.4.N.3, a number object located at branch 232.1.2.5.4.N.4, a share object located at branch 232.1.2.5.4.N.5 and a trigger object located at branch 232.1.2.5.4.N.6. Additional information regarding the interrupt table is detailed in the formal organization set forth below: Referring next to FIG. 5C-5, the EISA DMA table will now be described in greater detail. The EISA DMA table includes N entries, each having a slot index object at branch 232.1.2.5.5.N.1, a function index object at branch 232.1.2.5.5.N.2, an allocation index at branch 232.1.2.5.5.N.3, a DMA channel object at branch 232.1.2.5.5.N.4, a share object at branch 232.1.2.5.5.N.5, a timing object at branch 232.1.2.5.5.N.6 and a transfer size object at branch 232.1.2.5.6.N.6. Further details regarding each of the entry objects for the EISA DMA table are as follows: Referring next to FIG. 5C-6, the EISA port table will now be described in greater detail. The EISA port table includes N entries, each having a slot index object at branch 232.1.2.5.6.N.1, a function index object at branch 232.1.2.5.6.N.2, an allocation index at branch 232.1.2.5.6.N.3, an address object at branch 232.1.2.5.6.N.4 and a size object at branch 232.1.2.5.6.N.5. Further details regarding each of the entry objects for the EISA port table are as follows: Referring next to FIG. 5C-7, the EISA free form table will now be described in greater detail. The EISA free form table includes N entries, each having a slot index object at branch 232.1.2.5.7.N.1, a function index object at branch 232.1.2.5.7.N.2, and a value object at branch 232.1.2.5.7.N.3. Further details regarding each of the entry objects for the EISA free form table are as follows: Referring next to FIG. 5C-8, the EISA initialization table will now be described in greater detail. The EISA initialization table includes N entries, each having a slot index object at branch 232.1.2.5.8.N.1, a function index object at branch 232.1.2.5.8.N.2, an allocation index object at branch 232.1.2.5.8.N.3, a use mask object at branch 232.1.2.5.8.N.4, an access object at branch 232.1.2.5.8.N.5, an address object at branch 232.1.2.5.8.N.6, a port value object at branch 232.1.2.5.8.N.7 and a port mask object at branch 232.1.2.5.8.N.8. Further details regarding each of the entry objects for the EISA initialization table are as follows: Referring now to FIG. 5D, the ROM child group will now be described in greater detail. The ROM group located at branch 232.1.2.6 describes the system ROM, both version and date using a version object located at branch 232.1.2.6.1, and uses an N entry option ROM table, each entry having an address index object located at branch 232.1.2.6.2.N.1 and a size object located at branch 232.1.2.6.2.N.2 which describes the starting address and size of each option ROM in the system. The formal organization of the ROM group is as follows: Returning momentarily to FIG. 5A, the keyboard child group will now be described in greater detail. The keyboard group is located at branch 232.1.2.7 contains a description object located at branch 232.1.2.7.1 which describes the keyboard attached to the system and which is organized as follows: The video group is located at branch 232.1.2.8 and includes a description object located at branch 232.1.2.8.1 which describes the video adaptor and display and is configured as follows: Referring now to FIG. 5E, the serial port child group will now be described in greater detail. The serial port group is located at branch 232.1.2.9 and includes a table located at branch 232.1.2.9.1 which contains N entries, each containing configuration information for one of the serial ports installed in the system. The configuration information is contained in an index object located at branch 232.1.2.9.1.N.1, an address object located at branch 232.1.2.9.1.N.2 and a description object located at branch 232.1.2.9.1.N.3. The serial port group is organized as follows: Referring now to FIG. 5F, the parallel port child group will now be described in greater detail. The parallel port group is located at branch 232.1.2.10 and includes a table located at branch 232.1.2.10.1 which contains N entries, each containing configuration information for one of the parallel ports installed in the system. The configuration information is contained in an index object located at branch 232.1.2.10.1.N.1, an address object located at branch 232.1.2.10.1.N.2 and a description object located at branch 232.1.2.10.1.N.3. The parallel port group is organized as follows: Referring now to FIG. 5G, the floppy diskette child group will now be described in greater detail. The floppy diskette group is located at branch 232.1.2.11 and includes a table located at branch 232.1.2.11.1 which contains N entries, each of which describes a floppy diskette drive installed in the system. The description of a floppy diskette drive is contained in an index object located at branch 232.1.2.11.1.N.1 and a type object located at branch 232.1.2.11.1.N.2. The floppy diskette group is organized as follows: Referring now to FIG. 5H, the fixed disk child group will now be described in greater detail. The fixed disk group is located at branch 232.1.2.12 and includes a table located at branch 232.1.2.12.1 which contains N entries, each of which describes the configuration of a fixed disk drive installed in the system which is accessible through a ST506 compatible interface. The description of a fixed disk drive is contained in an index object located at branch 232.1.2.12.1.N.1, a type object located at branch 232.1.2.12.1.N.2, a cylinders object located at branch 232.1.2.12.1.N.3, a heads object located at branch 232.1.2.12.1.N.4, a sectors per track object located at branch 232.1.2.12.1.N.5 and a capacity object located at branch 232.1.2.12.1.N.6. The floppy diskette group is organized as follows: Referring next to FIG. 6A, the Compaq system subMIB 232.2 which consists of data describing system board information specific to computer systems manufactured by Compaq Computer Corporation shall now be described in greater detail. IMPORTS used in the system subMIB 232.2 are as follows: Import Defined by enterprises RFC1155-SMI Counter RFC1155-SMI Gauge RFC1155-SMI TimeTicks RFC1155-SMI DisplayString RFC1158-MIB OBJECT-TYPE RFC-1212 The system subMIB includes two child groups, a mibRev group located at branch 232.2.1 and a component group located at branch 232.2.2. The mibRev child group contains information regarding the revision of the subMIB to which the SNMP agent conforms and is configured as previously described in FIG. 4b. The component child group contains information describing Compaq extensions to standard PC, ISA and EISA architectures. This information is contained in plural child groups of the component group. The component group's child groups are an interface child group containing information specific to the host software that supports runtime object instances, located at branch 232.2.2.1, an asset child group located at branch 232.2.2.2, a security child group located at branch 232.2.2.3 and a system board child group located at branch 232.2.2.4. The asset child group located at branch 232.2.2.2 contains the serial numbers of any hardware, for example, file server 10, manufactured by Compaq Computers which support asset management and is comprised of a single object, referred to as a serial number object, located at branch is organized according to the following: The security child group located at branch 232.2.2.3 contains object instances describing how security features installed on computers manufactured by Compaq Computer Corporation installed in the system are configured. The security group includes 10 objects, a power on password object located at branch 232.2.2.1, a network server mode object located at branch 232.2.2.2, a quick lock password object located at branch 232.2.2.3, a quick blank screen object located at branch 232.2.2.4, a diskette boot control object located at branch 232.2.2.5, a primary serial port access control object located at branch 232.2.2.6, a secondary serial port access control object located at branch 232.2.2.7, a parallel port access control object located at branch 232.2.2.8, a floppy diskette control object located at branch 232.2.2.9, a fixed disk control object located at branch 232.2.2.10. The security child group is organized according to the following framework: The system board child group located at branch 232.2.2.4 describes features of a Compaq Computer Corporation type system board such as machine ID, product name and others. Such features are described in three objects, a machine ID object located at branch 232.2.2.4.1, a machine product name object located at branch 232.2.2.4.2 and an auxiliary input object located at branch 232.2.2.4.3 and a memory module table located at branch 232.2.2.4.4. Further details regarding the aforementioned objects are set forth in the organizational structure for the system board group set forth below: Referring next to FIG. 6B, the memory module table of the system board child group will now be described in greater detail. The memory module table is located at branch 232.2.2.4.4 and describes the memory board installed in the file server 10. The memory module table includes N branches, one for each memory board installed in the file server 10. Each entry includes a board index object located at branch 232.2.2.4.4.N.1, a module index located at branch 232.2.2.4.4.N.2 and a module size object located at branch 232.2.2.4.4.N.3. The memory module table is organized as follows: Referring next to FIG. 7A, the drive array subMIB located at branch 232.3 will now be described in greater detail. The drive array subMIB details the intelligent drive array and includes data which describes the drive array subsystem, including the internal intelligent drive array (or "IDA"), external IDA and accelerated IDA, including configuration and status information about the controllers, logical drives, physical drives, spare drives, 4MB array accelerator write cache board typically included in an intelligent drive array. Information regarding the relationship of the intelligent drive array and the host operating system is also included in the drive array subMIB. The drive array subMIB includes three child groups, a mibREV group located at branch 232.3.1, a component group located at branch 232.3.2, and a traps group located at branch 232.3.3. The mibRev child group contains information regarding the revision of the subMIB to which the SNMP agent conforms and is configured as previously described in FIG. 4B and the trap group contains information regarding traps issued from the drive array subMIB and is configured as previously described in FIG. 4c. Trap definitions specific to the traps child group located at branch 232.2.3 are as follows: The component group contains a series of child groups, each of which describe a particular part of a drive array subsystem. These child groups include an interface group located at branch 222.3.2.1, a controller group located at branch 232.3.2.2, a logical drive group located at branch 232.3.2.3, a spare drive group located at branch 232.3.2.4 and a physical drive group located at branch 232.3.2.5. Referring next to FIGS. 7B-1 thorugh 7B-2 in general and FIG. 7B-1 in particular, the interface child group located at branch 232.3.2.1 will now be described in greater detail. The interface group contains at least one child group which contains information describing how the drive array subsystem interfaces with a particular host operating system. In the embodiment of the invention disclosed herein, a single child group describing the interface with a NetWare operating system is disclosed. It is contemplated, however, that as additional host operating system are instrumented, more child groups will be created. The osNetWare3x group is located at branch 232.3.2.1.1 and describes the driver module of the drive array controller in its software interface with the NetWare v3.x operating system using four objects, a driver name object located at branch 232.3.2.1.1.1, a driver version object located at branch 232.3.2.1.1.2, a driver poll type object located at branch 232.3.2.1.1.3 and a driver poll time object located at branch 232.3.2.1.1.4, and two tables, a drive statistics table located at branch 232.3.2.1.1.5 and a volume map table located at branch 232.3.2.1.1.6. The objects included as part of the osNetware3x group are formally organized as follows: The drive statistics table for the osNetWare3x group includes N entries, each including a controller index object located at branch 232.3.2.1.1.5.N.1, a logical drive index object located at branch 232.3.2.1.1.5.N.2, a total reads object located at branch 232.3.2.1.1.5.N.3, a total writes object located at branch 232.3.2.1.1.5.N.4, a corrected reads object located at branch 232.3.2.1.1.5.N.5, a corrected writes object located at branch 232.3.2.1.1.5.N.6, a fatal reads object located at branch 232.3.2.1.1.5.N.7 and a fatal writes object located at branch 232.3.2.1.1.5.N.8. The formal organization of the drive statistics table is as follows: No referring specifically to FIG. 7C-2, the volume map table for the osNetWare3x group includes N entries, each including a controller index object located at branch 232.3.2.1.1.6.N.1, a logical drive index object located at branch 232.3.2.1.1.6.N.2 and a volume map located at branch 232.3.2.1.1.6.N.3. The formal organization of the volume map table is as follows: Referring next to FIGS. 7C-1 through 7C-2, the controller child group located at branch 232.3.2.2 will now be described in greater detail. The controller group, which contains the configuration and statistical information relating to the drive array controllers and controller accellerator boards, includes a controller table located at branch 232.3.2.2.1 and an accelerator table located at branch 232.3.2.2.2. The controller table includes an entry N for each controller installed in the system. For each entry N, the controller table includes 6 objects, an index object located at branch 232.3.2.2.1.N.1, a model object located at branch 232.3.2.2.1.N.2, a firmware revision object located at branch 232.3.2.2.1.N.3, a standard interface object located at branch 232.3.2.2.1.N.4, a slot object located at branch 232.3.2.2.1.N.5 and a condition object located at branch 232.3.2.2.1.N.6. The formal organization of the controller table is as follows: Similarly, the accelerator table includes an entry N for each accelerator installed in the system. For each entry N, the accelerator table includes 9 objects, an controller inex object located at branch 232.3.2.2.2.N.1, a status object located at branch 232.3.2.2.2.N.2, a memory object located at branch 232.3.2.2.2.N.3, a bad data object located at branch 232.3.2.2.2.N.4, an error code object located at branch 232.3.2.2.2.N.5, a battery status object located at branch 232.3.2.2.2.N.6, a read errors status located at branch 232.3.2.2.2.N.7, a write errors object located at branch 232.3.2.2.2.N.8 and a condition object located at branch 232.3.2.2.2.N.9. The formal organization of the accelerator table is as follows: Referring next to FIG. 7D, the logical drive child group located at branch 232.3.2.3 will now be described in greater detail. The logical drive child group contains configuration and statistical information regarding the logical drives associated with the drive array controller in the form of objects which describe the size, status, fault tolerance and other characteristics of the logical drives of the array. More specifically, the logical drive child group contains a logical drive table located at branch 232.3.2.3.1. The logical drive table includes an entry N for each logical drive associated with the drive array. and, for each entry N, the logical drive table includes a controller index object located at branch 232.3.2.3.1.N.1, a drive index object located at branch 232.3.2.3.1.N.2, a fault tolerance object located at branch 232.3.2.3.1.N.3, a status object located at branch 232.3.2.3.1.N.4, an auto-reliability object located at branch 232.3.2.3.1.N.5, a rebuild blocks available object located at branch 232.3.2.3.1.N.6, an accelerator board object located at branch 232.3.2.3.1.N.7, an available spares object located at branch 232.3.2.3.1.N.8, a drive size object located at branch 232.3.2.3.1.N.9, a physical drive ID located at branch 232.3.2.3.1.N.10 and a drive condition object located at branch 232.3.2.3.1.N.11. The formal organization of the logical drive table is as follows: Referring next to FIG. 7E, the spare drive child group located at branch 232.3.2.4 will now be described in greater detail. The spare drive group contains statisical and configuration information regarding the spare drives associated with the drive array controller in the form of objects which describe the spare drive or drives that may be present on an external IDA. Spare drives are available for any particular logical drive until allocated for use. Examples of information which would be contained in the objects of the spare drive child group include status of spare drive (other, failed, inactive building or active), and the identity of the physical drive which the spare drive is replacing. More specifically, ths spare drive group located at branch 232.3.2.4 contains a spare drive table at branch 232.3.2.4.1. The spare drive table includes an entry N for each spare drive associated with the drive array and, for each entry N, the spare drive table includes a controller index object located at branch 232.3.2.4.1.N.1, a drive index object located at branch 232.3.2.4.1.N.2, a status object located at branch 232.3.2.4.1.N.3, a replaced drive object located at branch 232.3.2.4.1.N.4, a rebuild blocks object located at branch 232.3.2.4.1.N.5 and a spare condition object located at branch 232.3.2.4.1.N.6. The formal organization of the spare drive child group is as follows: Referring next to FIG. 7F, the physical drive child group located at branch 232.3.2.5 will now be described in greater detail. The physical drive child group contains configuration and statistical information regarding the physical drives associated with the drive array controller in the form of objects that describe each individual spindle in the array. Examples of information which would be contained in the physical drive child group include drive model, firmware revision, bay offset, reallocation units available, reallocation units used, on-line performance test results. More specifically, the physical drive child group contains a physical drive table located at branch 232.3.2.5.1. The physical drive table includes an entry N for each physical drive associated with the drive array and, for each entry N, the physical drive table includes a controller index object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.1, a drive index object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.2, a model object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.3, a firmware revision object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.4, a bay location object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.5, a status object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.6, a factory reallocation object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.7, a used reallocations object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.8, a reference minutes object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.9, a read sectors object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.10, a write sectors object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.11, a seeks object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.12, a hard read errors object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.13, a recovered read errors object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.14, a hard write errors object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.15, a recovered write errors object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.16, a seek errors object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.17, a spinup time object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.18, first, second and third functional test objects located at branches 232.3.2.5.1.N.19, 232.3.2.5.1.N.20 and 232.3.2.5.1.N.21, respectively, a DRQ timeouts object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.22, an other timeouts object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.23, a spinup retries object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.24, a recover failed read errors object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.25, a recover failed write errors object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.26, a format errors object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.27, a power on self test error object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.28, a drive not ready errors object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.29, a reallocation abort object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.30, a factory threshold exceeded object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.31, a monitor information object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.32 and a drive condition object located at branch 232.3.2.5.1.N.33. The formal organization of the physical drive table is as follows: Referring next to FIG 7E, the spare drive child group located at branch 232.3.2.4 shall now be described in greater detail. The spare drive child group contains object instances that describe the spare drive that may be present on an external IDA. Spare drives may be available for any particular logical drive until allocated for use. Example object instances would be status (other, failed, inactive building or active) physical drive number the spare is replacing and others. More specifically, the spare drive child group contains a spare drive table located at branch 232.3.2.4.1 which contains N entries, one for each spare drive installed in the drive array. For each installed spare drive, the spare drive table includes a controller index object located at branch 232.3.2.4.1.N.1, a physical drive index object located at branch 232.3.2.3.1.N.2, a spare status object located at branch 232.3.2.3.1.N.3, a replaced drive object located at branch 232.3.2.3.1.N.4, a rebuild blocks object located at branch 232.3.2.3.1.N.5 and a spare condition object located at branch 232.3.2.3.1.N.6. Further details are set forth in the formal organizational framework of the spare child group set forth below: Referring next to FIG. 8A, the server manager subMIB located at branch 232.4 will now be described in greater detail. The server manager subMIB details the configuration of the server manager board 24, monitored item information maintained on the server board 24 and historical information about important events occurring on the board. The server manager subMIB includes three child groups, a mibREV group located at branch 232.4.1, a component group located at branch 232.4.2, and a traps group located at branch 232.4.3. The mibRev child group contains information regarding the revision of the subMIB to which the SNMP agent conforms and is configured as previously described in FIG. 4B, the component group describes the server manager and the trap group contains information regarding traps issued from the server manager subMIB and is configured as previously described in FIG. 4c. Trap definitions specific to the traps child group located at branch 232.4.3 are as follows: boardFailed TRAP-TYPE The component group located at branch 232.4.2 contains a series of child groups, each of which describes a particular part of the server manager 24. Of these, the interface child group located at branch 232.4.2.1 contains information specific to the host software that supports the server manager controller. The controller child group located at branch 232.4.2.2 contains configuration and statistical information regarding the server manager board such as board name, board ID, firmware date, country code, modem type voice ROM status and others. The object data child group located at branch 232.4.2.3 lists and describes the objects and monitored items on the server manager board 24. In addition to containing the objects, the object data child group also contains the attribute label and value for each object in the group. Finally, the object data child group also contains information regarding the server manager's object management resource utilization. The asynchronous communication child group located at branch 232.4.2.4 describes the configuration and status of the server manager board's asynchronous communication ports using a series of objects which contain information regarding port status, modem type, session status, modem setting and other data relating to the aforementioned communicatin ports. Finally, the alert child group located at branch 232.4.2.5 contains object instance information describing the "off the network" alerting capabilities of the system manager. For example, alert destinations, including device type (SMF, pager or voice), phone number to dial, number or retries and others is typical information related to off the network alerting capabilities which is contained in the alert child group. Referring next to FIG. 8b, the interface child group located at branch 232.4.2.1 will now be described in greater detail. The interface group contains at least one child group which contains information describing how the server manager board 24 interfaces with a particular host operating system for the computer management system 8. In the embodiment of the invention disclosed herein, a single child group describing the interface of the server manager board 24 with a NetWare operating system is disclosed. It is contemplated, however, that as additional host operating system are instrumented, more child groups will be created. The NetWare3x group is located at branch 232.4.2.1.1 and describes the driver module of the server manager board in its software interface with the NetWare v3.x operating system using twelve objects, a driver name object located at branch 232.4.2.1.1.1, a driver date object located at branch 232.4.2.1.1.2, a driver version object located at branch 232.4.2.1.1.3, an issued commands object located at banch 232.4.2.1.1.4, a received commands object located at branch 232.4.2.1.1.5, a watchdog frequency object located at branch 232.4.2.1.1.6, a clock synchronization command frequency object located at branch 232.4.2.1.1.7, an issued watchdogs object located at branch 232.4.2.1.1.8, an issued clock sychronizatin commands object located at branch 232.4.2.1.1.9, a memory allocation failure errors object located at branch 232.4.2.1.1.10, a board resets object located at branch 232.4.2.1.1.11 and a board state object located at branch 232.4.2.1.1.12. The formal organization of the interface child group is as follows: Referring next to FIG. 8C, the controller child group located at branch 232.4.2.2 will now be described in greater detail. The controller child group contains configuration and statistical information, for example, board name, board ID, formware date, country code, modem type and voice ROM status, regarding the server manager controller. The group is comprised of twelve objects which detail this information. The objects of the child group are a board name object located at branch 232.4.2.2.1, a board ID object located at branch 232.4.2.2.2, a ROM date object located at branch 232.4.2.2.3, a country code object located at branch 232.4.2.2.4, a ROM status object located at branch 232.4.2.2.5, a battery status object located at branch 232.4.2.2.6, a dormant mode status object located at branch 232.4.2.2.7, a self test error cede object located at branch 232.4.2.2.8, an operating system ID object located at branch 232.4.2.2.9, an operating system major revision objet located at branch 232.4.2.2.10, an operating system minor revision object located at branch 232.4.2.2.11, a power on self test timeout object located at branch 232.4.2.2.12, and a condition object located at branch 232.4.2.2.13. The formal organization of the controller child group is as follows: Referring generally to FIGS. 8D-1 through 8D-2 and, in particular to FIG. 8D-1, the object data child group located at branch 232.4.2.3 will now be described in greater detail. The object data child group describes the objects and monitored items on the server manager board 24 using three objects, a total objects object located at branch 232.4.2.3.1, a total object space object located at branch 232.4.2.3.2, an innate monitoring status object located at branch 232.4.2.3.4, an object table located at branch 232.4.2.3.5 and a monitored item table located at branch 232.4.2.3.6. The object table is comprised of N entries, one for each object monitored by the server manager 24. For each entry N, the object table contains four objects: an object index object located at branch 232.4.2.3.5.N.1, an object instance index object located at branch 232.4.2.3.5.N.2, an object class object located at branch 232.4.2.3.5.N.3 and an object label object located at branch 232.4.2.3.5.N.4. Referring, in particular, to FIG. 8D-2, the monitored item table located at branch 232.4.2.3.6 includes an entry N for each item monitored by the server manager. For each entry N, the monitored item table contains 18 objects: a monitored item index object located at branch 232.4.2.3.6.N.1, a monitored item instruction index object located at branch 232.4.2.3.6.N.2, a monitored item index located at branch 232.4.2.2.3.6.N.3, an in-band alert status object located at branch 232.4.2.3.6.N.4, an out-of-band alert status object located at branch 232.4.2.3.6.N.5, an innate status object located at branch 232.4.2.3.6.N.6, a host notification object located at branch 232.4.2.3.6.N.7, a logical operator object located at branch 232.4.2.3.6.N.8, a monitored item severity object located at branch 232.4.2.3.5.N.9, a monitored item data type object located at branch 232.4.2.3.5.N.10, a voice message number object located at branch 232.4.2.3.5.N.11, a monitored item label object located at branch 232.4.2.3.5.N.12, a monitored item limit object located at branch 232.4.2.3.5.N.13, an optional monitored item object located at branch 232.4.2.3.5.N.14, a monitored item default value object located at branch 232.4.2.3.5.N.15, a monitored item current value object located at branch 232.4.2.3.5.N.16, a monitored item current string object located at branch 232.4.2.3.5.N.17, a monitored item current contents located at branch 232.4.2.3.5.N.18 and a monitored item time stamp located at branch 232.4.2.3.5.N.19. The formal organization of the object data child group is as follows: Referring next to FIG. 8E, the asynchronous communications child group located at branch 232.4.2.4 will now be described in greater detail. The asynchronous communications child group contains five objects and a table for describing the configuration and status of the asynchronous communication ports of the server manager 24. The objects of the asynchronous communications child group include a status object located at branch 232.4.2.4.1, a internal modem baud rate object located at 232.4.2.4.2, an audible indicator status object located at branch 232.4.2.4.3, a remote session status object located at branch 232.4.2.4.3 and a callback status object located at branch 232.4.2.4.5. Information regarding the modem settings is contained in a modem settings table located at branch 232.4.2.4.6. The modem settings table includes an entry N for each modem installed on the server manager board. Each entry N contains a settings index object located at branch 232.4.2.4.6.N.1, a settings status object located at branch 232.4.2.4.6.N.2, a settings baud rate object located at branch 232.4.2.4.6.N.3, a settings parrity object located at branch 232.4.2.4.6.N.3, a settings data length object located at branch 232.4.2.4.6.N.4, a settings stop bits object located at branch 232.4.2.4.6.N.5, a settings dial string object located at branch 232.4.2.4.6.N.7, a settings hand up string located at branch 232.4.2.4.6.N.8, a settings answer string located at branch 232.4.2.4.6.N.9 and a settings originate string located at branch 232.4.2.4.6.N.10. The formal organizational framework for the asynchronous communications child group is as follows: Referring next to FIG. 8F, the alert child group located at branch 234.4.2.5 will now be described in greater detail. The alert child group describes the configuration and status of the server manager board's alerting system using an alert status object located at branch 232.4.2.5.1 and an alert destination table located at branch 232.4.2.5.2. The alert destination table contains an entry N for each designated destination for an alert. For each selected destination, the alert destination table includes an alert priority index object located at branch 232.4.2.5.2.N.1, an alert destination type object located at branch 232.4.2.5.2.N.2, an alert destination retries object located at branch 232.4.2.5.2.N.3, an alert destination connect flags object located at branch 232.4.2.5.2.N.4, an alert destination phone number object located at branch 232.4.2.5.2.N.5, an alert destination time mask object located at branch 232.4.2.5.2.N.6, an alert destination pager type object located at branch 232.4.2.5.2.N.7, an alert destination pager ID object located at branch 232.4.2.5.2.N.8, and an alert destination pager display length object located at branch 232.4.2.5.2.N.9. The formal organization of the alert child group is as follows: Thus, there has been described and illustrated herein a computer management system and a management information base associated therewith which provides significantly enhanced capabilities in manageing a network comprised of multiple manageable devices.

Claims: A method for managing, using a management application running on a management console (12), a plurality of networked manageable devices which include at least one file server (10) using a constructed management information base (232) (hereafter MIB), said at least one file server having a system board, a drive array subsystem (26) associated with said file server, and a server manager installed in said file server, the method being characterised by the steps of: collecting a plurality of objects describing said system board in a first subMIB (232.1); collecting a plurality of objects describing said drive array subsystem (26) in a second subMIB (232.3); collecting a plurality of objects describing said server manager in a third subMIB (232.4); assembling said MIB (232) from said first subMIB (232.1) containing said plurality of objects describing said system board, said second subMIB (232.3) containing said plurality of objects describing said drive array subsystem (26), and said third subMIB (232.4) containing said plurality of objects describing said server manager; and managing said file server (10) from said management console using said assembled MIB (232) by monitoring performance of said system boards using said plurality of objects describing said system board contained in said-first subMIB (232.1); by monitoring performance of said drive array subsystem (26) using said plurality of objects describing said drive array subsystem contained in said second subMIB (232.3); and by monitoring performance of said server manager using said plurality of objects describing said system board contained in said third subMIB (232.4). A method for managing a plurality of networked manageable devices according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said system board, said drive array subsystem (26) and said server manager has a software management agent (18) associated therewith to interface with said management console. A method of managing a plurality of networked manageable devices according to claim 2, wherein said system board is comprised of a plurality of components and has said software management agent (18) installed therein to interface with said management console networked therewith, and wherein the step of collecting said plurality of objects describing said system board into said first subMIB (232.1) comprises the step of organizing said first subMIB into first and second child groups(232.1.1,232.1.2), said first child group (232.1.1) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects which describe a revision level of said software management agent (18) installed on said system board and said second child group (232.1.2) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects describe said components of said system board. A method of managing a plurality of networked manageable devices according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein said system board is comprised of a plurality of components, wherein said method further includes the step of collecting a plurality of objects describing components on said system board that are specific to a manufacturer in a fourth subMIB (232.2), wherein the step of collecting said plurality of objects describing said system board in said first subMIB (232.1) collects those of said plurality of objects describing components installed on said system board other than those described in fourth subMIB (232.2), and wherein said assembling said MIB (232) also assembles from said fourth subMIB (232.2). A method of managing a plurality of networked manageable devices according to claim 4, wherein a software management agent (18) is installed in said system board to interface with said management console networked therewith, and wherein the step of collecting said plurality of objects into said fourth subMIB (232.2) comprises the step of organizing said fourth subMIB into first and second child groups (232.2.1,232.2.2), said first child group (232.2.1) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects which describe a revision level of said software management agent (18) installed on said system board and said second child group (232.2.2) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects which describe those components specific to a manufacturer. A method of managing a plurality of networked manageable devices according to claim 5, wherein the step of organizing said fourth subMIB (232.2) to include said second child group (232.2.2) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects which describe those components of said system board specific to a manufacturer comprises the step of organizing said second child group (232.2.2) into a plurality of children groups, said children groups including an interface child group (232.2.2.1) which contains selected ones of said plurality of component objects which contain information specific to said software management agent (18), an asset management child group (232.2.2.2) which contains selected ones of said plurality of component objects which contain asset management information, a security child group (232.2.2.3) which contains selected ones of said plurality of component objects which contain information describing security features specific to said manufacturer, and a system board child group (232.2.2.4) which contains selected ones of said plurality of component objects which contain object instances describing said system board. A method of managing a plurality of networked manageable devices according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein said drive array subsystem (26) is comprised of a plurality of components and has a software management agent (18) installed therein to interface with said management console networked therewith, and wherein the step of organizing said collected plurality of objects into said second subMIB (232.3) containing said plurality of objects describing said drive array subsystem (26) comprises the step of organizing said second subMIB into three child groups, said first child group (232.3.1) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects which describe a revision level of said software management agent (18) installed on said drive array subsystem (26), said second child group (232.3.2) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects which describe said components of said drive array subsystem (26), and said third child group (232.3.3) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects which describes traps generated by said drive array subsystem. A method of managing a plurality of networked manageable devices according to claim 7, wherein said drive array subsystem (26) comprises at least one controller and/or accelerator card and logical, physical and spare drives, and wherein the step of organizing said second subMIB (232.3) to include said second child group (232.3.2) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects describing said components of said drive array subsystem (26) comprises the step of organizing said second child group (232.3.2) into a plurality of children groups, said children groups including an interface child group (232.3.2.1) which contains selected ones of said plurality of component objects which contain information specific to said software management agent (18), a controller child group (232.3.2.2) which contains selected ones of said plurality of component objects which contain information specific to said controllers and/or accelerator cards, a logical drive child group (232.3.2.3) which contains selected ones of said plurality of component objects which contain information specific to said logical drive, a physical drive group (232.3.2.5) which contains selected ones of said plurality of component objects which contain information specific to said logical drive and a spare drive child group (232.3.2.4) which contains selected ones of said plurality of component objects which contain information specific to said spare drive. A method of managing a plurality of networked manageable devices according to any of claims 1-8, wherein said server manager is comprised of a plurality of components and has a software management agent (18) installed therein to interface with said management console networked therewith, and wherein the step of organizing said collected plurality of objects into said third subMIB (232.4) containing said plurality of objects describing said server manager comprises the step of organizing said third subMIB into three child groups, said first child group (232.4.1) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects which describe a revision level of said software management agent (18) installed on said server manager, said second child group (232.4.2) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects which describe said components of said server manager, and said third child group (232.4.3) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects which describe traps generated by said server manager. A method of managing a plurality of networked manageable devices according to claim 9, wherein said components of said server manager innately monitor said system board to collect objects for processing thereby and a least one asynchronous port for performing off-the-network alerting, and wherein the step of organizing said third subMIB (232.4) to include said second child group (232.4.2) containing all of said plurality of objects describing said components of said server manager comprises the step of organizing said second child group (232.4.2) into a plurality of children groups, said children groups including an interface child group (232.4.2.1) containing selected ones of said plurality of component objects which contain information specific to said software management agent (18), a controller child group (232.4.2.2) containing selected ones of said plurality of component objects which contain configuration information specific to said server manager, an object child group (232.4.2.3) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects whose values represent objects innately monitored by said server board and objects containing information describing said server board, an asynchronous communication child group (232.4.2.4) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects which contain information describing status of said asynchronous communication ports installed on said server board, and an alert group (232.4.2.5) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects which contain information on the off-the-network alerting capabilities of said server manager. A management system (8) for managing a file server (10) having a system board, a drive array subsystem (26) associated with said file server and a server manager for monitoring said system board, the management system comprising: a Network (14); a management information base (232) hereafter designated as MIB coupled to said Network (14), said MIB including at least: a first subMIB (232.1) containing a plurality of objects describing said system board; a second subMIB (232.3) containing a plurality of objects describing said drive array subsystem (26); and a third subMIB (232.4) containing a plurality of objects describing said server manager; a first software management agent (18) installed in said system board and coupled to said Network (14), said first software management agent (18) supporting said first subMIB (232.1) by transporting said plurality of objects describing said system board to said first subMIB; a second software management agent (18) installed in said drive array subsystem (26) and coupled to said Network (14), said second software management agent (18) supporting said second subMIB (232.3) by transporting said plurality of objects describing said drive array subsystem (26) to said second subMIB; a third software management agent (18) installed in said server manager and coupled to said Network (14), said third software management agent (18) supporting said third subMIB (232.4) by transporting said plurality of objects describing said server manager to said third subMIB; and a management application coupled to said Network (14), said file server (10) being managed by monitoring; using said management application, performance of said system board, said drive array subsystem (26) and said server manager using said plurality of objects describing said system board, said drive array subsystem and said server manager respectively contained in said first subMIB (232.1), said second subMIB (232.3) and said third subMIB (232.4). A management system according to claim 11, wherein said drive array subsystem (26) further comprises a plurality of components, wherein said second subMIB (232.3) further comprises a first child group (232.3.1) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects which describe a revision level of said second software management agent (18) installed in said drive array subsystem (26), a second child group (232.3.2) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects which describe said components of said drive array subsystem and a third child group (232.3.3) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects which describe traps generated by said drive array subsystem (26), said file server (10) being further managed by monitoring, using said management application, said revision level of said second software management agent (18), said components of said drive array subsystem and said traps generated by said drive array subsystem (26) using said plurality of objects contained in said first, second and third child groups, and further comprising an alert log listing said traps generated by said drive array subsystem (26). A management system according to claim 12, wherein said drive array subsystem (26) further comprises at least one controller and/or accelerator card and logical, physical and spare drives and wherein second child group (232.3.2) further comprises a first sub-child group (232.3.2.1) containing selected ones of said plurality of component objects containing information specific to said second software management agent (18), a second sub-child group (232.3.2.2) containing selected ones of said plurality of component objects containing information specific to said controllers and/or accelerator cards, a third sub-child group (232.3.2.3) which contains selected ones of said plurality of component objects containing information specific to said logical drive, a fourth sub-child group (232.3.2.5) which contains selected ones of said plurality of component objects containing information specific to said physical drive, and a fifth sub-child group (232.3.2.4) which contains selected ones of said plurality of component objects containing information specific to said spare drive, said file server (10) being further managed by monitoring, using said management application, said second software management agent (18), said controllers and/or accelerator cards, said logical drive, said physical drive and said spare drive using said plurality of component objects contained in said first, second, third, fourth and fifth sub-child groups. A management system according to claim 11 or claim 12, wherein said server manager further comprises a plurality of components, wherein said third subMIB (232.4) further comprises a first child group (232.4.1) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects which describe a revision level of said third software management agent (18) installed in said server manager, a second child group (232.4.2) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects which describe said components of said server manager, and a third child group (232.4.3) containing selected ones of said plurality of objects which describe traps generated by said server manager, said file server (10) being further managed by monitoring, using said management application, said revision level of said third software management agent (18), said components of said server manager and said traps generated by said server manager using said plurality of objects contained in said first, second and third child groups. A management system according to claim 14, wherein said server manager further comprises at least one asynchronous communication port and wherein said second child group (232.4.2) further comprises a first component child group (232.4.2.1) containing selected ones of said plurality of component objects which contain information specific to said server manager's software management agent (18), a second component child group (232.4.2) containing selected ones of said plurality of component objects which contain objects which describe the configuration of said system manager, a third component child group (232.4.2.3) containing selected ones of said plurality of component objects whose values represent objects innately monitored by said server manager and objects containing information describing said server manager, a fourth component child group (232.4.2.4) containing selected ones of said plurality of component objects which contain information related to said asynchronous communication port of said server manager, and a fifth component child group (232.4.2.5) containing selected ones of said plurality of component objects which contain information related to off-the-network alert capabilities of said server manager, said file server (10) being further managed by monitoring, using said management application, said third software management agent (18), said configuration, said server manager, said status of said asynchronous communication port and said off-the-network alert capabilities of said server manager using said plurality of component objects contained in said first, second, third, fourth and fifth component child groups.

Inventors: AUTOR JEFFREY S, DIDNER JONATHAN R, DYSART JOHN A, FARRAND SCOTT C, MAZINA DANIEL J, MURASKI PAUL J, STEWART GREGORY M, AUTOR, JEFFREY S., DIDNER, JONATHAN R., DYSART, JOHN A., FARRAND, SCOTT C., MAZINA, DANIEL J., MURASKI, PAUL J., STEWART, GREGORY M.
Applicants: COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP, COMPAQ COMPUTER CORPORATION
Application year: 1993
Main classification: H04L12
IPC codes: G06F13, H04L29, H04L12