Abstract:
An automation engine is configured to automatically run network data collection, analysis, and reporting tools. Each tool is designed or modified to enable the parameters required for operating the tool to be read from a settings file. The automation engine is configured to provide the appropriate settings file to each tool to perform a given set of tasks. Tasks can be performed on-demand, on predefined schedules, or upon detection of a triggering event.

Description:
[0001]     This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/497,093, filed Aug. 22, 2003. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     This invention relates to the field of networks and network analysis, and in particular to a system that facilitates automated network data collection, analysis, and reporting of network configuration and status information.  
         [0003]     The management of a communications network is a complex and time-consuming task, particularly as the size and capabilities of such networks continues to grow. Changes to the configuration of a network, or changes in traffic patterns across the network, often cause problems that are difficult to anticipate or diagnose. Often, such problems remain latent until their compound effect cause network disruptions or other anomalous behavior.  
         [0004]     Analysis and diagnostic tools are available to facilitate the identification and correction of network problems before they cause major disruptions, but often the cost and overhead associated with routinely collecting the data and performing the analysis outweigh the perceived benefits, particularly while the network appears to be operating efficiently. However, without ongoing data collection and analysis, the isolation of the cause(s) of a network disruption, when the disruption occurs, can be very time consuming, and the subsequent diagnoses may often introduce further network disruptions.  
         [0005]     An objective of this invention is to provide an automated network analysis system that requires little or no human interaction. A further objective of this invention is to provide an automated reporting system for alerting network managers of changes to the network configuration and/or performance. A further objective of this invention is to provide a network analysis and reporting system that is easy to configure and run on a regular basis.  
         [0006]     These objectives, and others, are achieved by providing an automation engine that is configured to automatically run network data collection, analysis, and reporting tools. Each tool is designed or modified to enable the parameters required for operating the tool to be read from a settings file. The automation engine is configured to provide the appropriate settings file to each tool to perform a given set of tasks. Tasks can be performed on-demand, on predefined schedules, or upon detection of a triggering event, such as a notification that a device configuration has changed, as reported by many vendor-supplied component management systems. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0007]     The invention is explained in further detail, and by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:  
         [0008]      FIG. 1  illustrates an example automated network collection, analysis, and reporting system in accordance with this invention.  
         [0009]      FIG. 2  illustrates an example control of an application/tool by an automation engine in accordance with this invention.  
         [0010]      FIG. 3  illustrates an example method of creating settings data for configuring an application/tool in accordance with this invention. 
     
    
       [0011]     Throughout the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate similar or corresponding features or functions. The drawings are included for illustrative purposes and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.  
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0012]      FIG. 1  illustrates an example network monitoring system  100  in accordance with this invention. The monitoring system  100  includes data collectors  110 , data analyzers  120 , a report server  130 , and an automation engine  150 .  
         [0013]     The data collectors  110  include applications, or tools, that facilitate the collection of data related to the configuration and operation of the network. Included in this collection, for example, is a tool that collects network configuration data and creates a model of the network. The VNE (Virtual Network Environment) Server product from OPNET Technologies, Inc., Bethesda, Md., for example, provides an on-line integrated view of a network. The VNE Server collects network data from a variety of sources and merges the information to create a unified network representation that can subsequently be used for network planning, engineering, and operations. Sources of network data include, for example, routers and switches from Cisco Systems, Nortel, and others, as well as a variety of network “discovery” tools and protocols that facilitate the creation of complete topology views.  
         [0014]     The data collectors  110  also include applications that facilitate the collection of performance data from the network. Conventional routers and switches, for example, typically include performance monitoring capabilities that can be queried from remote management systems, such as the aforementioned VNE Server.  
         [0015]     The data analyzers  120  include applications that provide, for example: flow analysis, failure analysis, security analysis, network differences, network validation, and other analysis and/or diagnostic tools.  
         [0016]     A network differences application, for example, compares the aforementioned network configuration data provided by the data collectors  110  at different times to identify any changes that have occurred. In accordance with this invention, the automation engine  150  is configured to allow a user to create a “task” that includes the collection of data by the data collectors  110  that determine the current network configuration, followed by the invocation of a network difference application  120  that compares the current network configuration with a prior network configuration. Also in accordance with this information, any differences that are determined may be reported to an appropriate party, via the report server  130 . The report server  130  can be configured, for example, to report all changes, or to report select changes, or to report any change that is coincident with another effect reported by another analyzer  120 , and so on.  
         [0017]     In a preferred embodiment of this invention, a network differences application includes a process that determines whether the current network configuration conforms to a set of defined design rules, using, for example, a rules-based process that reports any configuration or network element that does not conform to a given set of user-defined rules.  
         [0018]     The operations that need to be performed to accomplish each defined task is stored in a task database  170 , and the particular parameters/settings for each of the applications  110 - 130  to effect the task are stored in setting files  160 .  
         [0019]     The automation engine  150  is also configured to effect “administrative” tasks that facilitate the proper flow of information among the applications. To facilitate the comparison of data collected at different times, for example, the automation engine  150  can be configured to assure the preservation of prior data before the invocation of an application  110 ,  120  that may overwrite the prior data, or the prior analysis of the data. For example, the automation engine  150  may guarantee uniqueness of data or analysis files by incorporating a date and time substring with the aforementioned file names. Alternatively, the automation engine  150  may change the name of a prior created file to “old” at the start of the collection of new information or the analysis of new information, and compare any newly created file from the data collection tool  110  or the data analysis tool  120  with this “old” file.  
         [0020]     The automation engine  150  is also configured to effect “conditional” tasks, or conditional task sequences. For example, the automation engine  150  may be configured to invoke the data collection tool  110  that collects network configuration information, followed by the invocation of a network validation tool  120 , followed by the generation of a report by the report server  130 , if the network validation tool  120  identifies a configuration error.  
         [0021]     Similarly, the automation engine  150  may be configured to invoke a data collection tool  110 , and a network difference tool  120 , and then selectively invoke another data collection  110  or analysis  120  tool, based on whether a difference in the network configuration is determined, to assess and report any performance degradations or anomalies that appear to be correlated to the detected network change. These and other conditional invocations of applications/tools by the automation engine  150  will be evident to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of this disclosure.  
         [0022]     The automation engine  150  includes a user interface (not illustrated) that facilitates the definition and storage of individual tasks and sequences of tasks in the task database  170 . These stored tasks can be invoked from the scheduler  170  on-demand, or the automation engine  150  can be configured to execute select tasks or sequences of tasks at particular times or at particular time intervals. In a preferred embodiment of the automation engine  150 , the execution of a task or sequence of task is based on the occurrence of an event, and this event can be any combination of a user-induced event, a timed event, an anticipated event, an anomalous event, an alarm event, and so on.  
         [0023]     To facilitate the use of the automation engine  150 , the accessible applications/tools within the network management arsenal are preferably designed/modified to facilitate the selective invocation of each tool as the situation demands. Of particular note, the parameters/settings associated with each application/tool for inclusion within a given task are preferably stored for access by the automation tool  150  to facilitate the successful execution of each application within a given task, without human intervention.  
         [0024]     Conventional task scheduling processing employ “scripts”, which are copies of the interactions required at an application&#39;s graphic user interface (GUI) to effect the task. The interactions required at the application&#39;s GUI are typically recorded in a script file as the user interacts with the application to perform a given task, then played-back as an input to the GUI to repeat this same set of interactions for subsequent repetitions of the task. For simple applications, such a mimicking of user interactions is sufficient, but complicated applications, such as those typically used for network data collection  110  and network analysis  120 , a user&#39;s interaction with the GUI is rarely error-free, or straightforward, particularly if the application interacts with the GUI throughout the performance of a task. For example, a data analyzer  120  may ask for a destination file for storing its results only after it has analyzed sufficient data to produce these results, or a data collector  110  may ask for the identification of a target node from which to collect data only after searching the network to create an up-to-date network topology. As such, the capture of a set of inputs to a GUI that will be reliable for repeated tasks is often a difficult and time consuming process.  
         [0025]     Alternatively, many simple applications allow for “command-line parameters”, wherein the parameters required to run the application for a given task are provided to the application as part of the command that initiates execution of the application.  
         [0026]     Although the automation engine  150  may be configured to provide input-scripts or command-line parameters to each scheduled application  110 ,  120 ,  130 , in a preferred embodiment of this invention, the automation engine  150  provides a select setting file  160  to each scheduled application, as illustrated in  FIG. 2 .  
         [0027]      FIG. 2  illustrates an example control of an application/tool  210  by an automation engine  150  in accordance with this invention. In a preferred embodiment of this invention, each application/tool  210  is configured to perform a given task by either receiving input via a GUI, or receiving parameters/settings from a settings file  160 , depending upon the state of an input switch  215 .  
         [0028]     With the switch  215  in the indicated position in  FIG. 2 , the GUI  220  is used to interact with a user as the application  210  provides input to the processes  212  from the user to effect the desired task(s), and provides output to the user from the processes  212  as appropriate. As is common in the art, each application  210  and process  212  typically contains internal data structures within which the parameters required to perform a given task or set of tasks are stored. The GUI  220  provides a means for querying the user for the input that is used to create these parameters. In some cases, the user input is the stored parameter, in many cases, the GUI  220  and/or the process  212  pre-process the user input to create the appropriate stored parameters.  
         [0029]     When the switch  215  is in the opposite position than indicated in  FIG. 2 , each process  212  receives the parameters required to effect the desired task from the settings file  160 , and provides output to a log file  240 . Preferably, these parameters correspond to the parameters that are stored in the internal data structures, thereby avoiding, or reducing, the need to pre-process the input to create the parameters that are stored in these internal data structures.  
         [0030]      FIG. 3  illustrates an example method of creating settings data  160  for configuring an application/tool  210  in accordance with this invention. In a preferred embodiment, a user runs an application  210 , or prepares to run the application  210 , by interacting with the GUI  220 . Depending upon the structure of the application  210 , the user is provided the option of incrementally storing determined parameters from the application  210 , or storing all of the parameters from the application  210 , to the settings file  160 . Preferably, each major option-selecting portion of the application  210  includes the option of storing the parameters associated with each portion to the settings file  160 . Also preferably, the application  210  can be configured to read the parameters from the settings file  160  up to a select point in the application  210 , at which point the user is provided the option of interacting via the GUI to create new parameters, and thereby create variants of existing settings files  160 .  
         [0031]     Also in a preferred embodiment, the state of the switch  215  of  FIG. 2  is controllable by the user of the application, via, for example, an initial input via the GUI  220 , or via a command-line parameter when the application is initiated. In this manner, a user can verify the proper operation of the application  210  using these settings  160 , before scheduling the automation engine  150  to run this applicant  210 .  
         [0032]     Of particular note, the above described configuration of a network monitoring system in accordance with this invention allows for a partitioning of the responsibilities associated with managing a complex network. Technical personnel who are well versed in the particular aspects and characteristics of each application  110 ,  120 ,  130 , for example, are provided an architecture within which to define, test, and debug defined tasks  170 , and settings  160  for each application for each task to accomplish a given function, while network management personnel are provided the architecture to schedule and perform the tasks required to properly maintain the network, without being required to understand the idiosyncrasies of each tool or the interactions among tools.  
         [0033]     The foregoing merely illustrates the principles of the invention. It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise various arrangements which, although not explicitly described or shown herein, embody the principles of the invention and are thus within its spirit and scope. For example, although  FIG. 1  illustrates that the automation engine  150  effects some control over each of the data collectors  110 , data analyzers  120 , and report server  130  processes, some or all of a process&#39;s tasks may be accomplished independent of the automation engine  150 . In a typical environment, the automation engine  150  may only control the data collectors  110  and data analyzers  120 , and the report server  130  is operated in a stand-alone mode, using the data provided by the data analyzer  120 . These and other system configuration and optimization features will be evident to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of this disclosure, and are included within the scope of the following claims.  
         [0034]     In interpreting these claims, it should be understood that: 
        a) the word “comprising” does not exclude the presence of other elements or acts than those listed in a given claim;     b) the word “a” or “an” preceding an element does not exclude the presence of a plurality of such elements;     c) any reference signs in the claims do not limit their scope;     d) several “means” may be represented by the same item or hardware or software implemented structure or function;     e) each of the disclosed elements may be comprised of hardware portions (e.g., including discrete and integrated electronic circuitry), software portions (e.g., computer programming), and any combination thereof;     f) hardware portions may be comprised of one or both of analog and digital portions;     g) any of the disclosed devices or portions thereof may be combined together or separated into further portions unless specifically stated otherwise; and     h) no specific sequence of acts is intended to be required unless specifically indicated.