Patent ID: 7668106

Claim:
A network management system, comprising: a first edge router which connects at least one of network of each of one or more user groups in a virtual private network; an operation management server which is connected to the first edge router and manages the virtual private network (VPN) and the networks of each of one or more user groups; and a second edge router which connects to the first edge router through the virtual private network, the second edge router being included in each of the networks of the networks of the one or more user groups, wherein the first edge router includes: a collecting unit collects management information regarding constituent elements of the network of the one or more user groups from the second edge router, a unit stores the management information of the one or more user groups in the virtual private network, and a unit returns the management information to the operation management server when receiving, from the operation management server, a request for the management information corresponding to one of the user groups in the virtual private network, wherein the operation management server includes a requesting unit designates the virtual private network for the one or more user groups and requests the first edge router to return the management information regarding the constituent elements of the network of each user group connected to the designated virtual private network, and wherein the operation management server constitutes a private network, which is independent of the virtual private network constituted for each of the user groups with respect to the first edge router, a request for the management information of the virtual private network is made to the corresponding virtual address by referring to a table of the operation management server which stores therein the virtual address that is the private address on the private network and the virtual private network by corresponding it to the private address, and in the case where the first router receives the request sent to the virtual address, an address of a second router belonging to the virtual private network, which is corresponded to the virtual address, is obtained from a table of the first router, a request for the management information is made to the address of the second router, and the management information, which has been returned from the second router in response to the request, is transmitted to the operation management server having the virtual address as the transmission source.