Patent ID: 8489723

Claim:
A network device comprising: a first management engine comprising a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising instructions executable by the processor, the processor when executing the instructions configured to: control access to a managed object associated with the network device; permit access to the managed object based on an indication of a membership in two or more access groups, wherein membership is determined by mapping a combination of a security name and security model to at least two access group names, wherein the access groups define access privileges to the managed object; wherein the first management engine is compliant with a Role-Based Command Line Interface (CLI) Access protocol and a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), wherein the SNMP does not allow a single security name to be associated with more than one access group, and wherein the CLI access protocol allows association of more than one user roles with a single security name; create an association between a single security name and more than one access groups by: assigning more than one roles to the single security name, and aligning each of the more than one user roles to a corresponding access group, wherein the access group is similar in functionality as their corresponding user role, and assigning the single security name access groups aligning with the more than one roles assigned to the single security name; receive a request for access to the managed object, wherein the format of the request is compliant with the SNMP; and send a response to the request, wherein the response to the SNMP request for access is based on mapping in compliance with both the Role-Based Command Line Interface (CLI) Access protocol and an SNMP; wherein a requesting device is aware that a networked device is compliant with SNMP and wherein the requesting device is not aware that the networked device is compliant with Role-Based CLI Access protocol.