Patent ID: 8689106

Claim:
In a network including multiple network devices for providing service to one or more client computers in the network, each of the network devices having a display device associated with and in physical proximity to the network device, wherein the network is configured such that the one or more client computers access the network devices through a host computer in the network, wherein the client computers are adapted to identify each of the network devices to the host computer by a respective logical identifier for the network device, wherein the host computer is adapted to maintain a correspondence between the logical identifier and a physical address for each of the network devices, and wherein the network is configured such that the host computer accesses the network devices through one or more network appliances adapted to manage the network devices, a method comprising: receiving at a network appliance and from the host computer the logical identifier for a network device managed by the network appliance, providing from the network appliance to the network device the corresponding logical identifier for the network device; and effectuating the display of the provided corresponding logical identifier on the display device associated with the network device, such that the network device may be visually identified using its corresponding logical identifier by an observer in physical proximity to the network device.