Patent ID: 7853682

Claim:
An out-of-band network management apparatus for devices on a computer network employing data transmission interfaces for the devices to communicate substantive data on the network, the devices also having management systems to communicate management data associated with the devices, the management data being different from the substantive data, the apparatus comprising: a plurality of network nodes on the computer network manageable through a dedicated management interface other than through the data transmission interfaces wherein the plurality of network nodes use at least a plurality of different types of management interfaces that communicate a plurality of different types of the management data over the dedicated management interface and not over the data transmission interfaces; a management application executing on a computer system that receives the plurality of different types of the management data, converts the plurality of different types of management data into a common management data format and communicates that common management data format to a network management system; and a web server application executing on the computer system that generates a graphical user interface based on the common management data format and a web-browser that permits a user to access each of the devices through the same management application using the common management data format, wherein the management application monitors and accesses said devices remotely to restore network connectivity when a network node of the plurality of network nodes fails.