Patent ID: 8527616

Claim:
A network management apparatus for managing a plurality of network relay apparatuses which relay data in a data communication network, comprising: a positional information management unit for storing positional information associated with port information of said network relay apparatuses in advance of operating the network relay apparatuses; a connection detection unit for receiving, from a second network relay apparatus which is managed by the network management apparatus, first port information indicating a first port of the second network relay apparatus, when a first network relay apparatus which is not currently managed by the network management apparatus connects to the first port of the second network relay apparatus to join the data communication network, the first port information not including positional information of the first network relay apparatus; a positional information determination unit for checking whether the first port information detected by said connection detection unit matches with the port information stored in the positional information management unit and, if they match with each other, determining that the first network relay apparatus is located at a place indicated by first positional information associated with the first port information; and a configuration definition information transmission unit for transmitting configuration definition information based on the first positional information determined by said positional information determination unit to said first network relay apparatus via said second network relay apparatus; wherein: said configuration definition information transmission unit sends the configuration definition information to said first network relay apparatus to effect said first network relay apparatus being managed by the network management apparatus; said connection detection unit receives, from the first network relay apparatus which becomes to be managed by the network management apparatus, second port information indicating a second port of the first network relay apparatus, when a third network relay apparatus connects to the second port of the first network relay apparatus, the second port information not including positional information of the third network relay apparatus; and at least one of the positional information management unit, the connection detection unit, the positional information determination unit, and the configuration definition information transmission unit are effected via a programmed CPU.