Patent ID: 7649834

Claim:
A method of causing network traffic to be rerouted in a computer network comprising: applying a subnet mask to an interface address associated with a selected routing element in the computer network to generate a plurality of subnet addresses; determining an address of a neighboring routing element from the plurality of subnet addresses, the neighboring routing element being linked to the selected routing element; obtaining configuration information from the neighboring routing element using the address, the configuration information comprising an initial cost; determining a network topology from the configuration information, the network topology comprising a plurality of links; selecting one of the plurality of links, the initial cost associated with the selected link; storing the configuration information including the initial cost in a file in response to selecting one of the plurality of links, the file uniquely identifying an operator and including a unique session identification in which maintenance activity is to be performed by the operator; modifying the initial cost associated with the selected link with a modified cost, the modified cost being adapted to render the at least one selected link less desirable for routing therethrough, the network traffic being routed around the selected routing element in response to the modified cost, the modifying being performed by providing a preview of the effect that the modified cost will have on rerouting of the network traffic in the computer network prior to applying the modified cost, receiving authorization to associate the modified cost with the selected link, and applying the modified cost to the selected link in response to receiving the authorization; restoring, automatically, the computer network to its original initial state in response to completion of maintenance activities in the computer network by the operator by identifying the file corresponding to the operator and the session identification; and modifying the computer network with the configuration information stored therein.