Patent ID: 7099947

Claim:
A method of controlling access of network management requests directed to one or more network devices that participate in a virtual private network, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: a network manager and a managed network device agreeing on a first mapping between securityNames and virtual private network identifiers; storing, at the network manager, a translation table containing the first mapping of securityName values to corresponding virtual private network identifiers; storing, at a managed network device, a view-based access control model table containing a second mapping of securityName values to corresponding MIB (Management Information Base) Views; receiving at the managed network device a request from the network manager, which is participating in a particular virtual private network, to carry out a management protocol operation that involves one or more managed objects associated with one or more network devices participating in the particular virtual private network; wherein the request contains a particular securityName value that is mapped to the particular virtual private network identifier in the first mapping; at the managed network device, extracting the particular securityName value from the request and identifying, based on the particular securityName value that is mapped in the second mapping, one or more corresponding particular MIB (Management Information Base) Views; at the managed network device, identifying, based on the one or more corresponding particular MIB (Management Information Base) Views and from a plurality of managed objects, a subset of managed objects that requests associated with the particular virtual private network are permitted to access; and in response to the request, providing to the network manager access to only the subset of managed objects from the plurality of managed objects.