Patent ID: 6915309

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for automatically generating network site and site link information from a router configuration file for use in a directory service comprising: reading preprocessing information, the preprocessing information including override information for nullifying information associated with one or more sites or one or more site links from one or more router configuration files; and reading router interface information from a router configuration file associated with each of one or more routers, wherein one or more site references is generated by identifying a sub-network on a Local Area Network (LAN) interface and one or more site link references is generated by identifying a Wide Area Network (WAN) interface and wherein the override information is applied to the site and site link references wherein the step of reading preprocessing information comprises; reading a list of one or more site names from a data storage associated with a network management system; reading from the data storage a list of one or more preprocessing site links and associated site link costs; comparing one or more site names parsed from the one or more preprocessing site links to the list of one or more site names from the data storage and discarding one or more preprocessing site links upon failure to match; reading from the data storage a list of one or more preprocessing address blocks and at least one from a set consisting of a preprocessing site name associated with the one or more preprocessing address blocks or a command to ignore the one or more preprocessing address blocks; comparing the preprocessing site name associated with the one or more preprocessing address blocks to the list of one or more site names from the data storage and discarding one or more preprocessing address blocks upon a failure to match; reading a list of one or more domain controllers from the data storage and associating the one or more domain controllers to an Internet Protocol address and to a site name obtained from a network management system; determining a domain associated with the one or more domain controllers; comparing the Internet Protocol address for each of the listed domain controllers to the list of one or more preprocessing address blocks; whereupon the step of reading preprocessing information aborts if the Internet Protocol address is within one or more preprocessing address blocks and the preprocessing site name associated with the one or more preprocessing address blocks is not the same as the site name obtained from the network management system that is associated with the one or more domain controllers; and whereupon the step of reading preprocessing information continues excluding the one or more domain controllers from further processing if the Internet Protocol address is within one or more preprocessing address blocks associated with the command to ignore the one or more preprocessing address blocks.