Patent ID: 8903973

Claim:
A method, including: in a computer network having a plurality of nodes, wherein each said node comprises a respective computing device and has a respective defined location in a linearly ordered sequence of said plurality of nodes, wherein the linearly ordered sequence includes a plurality of local segments, each local segment including a 1st said node followed by a sequence of 2nd said nodes in the local segment, wherein at least a portion of the linearly ordered sequence is separated into two or more local segments by one or more firewalls, and wherein the 1st said node and each 2nd said node in the local segment includes a respective communication link to a respective next node in the linearly ordered sequence: at the 1st said node of a respective local segment, injecting a query regarding a set of management information associated with the local segment, the query designating, by specifying a first shared node property, a first subset of nodes in the local segment to respond to the query, wherein the query is forwarded along the local segment through the respective communication links of the 1st said node and the sequence of 2nd said nodes following the 1st said node; wherein each node of the first subset of nodes having the first shared node property responds to the query by aggregating its respective local information to any answers already accumulated in the query; and wherein at least one of the sequence of 2nd nodes sends a report message containing aggregated management information collected from the first subset of nodes in response to the query.