Patent ID: 7697545

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for automatically discovering component relationships in a network, the method comprising: receiving, at a computer system, an origination IP address of an original component; determining, at the computer system, an original management address associated with the origination IP address of the original component; storing, at the computer system, the original management address; retrieving, at the computer system, a TCP connection table associated with the original component, the TCP connection table includes entries, each entry identifies: (a) a TCP connection between the original component and another component, and (b) a source IP address; for each entry of at least selected entries of the TCP connection table, at the computer system: comparing the source IP address to the origination IP address; if the source IP address and the origination IP address are the same, discarding the entry; and if the source IP address and the origination IP address are not the same, storing the entry in a global connection table; and for each entry in the global connection table, at the computer system: determining an associated management address; comparing the associated management address to the original management address; if the associated management address and the original management address are the same, discarding the entry of the global connection table; and if the associated management address and the original management address are not the same, storing the entry of the global connection table.