Patent ID: 8369227

Claim:
A management system for managing a plurality of management target information processing apparatuses including a plurality of network apparatuses and an information processing apparatus, comprising: a network interface receiving management information from the network apparatuses and the information processing apparatus; a processor determining the status of the information processing apparatus based on the management information; a memory storing the status of the information processing apparatus; and a display device displaying the status of the information processing apparatus, wherein the network apparatuses include one or more switch devices, each of which transfers packets received by switch ports, to another network apparatus or the information processing apparatus, without changing destination MAC addresses of the packets, wherein the processor calculates a first certainty factor concerning the certainty about a first route network apparatus contained in the one or more route network apparatuses being a cause of unreachability, based on processing results of: (1) identifying one or more route network apparatuses on a communication route between the network interface and the first route network apparatus, based on (A) information acquired from some switch device, which includes MAC addresses of packets transferred by the some switch device with relations to the switch ports, (B) a MAC address of the network interface, and (C) a MAC address of the information processing apparatus; and (2) determining one or more reachabilities of the one or more route network apparatuses, by communicating to the one or more route network apparatuses from the network interface, and wherein the display device displays first information showing that communication from the network interface to the information processing apparatus is unreachable due to the first route network apparatus, and showing the first certainty factor as the certainty that the first route network apparatus is the cause of unreachability, wherein the first certainty factor is calculated higher, if the first route network apparatus is unreachable, and wherein the first certainty factor is calculated higher, if a certain network apparatus on a communication route between the network interface and the first route network apparatus is reachable.