Patent ID: 7447766

Claim:
A method of efficiently storing information configured to be used for a plurality of communication protocols to extract status information related to a remotely monitored device among distinct devices communicatively coupled to a network, comprising: selecting a communication protocol among the plurality of communication protocols; accessing the remotely monitored device to obtain a vendor name and a model name of the remotely monitored device by using the selected communication protocol; determining whether information for extracting status information from the remotely monitored device using the selected communication protocol is stored in an internal storage table; accessing an external information storage unit to obtain the information for extracting status information from the remotely monitored device using the selected communication protocol if the determining step determines that the information for extracting status information from the remotely monitored device using the selected communication protocol is not stored in the internal storage table; and storing, in the internal storage table, the information for extracting status information from the remotely monitored device using the selected communication protocol obtained from the external information storage unit, wherein the accessing the remotely monitored device to obtain the vendor name and the model name comprises: determining that the selected communication protocol failed to obtain the vendor name of the remotely monitored device; accessing the remotely monitored device to obtain the vendor name of the remotely monitored device by using another communication protocol and the information for accessing the device; determining that the another communication protocol failed to obtain the vendor name of the remotely monitored device; accessing the remotely monitored device to obtain a model name of the remotely monitored device by using one of the plurality of communication protocols and the information for accessing device; determining that the one of the plurality of communication protocols failed to obtain the model name of the remotely monitored device; and accessing the remotely monitored device to obtain information that is common to all vendors and models from the remotely monitored device when the model name and vendor name of the remotely monitored device have not been obtained.