Patent ID: 8045474

Claim:
A method comprising: accepting a communication from a user input device designating a layer-2 (L2) resource, wherein the L2 resource is associated with a plurality of modules, and wherein each of the plurality of modules is configured to perform a different monitoring operation; accepting a communication from the user input device to indicate one or more monitoring operations to be performed, wherein the one or more monitoring operations are performed on a per module basis, and wherein the communication indicates whether an L2 tracking feature in each of the modules is enabled or disabled; monitoring software operations on the L2 resource of a network device according to the one or more monitoring operations, wherein monitoring the software operations comprises software operations configured to detect an L2 feature that directs a change in a state of the L2 resource; monitoring a plurality of state changes of the L2 resource in the network device according to the one or more monitoring operations; and displaying at least a portion of the plurality of the monitored state changes to show an evolution of state changes to the L2 resource.