Automated discovery and procurement of management information bases (MIBs)
View Patent ↗A generic mechanism enabling the programmatic identification of MIBs needed for control of an SNMP agent for a network device is disclosed. The present invention provides for the automatic retrieval of the identified MIBs and their loading onto a network management station (NMS) without user intervention. Additionally, previously known MIBs are programmatically examined to determine whether they require updating. Any required updates may be performed automatically with the updated MIBs being loaded onto the NMS.
1. A non-transitory medium holding computer-executable instructions for acquiring and deploying Management Information Base (MIB) modules, the instructions when executed causing a least one computing device to:
transmit a query from a Network Management Station (NMS) to a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent associated with a network device to obtain an enterprise number identifying a vendor of the network device;
receive at the NMS, in response to the query, the enterprise number identifying the vendor of the network device;
verify by using the enterprise number in a communication between the NMS and a MIB module repository that the MIB module repository holds at least one MIB module associated with the vendor of the network device, the MIB module repository located externally to the NMS, the agent and the network device;
identify at the NMS, using the received enterprise number, whether a local MIB database in the NMS holds any MIB modules associated with the vendor of the network device;
transmit a request from the NMS to the MIB module repository based on the identifying, the request requesting all of the MIB modules for the identified vendor that are not present in the local MIB database that are present in the MIB module repository;
receive at the NMS the MIB modules for the identified vendor requested in the request; and
install in the local MIB database the received MIB modules for the identified vendor.
2. The medium of claim 1 wherein the request also requests any newer versions of a MIB module that is present in the local MIB database and that is also present in the MIB module repository.
3. The medium of claim 1 wherein the instructions when executed further cause the at least one computing device to:
request verification of support by the SNMP agent for each of the MIB modules that were installed in the local MIB database following the request; and
receive verification of support from the SNMP Agent for at least one of the installed MIB modules.
4. The medium of claim 1 wherein the instructions when executed further cause the at least one computing device to:
generate a MIB module manifest identifying at least one MIB module available for a particular vendor, the manifest generated dynamically at run-time by querying the MIB module repository.
5. The medium of claim 1 wherein the instructions when executed further cause the at least one computing device to:
load the received MIB modules into a MIB file system on the NMS.
6. The medium of claim 5 wherein the MIB module being loaded is one of a pre-compiled MIB module and a non-compiled MIB module.
7. The medium of claim 5 wherein the MIB module being loaded is one of a compressed MIB module and an uncompressed MIB module.
8. A computer-implemented method for acquiring and deploying Management Information Base (MIB) modules, comprising:
transmitting a query from a Network Management Station (NMS) to a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent associated with a network device to obtain an enterprise number identifying a vendor of the network device;
receiving at the NMS, in response to the query, the enterprise number identifying the vendor of the network device;
verifying by using the enterprise number in a communication between the NMS and a MIB module repository that the MIB module repository holds at least one MIB module associated with the vendor of the network device, the MIB module repository located externally to the NMS, the agent and the network device;
identifying at the NMS, using the received enterprise number, whether a local MIB database in the NMS holds any MIB modules associated with the vendor of the network device;
transmitting a request from the NMS to the MIB module repository based on the identifying, the request requesting all of the MIB modules for the identified vendor that are not present in the local MIB database that are present in the MIB module repository;
receiving at the NMS the MIB modules for the identified vendor requested in the request; and
installing in the local MIB database the received MIB modules for the identified vendor.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein the request also requests any newer versions of a MIB module that is present in the local MIB database and that is also present in the MIB module repository.
10. The method of claim 8 further comprising:
requesting verification of support by the SNMP agent for each of the MIB modules that were installed in the local MIB database following the request; and
receiving verification of support from the SNMP Agent for at least one of the installed MIB modules.
11. A non-transitory medium holding computer-executable instructions for acquiring and deploying Management Information Base (MIB) modules, the instructions when executed causing a least one computing device to:
transmit a query from a Network Management Station (NMS) to a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent associated with a network device to obtain an enterprise number identifying a vendor of the network device;
receive at the NMS, in response to the query, the enterprise number identifying the vendor of the network device;
verify by using the enterprise number in a communication between the NMS and a MIB module repository that the MIB module repository holds at least one MIB module associated with the vendor of the network device, the MIB module repository located externally to the NMS, the agent and the network device;
identify at the NMS, using the received enterprise number, whether a local MIB database in the NMS holds any MIB modules associated with the vendor of the network device;
transmit a request from the NMS to the MIB module repository based on the identifying, the request requesting any newer versions of a MIB module that is present in the local MIB database and that is also present in the MIB module repository;
receive at the NMS the MIB modules for the identified vendor requested in the request; and
install in the local MIB database the received MIB modules for the identified vendor.
12. The medium of claim 11 wherein the request also requests all of the MIB modules for the identified vendor that are not present in the local MIB database that are present in the MIB module repository.
13. The medium of claim 11 wherein the instructions when executed further cause the at least one computing device to:
request verification of support by the SNMP agent for each of the MIB modules that were installed in the local MIB database following the request; and
receive verification of support from the SNMP Agent for at least one of the installed MIB modules.
14. The medium of claim 11 wherein the instructions when executed further cause the at least one computing device to:
generate a MIB module manifest identifying at least one MIB module available for a particular vendor, the manifest generated dynamically at run-time by querying the MIB module repository.
15. A computing device apparatus for acquiring and deploying Management Information Base (MIB) modules, comprising:
a network interface; and
a Network Management Station (NMS) executing on the computing device, the NMS configured to:
transmit a query to a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent associated with a network device to obtain an enterprise number identifying a vendor of the network device;
receive at the NMS, in response to the query, the enterprise number identifying the vendor of the network device;
verify by using the enterprise number in a communication between the NMS and a MIB module repository that the MIB module repository holds at least one MIB module associated with the vendor of the network device, the MIB module repository located externally to the NMS, the agent and the network device;
identify at the NMS, using the received enterprise number, whether a local MIB database in the NMS holds any MIB modules associated with the vendor of the network device;
transmit a request from the NMS to the MIB module repository based on the identifying, the request requesting all of the MIB modules for the identified vendor that are not present in the local MIB database that are present in the MIB module repository;
receive at the NMS the MIB modules for the identified vendor requested in the request; and
install in the local MIB database the received MIB modules for the identified vendor.
16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the request also requests any newer versions of a MIB module that is present in the local MIB database and that is also present in the MIB module repository.
17. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the NMS is further configured to:
request verification of support by the SNMP agent for each of the MIB modules that were installed in the local MIB database following the request; and
receive verification of support from the SNMP Agent for at least one of the installed MIB modules.
18. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the NMS is further configured to:
generate a MIB module manifest identifying at least one MIB module available for a particular vendor, the manifest generated dynamically at run-time by querying the MIB module repository.
19. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the NMS is further configured to:
load the received MIB modules into a MIB file system on the NMS.
20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the MIB module being loaded is one of a pre-compiled MIB module, a non-compiled MIB module, a compressed MIB module and an uncompressed MIB module.