Automatic prompt detection for universal device support
View Patent ↗Embodiments provide systems, methods, and computer program products for network management application to automatically determine a session prompt for a network device and perform error handling. After logging in to a network device, the network management application records the first session prompt response. The network management application sends a series of empty carriage returns and random characters and records the session prompt responses. The network management application compares the responses and determines whether the prompt is a static or a dynamic prompt based on the results. The network management application elicits error responses from the network device by sending additional random characters and records the results in an error handling dictionary. The error handling dictionary is used later when running user-provided commands, enabling a determination of whether a command executed successfully.
1. A method for automatically detecting a prompt with a network device, comprising:
recording, at a server, a first prompt response received from the network device in response to logging in to the network device;
sending a first command to the network device and recording a second prompt response received from the network device in response to the first command;
sending a second command to the network device and recording a third prompt response received from the network device in response to the second command;
comparing the first prompt response, the second prompt response, and the third prompt response to each other; and
determining the prompt to be a static prompt in response to the comparing resulting in no differences between the first, second, and third prompt responses and a dynamic prompt in response to the comparing resulting in a difference between the first, second, and third prompt responses.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a number of matching characters between the first prompt response, the second prompt response, and the third prompt response based on the comparing; and
deriving a regular expression based on the determined prompt and the determined number of matching characters.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the first command comprises a carriage return; and
the second command comprises a character.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
measuring a round trip time (RTT) for a timing command between the server and the network device; and
assigning a time-out period for responses from the network device as the RTT times a multiplier factor.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the timing command comprises a ping packet, the method further comprising:
setting the ping packet to a maximum allowable size to simulate a worst case scenario for a response from the network device.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sending a special character to the networking device to elicit an error response from the networking device, wherein the special character comprises a character predicted to have no known use for the networking device;
recording the error response from the networking device; and
generating a custom error dictionary based on the recorded error response.
7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
sending a user-specified command to the networking device;
receiving a specific response to the user-specified command from the networking device;
comparing the specific response to an entry in the custom error dictionary; and
determining success or failure of execution of the user-specified command based on a result of the comparing to the entry in the custom error dictionary.
8. A server for automatically detecting a prompt with a network device, comprising:
a transceiver configured to transmit and receive messages to and from the network device;
a prompt analysis module configured to:
record a first prompt response received from the network device in response to logging in to the network device;
send a first command to the network device and record a second prompt response received from the network device in response to the first command;
send a second command to the network device and record a third prompt response received from the network device in response to the second command;
compare the first prompt response, the second prompt response, and the third prompt response to each other; and
determine the prompt to be a static prompt in response to the comparison resulting in no differences between the first, second, and third prompt responses and a dynamic prompt in response to the comparison resulting in a difference between the first, second, and third prompt responses; and
a processor configured to execute the prompt analysis module.
9. The server of claim 8 , wherein:
the first command comprises a carriage return; and
the second command comprises a character.
10. The server of claim 8 , wherein the prompt analysis module is further configured to:
measure a round trip time (RTT) for a timing command between the server and the network device; and
assign a time-out period for responses from the network device as the RTT times a multiplier factor.
11. The server of claim 10 , wherein:
the timing command comprises a ping packet to measure the RTT; and
the ping packet is set to a maximum allowable size to simulate a worst case scenario for a response from the network device.
12. The server of claim 8 , further comprising:
an error analysis module configured to:
send a special character to the networking device to elicit an error response from the networking device, wherein the special character comprises a character predicted to have no known use for the networking device;
record the error response from the networking device; and
generate a custom error dictionary based on the recorded error response;
wherein the processor is further configured to execute the error analysis module.
13. The server of claim 12 , wherein the error-analysis module is further configured to:
send a user-specified command to the networking device;
receive a specific response to the user-specified command from the networking device;
compare the specific response to an entry in the custom error dictionary; and
determine success or failure of execution of the user-specified command based on a result of the comparison to the entry in the custom error dictionary.
14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having control logic recorded thereon that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform a method for detecting a prompt with a network device, the method comprising:
recording a first prompt response received from the network device in response to logging in to the network device;
sending a first command to the network device and recording a second prompt response received from the network device in response to the first command;
sending a second command to the network device and recording a third prompt response received from the network device in response to the second command;
comparing the first prompt response, the second prompt response, and the third prompt response to each other; and
determining the prompt to be a static prompt in response to the comparing resulting in no differences between the first, second, and third prompt responses and a dynamic prompt in response to the comparing resulting in a difference between the first, second, and third prompt responses.
15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , further comprising:
determining a number of matching characters between the first prompt response, the second prompt response, and the third prompt response based on the comparing; and
deriving a regular expression based on the determined prompt and the determined number of matching characters.
16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein:
the first command comprises a carriage return; and
the second command comprises a character.
17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , further comprising:
measuring a round trip time (RTT) for a timing command between the server and the network device; and
assigning a time-out period for responses from the network device as the RTT times a multiplier factor.
18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the timing command comprises a ping packet, the method further comprising:
setting the ping packet to a maximum size to simulate a worst case scenario for a response from the network device.
19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , further comprising:
sending a special character to the networking device to elicit an error response from the networking device, wherein the special character comprises a character predicted to have no known use for the networking device;
recording the error response from the networking device; and
generating a custom error dictionary based on the recorded error response.
20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19 , further comprising:
sending a user-specified command to the networking device;
receiving a specific response to the user-specified command from the networking device;
comparing the specific response to an entry in the custom error dictionary; and
determining success or failure of execution of the user-specified command based on a result of the comparing to the entry in the custom error dictionary.