Component detection and management using relationships
Correlation of component information provided by diverse detection and data collection methods is used to discover additional components and identify and record relationships between these and still other components. Each detection and data collection method can be individually useful to discover components, and to provide at least some information about one or more discovered components to identify at least one relationship between the discovered components. When the information and component discoveries of a first detection and data collection method are properly combined with those of a second detection and data collection method, there can be a synergistic effect that greatly improves the utility and efficiency of a relationship-based network management system by enabling automated discovery of additional components and identification of additional component relationships, by automatically merging diverse views of a single component into a coherent picture of that component, and by automated prediction of component state changes based on state changes in related components.
1. A network management system comprising:
at least one discovery device connected to a digital network, the at least one discovery device comprising a processor, a network communication device and storage coupled to the processor, the at least one discovery device configured to use a first discovery method and a second discovery method different from the first method to discover information for devices connected to the network and to store said discovered information in the storage; and
an associating processor operatively coupled to the discovered information stored by the at least one discovery device, the associating processor using a rule template to determine whether discovered information stored by the at least one discovery device based on the first and second discovery methods are for related network-connected devices, the associating processor recording an association between the first method discovery information and the second method discovery information.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one discovery device comprises first and second network-connected discovery processors, the first network-connected discovery processor being configured to perform the first discovery method, the second network-connected discovery processor being configured to perform the second discovery method.
3. The system of claim 1 wherein the associating processor and the at least one discovery device are provided by the same hardware.
4. The system of claim 1 wherein the associating processor and the at least one discovery device are provided on different hardware.
5. A network management machine comprising:
first and second discovery devices connected to a digital network, the first and second discovery devices each comprising a processor, a network communication device and storage coupled to the processor, the first and second discovery devices each configured to discover information for devices connected to the network and to store said discovered information in the storage; and
an associating processor operatively coupled to receive the discovered information stored by each of the first and second discovery devices, the associating processor using a rule template to determine whether discovered information stored by the first discovery device and discovered information stored by the second discovery device are for related network-connected devices, the associating processor recording an association between the discovered information stored by the first discovery device and the discovered information stored by the second discovery device.
6. The machine of claim 5 wherein the first discovery device discovers a first component using a first discovery method and discovers a second component using a second discovery method; and the associating processor determines a relationship between the first and second components.
7. The machine of claim 5 wherein the associating processor is further configured to merge the discovered information stored by the first discovery device and the discovered information stored by the second discovery device into a single unified view.
8. The machine of claim 7 wherein the merging associating processor changes data collection the first and second discovery devices use for collecting and/or storing the discovered information.
9. The machine of claim 5 wherein the first and second discovery devices each identify state changes in network-connected devices, and the associating processor adjusts the state of a discovered second component object to reflect the state change of a discovered first component object and the nature of the relationship between the first and second component objects.
10. The machine of claim 9 wherein the associating processor adjusts the state by suppressing alerts and/or notifications of the state of the second component object.
11. The machine of claim 9 wherein the associating processor adjusts the state by iteratively adjusting the state of other associated objects beyond the first and second objects on the basis of their relationships with either the first or second object.