CN101170451A - A device management method and a device agent system - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a facility management method. In the method, a unified agent converts a received simple network management protocol SNMP request to a simple extended protocol SXP request, and then, the SXP request information is sent to an equipment by calling the interface which is corresponding to the SXP request information, thus, realizing the shielding of the SNMP information for the equipment, so the development of the equipment is more simple; furthermore, the unified agent can act as the agent of various equipments and improve the compatibility of the unified agent. In addition, the invention also provides an equipment agent system which is corresponding to the method, and the usage of the system can realize the detail of shielding SNMP information of the managed equipment.

Description

A device management method and a device agent system

technical field

The invention relates to the field of computers, in particular to an equipment management method and an equipment agent system.

Background technique

TCP/IP-based network management consists of two parts: Network Management System (NMS) and managed devices. The management process runs on the network management system, while the agent process is a process residing in the managed device. The communication protocol between the management process and the agent process is called Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). SNMP is an industrial standard that is widely accepted and put into use. In network management using this protocol, network administrators manage The system can retrieve the information of any node, and then find the faulty node according to the retrieved information, and complete fault diagnosis, capacity planning and report generation.

The existing SNMP defines 5 types of messages when the management process and the agent process interact:

1. Get request operation: The management process extracts one or more parameter values from the agent process.

2. Set request operation: the management process sets one or more parameter values of the agent process.

3. GetNext request operation: the management process extracts the next parameter value following the current parameter value from the proxy process.

4. Get/Set response operation: one or more parameter values returned by the agent process to the management process, or the response message about the Set request operation returned by the agent process to the management process. This operation is issued by the agent process. It is the response operation of previous operation 1 or 2.

5. Trap operation: A message sent by the agent process to notify the management process that something has happened.

In a simple network management method provided by prior art 1, an NMS needs to manage multiple devices, and each managed device includes an agent process, and the management information base (Management Information Database) of the device itself is stored in the agent process. Base, MIB), that is, each managed device implements the analysis of SNMP messages and responds accordingly. Therefore, the complexity of NMS management work is high. In addition, since the MIB functions implemented in each agent process are fixed, when the MIB supported by the agent process needs to be expanded, the update of the MIB leads to the update of the agent process. It can be seen that the existing technology cannot support MIB expansion without changing the original agent, that is, dynamic expansion cannot be realized. However, agents on many distributed devices or complex devices composed of many independent modules have the requirement of dynamically expanding MIB. If a separate agent process is developed for each managed device (expanding the MIB of each managed device), the development work Duplicate, inefficient.

In order to solve the defects of the prior art 1, the prior art 2 provides a new management solution, wherein the AgentX protocol is used. The AgentX protocol defines a standard architecture of an extensible SNMP agent, decomposes the two functions of SNMP protocol processing and MIB access, and divides the network agent into two parts: the main agent and the sub-agent structurally: 1) a main agent : responsible for processing received SNMP protocol messages, and information exchange with NMS, but generally does not have the right to directly access the MIB of the equipment it manages; 2) Several sub-agents: each sub-agent is responsible for accessing the local MIB. The main agent process and the sub-agent process communicate through the agent process X protocol.

As shown in Figure 1, in the solution provided by the second prior art, some managed devices can act as both the main agent and the sub-agent: these devices can accept the request commands of the NMS, and some of these request commands are related to the local The other part is related to the data of other devices "connected" to these devices: for the request commands related to the local data of the devices, these devices act as sub-agents to directly answer the SNMP messages sent by the NMS, and for the requests related to the "connected" to these devices The other devices of the device request commands related to the data, and these devices request data from the devices they manage as the main agent, and then send the response message to the NMS to which they belong.

It can be seen from the above that, for the network management system, the AgentX protocol is transparent. The AgentX structure realizes the agent's flexible and dynamic expansion function through the registration of sub-agents to the main agent. However, since the main agent simply uses the AgentX protocol to send SNMP messages to the devices it manages, each sub-agent must also care about the details of the SNMP protocol, and it is difficult to develop sub-agents. In addition, in the solution provided by prior art 2, SNMP messages must be converted into agent process X messages and sent to each sub-agent, so the interaction between the main agent and the sub-agents is frequent and inefficient.

To sum up, the prior art cannot expand the management range of SNMP, and the device does not need to care about the implementation details of SNMP, and the management efficiency of each device by the network management system is low.

Contents of the invention

The present invention provides a device management method and a device agent system, which are used to solve the problem in the prior art that when expanding the management range of SNMP, the device must care about the implementation details of SNMP and the management efficiency of each device by the network management system is low The problem.

A device management method provided by an embodiment of the present invention includes:

The unified agent UA receives and parses the simple network management protocol SNMP request message sent by the network management system NMS;

The UA determines the device corresponding to the SNMP request message;

The UA converts the SNMP request message into a Simple Extended Protocol SXP request message;

The UA sends the SXP request message to the device;

The UA obtains the SXP response message returned by the device;

The UA converts the received SXP response message into an SNMP response message, and sends it to the NMS.

The embodiment of the present invention also provides a device agent system, including:

The simple network management protocol SNMP message processing module is used to receive and analyze the simple network management protocol SNMP request message sent by the network management system NMS, and determine the device corresponding to the SNMP request message; and is used to send the SNMP response message generated by the protocol conversion module to the network management system;

A protocol conversion module is used to convert the SNMP request message provided by the SNMP message processing module into a simple extension protocol SXP request message; it is also used to convert the SXP response message returned by the interface module into an SNMP response message;

An interface module, configured to send the SXP request message generated by the protocol conversion module to the device, and send the SXP response message returned by the device to the protocol conversion module.

In the solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the UA converts the SNMP message provided by the network management system side into an SXP message through an internal protocol. Compared with the existing AgentX protocol implementation mode, the unified agent shields the details of the SNMP message for the device, so that The development of equipment is simpler, and UA can act as an agent for various types of equipment, which improves the compatibility of unified agent.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network proxy structure provided by prior art 2;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a method for registering a certain device to an NMS provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a management method for acquiring parameters from registered devices provided in Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a management method for setting parameters of registered devices provided by Embodiment 2 of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is one of the schematic structural diagrams of a device agent system provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is the second structural diagram of a device agent system provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

The embodiment of the present invention provides a device proxy method supporting the Simple Network Management Protocol SNMP, in which method, when the Uniform Agent (UA) processes the SNMP request message, it is converted into a Simple Extended Protocol (Simple eXtended Protocol, SXP ) request message to the device, so that the device does not need to care about the details of the SNMP request message. Wherein, the unified agent is similar to the master agent in the second prior art, and is used to accept network management from the network management system and to manage at least one device.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Initially, the UA can obtain the MIB information of all devices connected to it, and then the devices can register with the network management system NMS through the UA to participate in the network management process. Figure 2 shows a flow chart of a method for registering a certain device to the NMS, which specifically includes the following steps:

S21: The UA receives the SXP registration message of the device.

Wherein, the device sends a registration message to the UA through the registration interface.

S22: The UA searches for and stores the MIB information of the device.

Wherein, the UA loads the common MIB information of the device and other devices into the common MIB table of the device for storage; in addition, the UA sets a specific identifier for the specific MIB file of the device and stores it. When storing, the specific MIB file of the device is described in Extensible Markup Language (XML), and different specific identifiers are set for the specific MIB files of different devices. For example, the specific MIB file of a certain device can be loaded into a UA In the MIB file identified by "Context", that is, for a certain device named "Name", the identifier of the specific MIB file corresponding to the device stored on the UA end may be "ContextName".

S23: The UA converts the SXP registration message into an SNMP registration message and sends it to the NMS to which it belongs.

The method for managing devices registered on the NMS will be described in detail below with specific embodiments.

Example 1

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a management method for obtaining parameters from registered devices provided in Embodiment 1, which specifically includes the following steps:

S31: The UA receives and parses the SNMP parameter acquisition request message sent by the NMS.

Wherein, the SNMP get parameter request message (SNMP Get request message) includes a specific identifier specified by the NMS, and the specific identifier corresponds to a specific MIB file of a certain device stored in the UA.

S32: The UA determines the device corresponding to the SNMP parameter acquisition request message.

In this step, UA matches the MIB file whose specific identifier is consistent with the specific identifier contained in the SNMP get/set parameter request message among several stored specific MIB files, and uses the device corresponding to the matched MIB file as the device.

S33: The UA converts the SNMP parameter acquisition request message into an SXP parameter acquisition request message.

In this step, the mapping relationship between SNMP messages and SXP messages is pre-defined in UA, where the SNMP Get request message can be converted into an SXP-Get message, which is used to request to extract one or more parameter value. For example, the SXP-Get message is: ContextName, SquenceID, [ObjIdentifys].

Wherein, the SXP-Get message carries the device parameter type identification requested in the SNMP Get request message.

S34: The UA sends the SXP parameter acquisition request message to the determined device by calling the parameter acquisition interface.

Among them, the SXP-Get message corresponds to the parameter acquisition interface. For example, if the parameter acquisition interface name is "OnGet", the parameters of the OnGet interface are: ContextName, SquenceID, [ObjIdentify, ObjValue, ErrCode], and the UA obtains the device information by calling the OnGet interface. one or more parameters.

S35: The device returns an SXP parameter acquisition response message to the UA by calling the parameter acquisition response interface.

Similar to the SNMP response message, if the SXP request message sent in step S34 is an SXP-Get message, the device returns an SXP-Get Response message to the UA through the parameter response interface.

The parameter acquisition response interface corresponds to the parameter acquisition interface of the device. After the UA calls the parameter acquisition interface of the device, the device sends the data snapshot of all the data of the device to the UA by calling the parameter acquisition response interface. For example: the parameter acquisition response interface can be "ReplyGet", and the parameters of ReplyGet are: ContextName, SquenceID, [ObjIdentifys, ObjValues, ErrCode].

S36: The UA stores the data snapshot of the device carried in the SXP acquisition parameter response message.

S37: The UA converts the received SXP parameter acquisition response message into an SNMP parameter acquisition response message, assembles it and returns it to the network management system.

In this step, UA extracts the parameters corresponding to the device parameter type identifier requested in the SNMP Getrequest message at the beginning from the data snapshot of the device stored in S36, and according to the predefined mapping relationship between SNMP messages and SXP messages, returns the The SXP-Get Response message (SXP Get Parameter Response Message) is converted into an SNMP Get response message, which carries one or more parameter values extracted by the UA from the data snapshot. For example, the content of the message is: ContextName, SquenceID, [ObjIdentifys, ObjValues, ErrCode]. In addition, assemble the generated SNMP Getresponse message into a message in the format specified by SNMP and send it to the NMS.

In the method shown in Figure 3, since the device sends the data snapshot of all its own data to the UA in step S35, after the UA receives the SNMP GetNext request message sent by the NMS, it does not need to convert the message into an SXP- The GetNext message does not need to call the corresponding interface to obtain the parameters of the device, but only needs to obtain the data of the device to be obtained in the data snapshot saved in step S36, and then generate an SNMP GetNextResponse message for the obtained data and return it to the NMS. . It can be seen that this method greatly reduces the interaction between the UA and the device, and compared with the prior art, the device management efficiency is higher.

Example 2

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a management method for setting parameters of registered devices provided by an embodiment of the present invention, which specifically includes the following steps:

S41: The UA receives and parses the SNMP parameter setting request message sent by the NMS.

S42: The UA determines the device corresponding to the SNMP setting parameter request message.

S43: The UA converts the SNMP parameter setting request message into an SXP parameter setting request message.

Similar to Embodiment 1, in this step, the UA converts the SNMP Set request message into an SXP-Set message according to the predefined mapping relationship between the SNMP message and the SXP message, and the message is used to request setting one or more parameters of the device value. For example, the SXP-Set message is: ContextName, SquenceID, [OperationType, ObjIdentifys, ObjValues].

Wherein, the SXP-Set message carries the device parameter value requested to be set in the SNMP Set request message.

S44: The UA sends an SXP parameter setting request message to the determined device by calling the parameter setting interface.

Among them, the SXP-Set message corresponds to the setting parameter interface, for example: if the setting parameter interface name is "OnGet", and the OnSet interface parameters are: ContextName, SquenceID, [OperationType, ObjIdentifys, ObjValues], then the UA calls the OnSet interface to set One or more parameters of the device.

S45: The device returns an SXP parameter setting response message to the UA by calling the parameter setting response interface.

Similar to Embodiment 1, if the SXP request message sent in step S44 is an SXP-Set message, the device returns an SXP-Set Response message to the UA through the parameter setting response interface.

Wherein, the parameter setting response interface corresponds to the parameter setting interface of the device. When the UA calls the parameter setting interface of the device, the device sets the specified parameter, and sends the execution result of the operation to the UA by calling the parameter setting response interface. For example, the setting parameter response interface can be ""ReplySet", and the parameters of ReplySet are: ContextName, SquenceID, [OperationType, ObjIdentifys, ObjValues, ErrCode].

S46: The UA converts the received SXP setting parameter response message into an SNMP setting parameter response message, assembles it and returns it to the network management system.

In this step, the UA converts the returned SXP-Set Response message (SXP setting parameter response message) into an SNMP Setresponse message according to the predefined mapping relationship between SNMP messages and SXP messages. For example, the content of the message is: ContextName, SquenceID, [OperationType, ObjIdentifys, ObjValues, ErrCode].

Similarly, according to the above method provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the transmission process of the Trap message actively reported by the device to the UA is as follows:

1. The device sends an SXP-Trap message to the UA by calling the active reporting interface.

For example, the device reports certain information to the SDK by calling the "Alarm" interface. The parameters of the Alarm interface are: ContextName, [Trap Contents].

2. The UA converts the SXP-Trap message into an SNMP-Trap message, assembles it and returns it to the NMS.

In the above method provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the UA converts the SNMP message sent to the device into an SXP message, and calls the device through the interface to shield the details of the SNMP message from the device, thereby reducing the difficulty of receiving management for the device; The compatibility of devices is improved, and a large number of different types of devices can be represented, which reduces the repeated development of multiple devices in the process of device management; in addition, because UA stores the data snapshot of devices in the process of processing SNMP Get request messages, Therefore, when the UA receives the SNMP GetNext request message sent by the NMS, it can directly obtain the parameters to be obtained from the data snapshot of the device stored in itself and return it to the NMS, which reduces the interaction between the UA and the device side and significantly improves device management. s efficiency.

Corresponding to the device management method provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the embodiment of the present invention also provides a device agent system, as shown in FIG. 5 , the system includes: SNMP message processing module 51 , protocol conversion module 52 and interface module 53 . Among them, the functions of each module are as follows:

The SNMP message processing module 51 is used to receive and parse the Simple Network Management Protocol SNMP request message sent by the NMS, and determine the corresponding equipment of the SNMP request message; in addition, this module is also used to send the SNMP response message generated by the protocol conversion module 52 to NMS.

The protocol conversion module 52 is used to convert the SNMP request message parsed by the SNMP message processing module 51 into an SXP request message; in addition, this module is also used to convert the SXP response message returned by the interface module 53 into an SNMP response message.

The interface module 53 is used to send the SXP request message generated by the protocol conversion module 52 to the device; in addition, the interface module 53 is also used to send the SXP response message returned by the device to the protocol conversion module 52 .

As shown in Figure 6, the above-mentioned device proxy system may also include: a storage processing module 61 and a MIB information loading module 62; wherein:

The interface module 53 is further configured to provide a registration interface for the device, so that the device sends an SXP registration message to the storage processing module 61 by calling the registration interface.

The storage processing module 61 is configured to pre-store the MIB information of all devices, and find out the MIB information of the devices according to the received SXP registration message and send it to the MIB information loading module 62 .

The MIB information loading module 62 is also used to load the MIB information shared with other equipment in the received equipment MIB information into the preset equipment public MIB table for storage, and set a specific identification for the specific MIB file of the equipment storage.

The protocol conversion module 52 is further configured to convert the SXP registration message provided by the interface module 53 into an SNMP registration message, and send it to the SNMP message processing module 51 .

The SNMP message processing module 51 is also used to assemble the received SNMP registration message and send it to the NMS. In addition, it is also used to match the specific identification and the SNMP request message in several specific MIB files stored in the MIB information loading module 62. MIB files with the same specific identification contained in , and use the device corresponding to the matched MIB file as the device corresponding to the SNMP request message.

In addition, when the SNMP message sent by the NMS to the device agent system shown in FIG. 6 is an SNMP Getrequest message, the interface module 53 sends the SXP-GetResponse message carrying the data snapshot of the device returned by the device to the storage processing module 61.

The storage processing module 61 extracts and stores the data snapshot of the device carried in the SXP acquisition parameter response message.

When the SNMP message processing module 51 receives and parses out the SNMP GetNextrequest request message that the NMS sends, determine the equipment corresponding to the SNMP GetNext request message, and notify the protocol conversion module 52 to obtain the parameters of the equipment corresponding to the SNMP GetNext request message.

Protocol conversion module 52 is also used for according to the notification of SNMP message processing module, obtains the parameter that this SNMP GetNext request request message requests to obtain from the data snapshot of the equipment stored in storage processing module 61, and generates SNMP GetNextResponse message.

The SNMP message processing module 51 is also used to assemble the SNMP GetNextResponse message and send it to the NMS.

In the device proxy system provided above, the interface module 53 can be set on the device.

The above-mentioned device agent system provided by the embodiment of the present invention can also shield the details of SNMP messages for the device, so that the development of the device is simpler, and the device agent system can act as an agent for various types of devices.

Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, if these modifications and variations of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalent technologies, the present invention also intends to include these modifications and variations.

Claims (11)

1. a device management method is characterized in that, comprising:

Unified agent UA receives and resolves the Simple Network Management Protocol SNMP request message that network management system NMS sends;

Described UA determines described SNMP request message corresponding equipment;

Described UA converts described SNMP request message to Simple Extensible Protocol SXP request message;

Described UA sends to described equipment with described SXP request message;

Described UA obtains the SXP response message that described equipment returns;

The described SXP response message that described UA will receive converts SNMP response message to, and sends to described NMS.

2. the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, described UA sends to described equipment with described SXP request message, specifically comprises: described UA sends to described equipment by calling the interface corresponding to described SXP request message with described SXP request message.

3. method as claimed in claim 1 or 2 is characterized in that, before described unified agent UA receives and resolves the Simple Network Management Protocol snmp message of network management system NMS transmission, also can comprise:

The SXP registration message of described UA receiving equipment;

Described UA searches and stores the management information bank mib information of described equipment;

Described UA is converted to the SNMP registration message with described SXP registration message and sends to NMS under it.

4. method as claimed in claim 3, it is characterized in that, the SNMP request message that receives and parse as described UA is that SNMP is when getting parms request message, described UA obtains the SXP response message that described equipment returns, specifically comprise: described UA is by the response interface that gets parms of described equipment calls, the SXP that obtains the data snapshot of the carrying described equipment response message that gets parms;

The described SXP response message that described UA will receive converts SNMP response message to, specifically comprises: the described SXP that described UA will the receive response message that gets parms converts the SNMP response message that gets parms to;

Described UA obtains SXP that described equipment returns and gets parms after the response message, the described SXP that described UA will the receive response message that gets parms converts SNMP to and gets parms before the response message, also comprises: described UA stores the get parms data snapshot of the equipment that carries in the response message of described SXP.

5. method as claimed in claim 4 is characterized in that, described SNMP is got parms after response message sends to described NMS at described UA, also can comprise:

The SNMP that described UA received and resolved described NMS transmission obtains next parameter request message;

Described UA determines that described SNMP obtains next parameter request message corresponding equipment;

Described UA obtains the parameter that described SNMP obtains acquisition request in the next parameter request message from the data snapshot of the described equipment of storage;

Described UA is generated as SNMP with the parameter of obtaining and obtains next parameter response message, and sends to described NMS.

6. method as claimed in claim 3, it is characterized in that, described UA searches and store the management information bank mib information of described unregistered equipment, specifically comprises: the public mib information of the described unregistered equipment that described UA will find and other equipment is loaded into storage in the public MIB table of the equipment that sets in advance; The specific mib file of the described unregistered equipment that described UA will find is set a specific identifier and storage.

7. method as claimed in claim 6 is characterized in that, comprises described specific identifier in the described SNMP request message;

Described UA determines SNMP request message corresponding equipment, specifically comprise: described UA matches the consistent mib file of specific identifier that comprises in specific identifier and the described SNMP request message in the specific mib file of having stored, and with the mib file corresponding equipment that matches as described equipment.

8. a proxy for equipment system is characterized in that, comprising:

Simple Network Management Protocol snmp message processing module is used to receive and resolve the Simple Network Management Protocol SNMP request message that network management system NMS sends, and determines described SNMP request message corresponding equipment; And be used for the SNMP response message that protocol conversion module generates is sent to network management system;

Protocol conversion module is used for converting the SNMP request message that described snmp message processing module provides to Simple Extensible Protocol SXP request message; The SXP response message that also is used for interface module is returned converts SNMP response message to;

Interface module is used for the SXP request message that described protocol conversion module generates is sent to described equipment, and the SXP response message that described equipment returns is sent to described protocol conversion module.

9. proxy for equipment as claimed in claim 8 system is characterized in that, also comprises: stores processor module and mib information load-on module; Wherein:

Described interface module also is used for providing registration interface to equipment, makes described equipment by calling described registration interface, sends the SXP registration message to the stores processor module;

Described stores processor module is used for storing in advance the mib information of all devices, and according to the SXP registration message of receiving, finds the mib information of described equipment and send to described mib information load-on module;

Described mib information load-on module, the public mib information of the mib information that is used for the described equipment that will receive and other equipment is loaded into storage in the public MIB table of the equipment that sets in advance, and stores after the specific mib file of described equipment set a specific identifier;

Described protocol conversion module also is used for the described SXP registration message that described interface module provides is converted to the SNMP registration message and sends to described snmp message processing module;

Described snmp message processing module also is used for described SNMP registration message is sent to network management system; And be used in the specific mib file that described mib information load-on module is stored, matching the consistent mib file of specific identifier that comprises in specific identifier and the described SNMP request message, and with the mib file corresponding equipment that matches as described SNMP request message corresponding equipment.

10. proxy for equipment as claimed in claim 9 system is characterized in that, the SXP that carries its data snapshot that described interface module is also the returned described equipment response message that gets parms sends to described stores processor module;

Described stores processor module also is used for storing the get parms data snapshot of the equipment that response message carries of described SXP;

The described SNMP request message that receives and parse when described snmp message processing module is SNMP when obtaining next parameter request message, and described snmp message processing module also is used to notify described protocol conversion module to obtain the parameter that described SNMP obtains next parameter request message corresponding equipment;

Described protocol conversion module, also be used for notice according to described snmp message processing module, obtain described SNMP in the data snapshot of the described equipment of from described stores processor module, storing and obtain the parameter that next parameter request message request is obtained, and generation SNMP obtains next parameter response message;

Described snmp message processing module is used for that also described SNMP is obtained next parameter response message and sends to network management system.

11., it is characterized in that described interface module is arranged on the described equipment as the arbitrary described proxy for equipment of claim 8 to 10 system.

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