WO2002060164A1

WO2002060164A1 - Method and system for maintaining configuration data

Info

Publication number: WO2002060164A1
Application number: PCT/FI2002/000018
Authority: WO
Inventors: Timo Ekholm; Juha Viinikainen
Original assignee: Sonera Oy
Current assignee: Sonera Oy
Priority date: 2001-01-12
Filing date: 2002-01-09
Publication date: 2002-08-01
Anticipated expiration: 2003-07-12
Also published as: FI110377B; EP1350379A1; FI20010064A0; FI20010064L; WO2002060164A8

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for maintaining configuration data on a management server. In the method, one or a plurality of interface cards (2a-2f) are connected to the terminal server (1), said cards having at least one port (P1-P6), and at least index is defined for each port. From the terminal server, information about the ports is transferred to the management server, where the transferred data is stored. The transferred data is compared by the management server with the stored data, wherein, if the comparison indicates that the data transmitted from the terminal server does not correspond to the data stored in the management server in view of one of the ports (P1-P6), the data of the configuration change of the port (P1-P6) is entered in the data of the port (P1-P6) in question.

Description

Method and system for maintaining configuration data

The present invention relates to a method for maintaining configuration data as presented in the preamble of the appended claim 1. The invention further relates to a system for maintaining configuration data as set forth in the preamble of the appended claim 5.

Systems are known where a customer's communications devices can be connected to a communications network, using a terminal server administered by a service provider. To this end, an interface card, or the like, is connected to the terminal server, the communications device of the subscriber being connected to the interface card for example via a telecommunications network. One such terminal server can comprise multiple interfaces for communications devices of different customers. In the following, such interfaces are also called in this specification as port. For distinguishing different ports from each other, the ports must be identified. To attain this, each port is determined a physical address, which enables the terminal server to communicate via the port with the communications device of the customer. Moreover, such port can be provided with a logical address, which is advantageously independent from the physical address determined for the port. The logical address can be used by different applications in transmission of information and control data between the application and a port or a customer's communications device connected to the port. It is advantageous to provide the terminal server with a table that can be used for interconnecting the logical address and the corresponding physical address.

The service provider determines services to the customers, the services being hierarchically positioned below a port used by the communications device of the customer in question.

To control the above-mentioned terminal servers, generally a so-called SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is used. This kind of terminal server allows identification of both physical and logical ports of the terminal server in an unambiguous manner, using a so-called index. In certain situation, for example when updating programs of the terminal server, or adding/removing interface cards, the indexes of the ports may change. As a result of this kind of situation, the configuration of the terminal server is not up-to-date with the situation that prevailed before the configuration. For example, in a situation complying with that of the appended Fig. 1 , three interface cards 2a, 2c, 2d comprising three ports P1 , P4, P5 are connected to the terminal server 1. Indexes 1 , 2, 3 are defined for these ports. Subsequently, between the cards 2a, 2c, a new interface card 2b comprising two ports P2, P3 is added. This interface card 2b is connected between ports P1, P4, i.e. between ports having indexes 1 and 2. After the addition, the ports of the terminal server have the following indexes: the first port P1 has index 1 , port P4 has index 2, port P5 has index 3, and the first port of the added interface card 2b has index 4, and the second port of the added interface card 2b has index 5. In this situation, the original indexes 1 , 2, 3 remain the same and the terminal server operates as normal. However, after the following boot is carried out to the terminal server 1 , the indexes of the ports change. After the boot, the first port still has index 1 , but the new index of port P4 is 4, the new index of port P5 is 5, the new index of the first port P2 of the added interface card 2b is 2, and the new index of the second port P3 of the added interface card is 3. Hence, the indexes determined in the system no longer correspond to the real index of the ports, wherein problems rise when transferring data to the correct destination. A corresponding problem rises also when removing a card from the terminal server. Upon removing the card, the indexes contained in the removed cards are removed. For example, if the index card 2b added in the previous example is removed, the indexes 1 , 4 and 5 remain. If the terminal server is now booted, the indexes are changed to the values 1 , 2, 3. Attempts have been made to eliminate the above-described problem by various device-specific solutions, but this leads to another problem: incompatibility of devices by different producers. Programs based on so-called device-specific drivers are also known, but the problem with such solutions is, for example, maintenance of the device-specific drivers and the rapid development in the field, wherein automatized change does not necessarily take place correctly. One purpose of the present invention is to implement a method and a terminal server, where information is obtained about the amended indexes of the ports, and the changes can be updated to the system. The invention is based on the idea, that in the database of the management application, a data record arranged for each index is provided with data which indicates whether the index is up-to-date. More precisely, the method according to the present invention is primarily characterized in what will be presented in the characterizing part of the appended claim 1. The system according to the present invention is primarily characterized in what will be presented in the characterizing part of the appended claim 5.

The present invention shows remarkable advantages over solutions of prior art. Upon adapting a method according to the invention, the updatings carried out to the terminal server are detected, wherein the index changes take place in a controlled manner. According to this information, also the need to update indexes can be deduced, wherein the service provider can update the indexes to correspond to the changed situation.

In the following, the present invention will be described in more detail, with reference to the appended drawings, in which

Fig. 1 shows a terminal server in a simplified block chart, and

Fig. 2 shows a communication system, where the method according to a preferred embodiment of the invention can be applied.

The terminal server 1 according to Fig. 1 comprises a control unit 3, which controls the operation of the terminal server 1. The terminal server 1 comprises also interface means 4, 5 for connecting the interface cards 2a — 2f in connection with the terminal server. In the exemplified terminal server of Fig. 1 , six interface card slots are shown, but it is obvious that in practical solutions the number of interface card slots and interface cards can vary. The interface means 4, 5 comprise, in addition to interface card slots, advantageously an interface 5, which carries out e.g. transmission of signals between the interface cards 2a — 2f and the control unit 3. The interface 5 comprises e.g. address coding logic (not shown), which can be used for pointing each desired port according to the physical address of the port in a manner known as such. Using the interface cards 2a — 2f, the customer's communications device 12 (Fig. 2) can be connected to communicate with a terminal server 1, e.g. via a telecommunications network 11. Via the terminal server 1 , it is possible to communicate from the customer's communications devices 12 to a data network 7, e.g. the Internet network. To this end, the terminal server 1 further comprises a data transmission block 8 (e.g. a modem), via which communication between the network 7 and the terminal server 1 is carried out. The communications device 12 is, for example, a personal computer (PC) comprising a modem, or the like, for logging into an optional communications network 11. The data processing device can also be a wireless communications device with data processing facilities. On the other hand, the modem used can be a radio card or a corresponding wireless modem. The communications network 11 can be either a wireline communications network [e.g. PSTN, public switched tele- phone network) or a wireless communications network. The communications network 11 constitutes a communication channel (tunnel) between the communications device 12 and the terminal server 1. For example, in the case of a wireless communication network, such as the GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), this communication channel is called the GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP).

The terminal server 1 is advantageously provided with memory means 10, where it is possible to store information about ports that are active in the terminal server 1, as well as services connected thereto. This information constitutes e.g. a data frame where each data record is intended for the information of preferably one port.

The terminal server 1 is arranged to be controlled by a management server 9, which can be remotely connected to the control unit 3 of the terminal server. It is advantageous that the control unit 3 of the terminal server and the management server 9 communicate in accordance with a protocol, such as the SNMP, which has already been mentioned in the present specification. Hence, using the management server 9, it is possible, for example, to read the status of the terminal server 1 ports and change the contents of the data records 10 in the database of the terminal servers 1 accordingly. Moreover, the management server is provided with the memory means 13, where information about one or a plurality of terminal servers 1 can be stored.

The SNMP is a simple network management protocol, by which the management server 9 can communicate with the terminal servers 1. The MIB-II (Management Information Base) of the SNMP protocol is a standardized description of a basic configuration of a device which is generally used in terminal servers 1 and which covers, among others, the physical and logical ports. The information relevant in view of the port indexes and the changes thereto include the MIB-II index (iflndex), description (ifDescr) and alias (if Alias), of which precisely the index may change.

In the following, the operation of the method according to a preferred embodiment of the invention will be described. Let us suppose that three ports P1 , P2, P3 have been determined to the terminal server 1 , for which ports indexes 1, 2 and 3 have been allocated respectively. In addition, the description information of the first port is "ethO", of the second port "atmO", and of the third port "atml". The first port P1 is named as "Ian1 ", and the second as "frame". In addition, a service "FW" is defined for the second port. In connection with the configuration, the status data is still set to "ok" status, which is advantageously presented as one bit. This situation is shown in Table 1, which is stored into the memory means 13 of the management server 9. For reasons of clarity, Table 1 shows only a part of the definitions of each port, but in practical applications port definitions can comprise also other information, which is, however, irrelevant for understanding the present invention.

TABLE 1

If the situation changes, for example because an interface card has been replaced, the real situation does not necessarily correspond to the information stored in the management server 9. When the situation of the cards has changed, the control unit 3 of the terminal server examines the new situation of the new card configuration and stores the information into the memory means 10. When a port of the terminal server 1 is thereafter configured by means of a remote management application used at the management server 9, data related to the ports of the terminal server 1 are fetched by the management server. The next step in the application is to compare, in view of each port to be configured, the information stored by the management server with the terminal server data fetched from the terminal server 1. If the data are contradictory with each other, the state of said port and the services therebelow are marked as "not ok" in the database, and the situation is reported to the service provider in the management application e.g. by means of a display 14. For example, Table 2 shows a situation, where replacement of the interface card has caused that the indexes 2 and 3 have been interchanged. The management application in the management server 9 has detected that the information of the indexes 2 and 3 do not match with the information stored in the memory means 10 of the device, wherein the remote management application has indicated the state of the index 2 as "not ok". Index 3 is marked as "ok" because the respective service is not known.

TABLE 2 Since the service "FW" was determined for the index 2, it is removed. Neither can it be automatically moved to the information of another index. The management application does not attempt to deduce the changed index automatically; this is carried out by the service provider. The management application advantageously shows, on the display 12 of the management server 9, a list of possible configurations, wherefrom the service provider manually selects the correct configuration, wherein the correct index of the port is stored into the database. Moreover, the state of the port in question, as well as the state of the services therebelow, are marked in the database as "ok".

The port is indicated in the database 13 of the management server 9 as an entity, whose properties include, among others, said index. In the description, the reference to the port refers to the entity, not to its index, wherein, in spite of the change of indexes, the relations between the ports and services remain correct in the database. Upon updating the configuration that corresponds to the new situation, data of the data records is changed, for example the index is updated to correspond to the new situation.

When updating the terminal server 1 , it can occur, for example, that the port no longer exists. For example, the index has changed and/or a card has been removed, but in the database 13, different services have been defined in the card, which services cannot be removed because they can still be included in the device. In a situation like this, the port and the services therebelow are defined to the state "not ok", and all data fetched from the port data of the bookkeeping is removed. For example, Table 3 shows this kind of situation, where the port, having the index 2, has been removed. The management server 9 has detected a difference between its own information and the information fetched from the terminal server 1, wherein the management server 9 has indicated the state of the port, and the services possibly comprised therein, as "not ok". In addition, the management server removes from its configuration data the information fetched earlier to this port from the terminal server 1.

TABLE 3

This change in configuration data is reported to the service provider, who can change the configuration. By comparing the aliases of the terminal server and the database 13, the correct location is usually found for the service, as well. Thus, the alias indicates fairly often which services are included therein, wherein a service is relatively easy to move to another place, if it is positioned in the wrong index. Moreover, the service is also provided with an alias, according to which it can be deduced where the service should be located.

It is obvious that the present invention is not limited solely to the above- presented embodiments, but it can be modified within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

Claims:

1. A method for maintaining configuration data on a management server, in which method one or a plurality of interface cards (2a — 2f) are connected to a terminal server (1), said cards having at least one port (P1 — P6), and for each port at least an index is defined, information about the ports is transmitted from the terminal server to the management server, where the transmitted information is stored, characterised in that in the management server the transferred information is compared to the stored information, wherein, if the comparison indicates that the information transmitted from the terminal server does not correspond to the information stored to the management server in view of one of ports (P1 — P6), the data about the configuration change of the port (P1 — P6) is entered in the data of said port (P1 — P6) in question.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 , characterised in that the method further comprises the step of reporting of the change in configuration by means of the management server.

3. The method as set forth in claim 2, characterised in that the method comprises the steps, where, upon a change in the configuration of the port (P1 — P6), possible alternative configurations are examined, the detected alternative configuration data is reported, and, among said alternative configuration data, a new configuration is selected for the port (P1— P6).

4. The method as set forth in claim 1 , 2 or 3, characterised in that communication connection is set up from the terminal server (1) to a network (7), and communication connection is set up via at least one port (P1— P6) to at least one communications device (12), wherein information is transferred between the communications device (12) and the network (7) via said port (P1 — P6).

5. A system for maintaining configuration data on a management server, said system comprising at least one terminal device (1), means (4, 5) for connecting one or a plurality of interface cards (2a— 2f) to the terminal server (1), which interface card (2a— 2f) comprises at least one port (P1— P6), and for each port at least an index is defined, and which system comprises means for transmitting port data from the terminal server (1) to the management server (9), which comprises means (13) for storing the transmitted data, characterised in that the management server (9) comprises means for comparing the transmitted data with the stored data, and means for entering the information that the configuration of the port (P1 — P6) has changed to the data of the port (P1 — P6) in question, in case the comparison indicates that the information transmitted from the terminal server does not correspond to the information stored in the management server (9) in view of some of the ports (P1 — P6).

6. The system as set forth in claim 5, characterised in that the management server comprises means (14) for reporting a configuration change.

7. The system as set forth in claim 6, characterised in that the management server comprises means (14) for finding possible alternative configurations to the port (P1 — P6) whose configuration has changed, means (14) for reporting detected alternative configuration data, and means for selecting, among the alternative configuration data, a new configuration to the port (P1 — P6).

8. The system as set forth in claim 5, 6 or 7, characterised in that it comprises means (8) for setting up a communication connection from the terminal server (1) to a network (7), and means (11) for setting up a communication connection via at least one port (P1 — P6) to at least one communications device (12), wherein information is arranged to be transferred between the communications device (12) and the network (7) via said port (P1— P6).