Network management apparatus and network management method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12255774-B2
Application number	US-202117767139-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 15, 2021
Priority date	Jun 15, 2021
Publication date	Mar 18, 2025
Grant date	Mar 18, 2025

Abstract

A network management apparatus includes at least one memory configured to store program code; and electric circuitry including at least one processor, the at least one processor being configured to read and operate according to the program code, the electronic circuitry configured to: store configuration information on devices or functions that constitute a virtualized environment of a network; acquire, as property information of the workaround, information associated with one or more devices or one or more functions to which a workaround for a specific hardware or software problem is to be applied; extract the one or more devices or the one or more functions serving as an application target of the workaround by referring to the configuration information based on the property information; and request to execute the workaround with respect to the application target.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A network management apparatus, comprising:
at least one memory configured to store program code; and
electric circuitry including at least one processor, the at least one processor being configured to read and operate according to the program code, the electronic circuitry configured to:
store configuration information on devices or functions that constitute a virtualized environment of a network;
acquire, as property information of a workaround, information associated with one or more devices or one or more functions to which the workaround for a specific hardware or software problem is to be applied, the specific hardware or software problem determined to occur based on determining that a continuous operating of a constituent element associated with the specific hardware are or software exceeds a predetermined time period;
extract the one or more devices or the one or more functions serving as an application target of the workaround by referring to the configuration information based on the property information; and
request to execute the workaround with respect to the application target,
wherein the configuration information includes first configuration information and second configuration information tied to the first configuration information, the first configuration information including information of hardware, a virtualization layer, and a virtual machine constituting the virtualized environment, and the second configuration information including at least one of parameter setting information, operational information, network topology information, and physical location information.

2. The network management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the acquired property information comprises the stored-configuration information that is common to the one or more devices or the one or more functions to which the workaround is to be applied; and
wherein the application target is associated with the one or more devices or the one or more functions having the stored-configuration information that coincides with the configuration information included in the property information.

3. The network management apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the property information comprises a device name, a vendor name, and a product code of hardware constituting the virtualized environment.

4. The network management apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the property information comprises a version of an OS (Operating System) of a virtualization layer or a virtual machine constituting the virtualized environment, and a software version of an application running on the OS.

5. The network management apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the property information comprises a software version of firmware on hardware constituting the virtualized environment, and a software version of an application running on an OS (Operating System) of a virtualization layer or a virtual machine constituting the virtualized environment.

6. The network management apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the property information comprises hardware information on hardware constituting the virtualized environment, and network topology information of the hardware.

7. The network management apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the property information comprises the configuration information on any one of constituent elements of hardware, a virtualization layer, and a virtual machine constituting the virtualized environment, and the continuous operating time of the constituent element.

8. The network management apparatus according to claim 1 , the electric circuitry further configured to:
generate, based on a determination a plurality of application targets are extracted, an execution plan for the workaround in consideration of an execution priority of the workaround for each of the plurality of application targets based on the configuration information of the plurality of application targets and the workaround to be applied to the plurality of application targets, and
request an execution request to execute the workaround of each application target of the plurality of application targets based on the execution plan.

9. The network management apparatus according to claim 1 , the electric circuitry further configured to:
execute the workaround requested to be executed with respect to the application target.

10. A network management method performed by a network management apparatus, comprising steps of:
storing configuration information on devices or functions that constitute a virtualized environment of a network;
acquiring, as property information of the workaround, information associated with one or more devices or one or more functions to which a workaround for a specific hardware or software problem is to be applied, the specific hardware or software problem determined to occur based on determining that a continuous operating of a constituent element associated with the specific hardware or software exceeds a predetermined time period;
extracting the one or more devices or the one or more functions serving as an application target of the workaround by referring to the configuration information based on the property information; and
requesting to execute the workaround with respect to the application target,
wherein the configuration information includes first configuration information and second configuration information tied to the first configuration information, the first configuration information including information of hardware, a virtualization layer, and a virtual machine constituting the virtualized environment, and the second configuration information including at least one of parameter setting information, operational information, network topology information, and physical location information.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor in a network management apparatus cause the processor to execute:
a configuration information storage process for storing configuration information on devices or functions that constitute a virtualized environment of a network;
a property information acquisition process for acquiring, as property information of the workaround, information associated with one or more devices or one or more functions to which a workaround for a specific hardware or software problem is to be applied, the specific hardware or software problem determined to occur based on determining that a continuous operating of a constituent element associated with the specific hardware or software exceeds a predetermined time period;
an application target extraction process for extracting the one or more devices or the one or more functions serving as an application target of the workaround by referring to the configuration information stored by the configuration information storage process based on the property information acquired by the property information acquisition process; and
an execution request process for requesting to execute the workaround with respect to the application target extracted by the application target extraction process,
wherein the configuration information includes first configuration information and second configuration information tied to the first configuration information, the first configuration information including information hardware, a virtualization layer, and a virtual machine constituting the virtualized environment, and the second configuration information including at least one of parameter setting information, operational information, network topology information, and physical location information.

12. The network management

Assignees

• Rakuten Mobile Inc

Inventors

• Kosugi Masaaki
• Okada Jun
• OH Jayoung

Classifications

• H04L41/0816 Primary

  the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events · CPC title

• H04L41/122

  of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV] · CPC title

• H04L41/0853

  by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information · CPC title

• H04L41/0895

  Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements · CPC title

• H04L41/40 Primary

  using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities · CPC title