Network management apparatus and network management method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12531780-B2
Application number	US-202117767123-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 16, 2021
Priority date	Jun 16, 2021
Publication date	Jan 20, 2026
Grant date	Jan 20, 2026

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a network management apparatus, comprising: a basic information acquisition unit configured to acquire basic server information including server information and location information, the server information including identification information of an accommodating station accommodating a server that constitutes a network and an identifier of a BMC of the server, the location information indicating an installation location of the server in the accommodating station; a related information generation unit configured to generate server-related information including at least an IP address of the server based on the basic server information; a setting information generation unit configured to generate setting information necessary for provisioning the server based on the basic server information and the server-related information; and a data query unit configured to query the server about normality of the setting information generated by the setting information generation unit.

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 of a field programmable gate array (FPGA), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and 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:
acquire basic server information including server information and location information, the server information including identification information of an accommodating station accommodating a server that constitutes a network and an identifier of a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) of the server, the location information indicating an installation location of the server in the accommodating station;
generate server-related information including at least an IP address of the server based on the identifier of the BMC;
generate setting information for provisioning the server based on the basic server information and the server-related information;
query the server about an accuracy of the setting information with respect to predetermined setting information; and
determine, based on a response to the query, that the setting information is accurate, wherein the setting information being accurate includes at least one hardware specification of the server coincides with a predetermined specification of the server; and cause the server to be provisioned in accordance with the setting information based on determining that the setting information is accurate.

2 . The network management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the identifier of the BMC is a MAC address of the BMC.

3 . The network management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
acquiring the basic information acquires the server information that is read from an image code assigned to the server by an operator who has installed the server in the accommodating station.

4 . The network management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the server information includes the identifier of the BMC, and at least one of a server ID, a server code, a host name, and a serial number.

5 . The network management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
acquiring the basic information acquires the location information specified by an operator who has installed the server in the accommodating station.

6 . The network management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the location information includes at least one of a rack name and a rack number of a rack in which the server is installed.

7 . The network management apparatus according to claim 1 , the electric circuitry further configured to:
generate a template of the setting information for each of the accommodating stations; and wherein generating the setting information generates the setting information by embedding the basic server information and the server-related information into the template based on the identification information of the accommodating station.

8 . The network management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the identifier of the BMC is a MAC address of the BMC, and querying for the MAC address of the server to be queried, and, when the queried MAC address coincides with the MAC address corresponding to the server to be queried included in the setting information, determines the setting information to be normal.

9 . The network management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
querying for server specifications of the server to be queried, and, when the queried server specifications coincide with a desired server specifications depending on the identification information of the accommodating station and the location information that correspond to the server to be queried included in the setting information, determines the setting information to be normal.

10 . The network management apparatus according to claim 1 , the electric circuitry further configured to:
execute provisioning of the server using the setting information when the accuracy of the setting information is confirmed.

11 . The network management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
acquiring the basic information acquires the basic server information of the server on which a virtual machine operates.

12 . A network management method performed by a network management apparatus, comprising steps of:
acquiring basic server information including server information and location information, the server information including identification information of an accommodating station accommodating a server that constitutes a network and an identifier of a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) of the server, the location information indicating an installation location of the server in the accommodating station; generating server-related information including at least an IP address of the server based on the identifier of the BMC; generating setting information necessary for provisioning the server based on the basic server information and the server-related information; querying the server about accuracy of the setting information with respect to predetermined setting information, and determining, based on a response to the query, that the setting information is accurate, wherein the setting information being accurate includes at least one hardware specification of the server coincides with a predetermined specification of the server; and cause the server to be provisioned in accordance with the setting information based on determining that the setting information is accurate.

13 . A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor cause the processor to execute network management processing comprising:
a basic information acquisition process for acquiring basic server information including server information and location information, the server information including identification information of an accommodating station accommodating a server that constitutes a network and an identifier of a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) of the server, the location information indicating an installation location of the server in the accommodating station; a related information generation process for generating server-related information including at least an IP address of the server based on the identifier of the BMC acquired by the basic information acquisition process; a setting information generation process for generating setting information necessary for provisioning the server based on the basic server information acquired by the basic information acquisition process and the server-related information generated by the related information generation process; a data query process for querying the server about an accuracy of the setting information generated by the setting information generation process with respect to predetermined setting information, and a determining process, that determines, based on a response to the query, that the setting information is accurate, wherein the setting information being accurate includes at least one hardware specification of the server coincides with a predetermined specification of the server; and cause the server to be provisioned in accordance with the setting information based on determining that the setting information is accurate.

Assignees

• Rakuten Mobile Inc

Inventors

• OH Jayoung
• Kosugi Masaaki
• Okada Jun

Classifications

• H04L41/0866

  Checking the configuration · CPC title

• H04L41/0843 Primary

  based on generic templates · CPC title

• H04L41/0853

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

• H04L41/40

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

• H04L41/0895

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