Methods, apparatus and computer program products for providing network device status information

RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 60/373,900, entitled “NETWORK DEVICE MONITORING USING COLOR-CODED STATUS WEB PAGES,” filed Apr. 19, 2002, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] This invention relates to computer systems, methods and computer program products, and more particularly to graphical computer systems, methods and computer program products.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] There are a variety of conventional techniques for monitoring networked devices, such as servers, routers, printers, uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) and the like. For example, there are a number of network management programs that display a network topology in some representational format, such as a plurality of icons that represent devices and which are connected by lines or other graphic elements that indicate network connectivity. Some network management applications may show status of individual devices and/or interconnections by applying color codes to the icons and/or the connecting graphic elements. Other conventional techniques provide status information in tabular or chart form. Potential drawbacks of such approaches may include software overhead and complexity associated with creating and maintaining a complex graphical representation of a network, and the difficulty of discerning the status of objects in a graphical network diagram or table for a network that includes a large number of devices and interconnections.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0004] In some embodiments of the invention, status information for a network device, such as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), may be provided by displaying a web browser window uniquely associated with the network device and having a color indicative of a status of the network device. In particular, a field of the web browser, such as a background field, may be color coded responsive to a status of the network device.

[0005] According to further aspects of the invention, an apparatus may host such a web page. In some embodiments, the page is hosted at the network device itself. In response to a broadcast query message transmitted by a monitoring apparatus, such as a computer, the hosting apparatus may receive the broadcast message and responsively transmit a message identifying the address of the hosted web page. The hosting apparatus may also host a second web page providing textual status information for the network device and accessible from a link in the first web page.

[0006] In further embodiments of the invention, a plurality of web browser windows are concurrently displayed on the same display screen. The plurality of web browser windows have visual appearances that convey respective statuses of respective ones of the network devices according to a common visual coding scheme, such as a color coding or image coding scheme.

[0007] Embodiments of the invention can provide advantages over network representations and other forms commonly used in network monitoring applications. For example, in some embodiments, providing respective color-coded browser windows for respective ones of a plurality of network devices can allow status changes to be quickly detected without requiring detailed scrutiny of network diagrams, tables or other complex representational formats. The web pages that are used to generate the web browser windows can be stored at the monitored devices themselves. According to further embodiments, using visually coded web browser status windows can provide a relatively simple mechanism for navigation to detailed textual status information. The invention may be embodied as methods, apparatus, and computer program products.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008]FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating apparatus for hosting and monitoring color coded status web pages according to some embodiments of the invention.

[0009]FIG. 2 is a screen shot of a colored status web browser window according to some embodiments of the invention.

[0010]FIG. 3 is a screen shot of a detailed status web page linked to a color status web page according to further embodiments of the invention.

[0011]FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating apparatus and operations for hosting and monitoring color coded status web pages according to further embodiments of the invention.

[0012]FIG. 5 is a screen shot of a plurality of colored status windows according to additional embodiments of the invention.

[0013]FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating exemplary operations for identifying and accessing color coded status web pages according to additional embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0014] The present invention will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which typical embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.

[0015] Various embodiments of the invention involve providing status information for a network device, which may include, but it is not limited to, devices such as networked printers, computers, scanners, uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) and the like. The invention may be advantageously practiced using computers, e.g., personal computers, laptop computers, notebook computers, computer workstations, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other devices, connected by a network, such as the Internet. The Internet is a worldwide decentralized network of computers having the ability to communicate with each other. The Internet has gained broad recognition as a viable medium for communicating and for conducting business. The World-Wide Web (Web) was created in the early 1990's, and is comprised of server-hosting computers (Web servers) connected to the Internet that have hypertext documents (referred to as Web pages) stored therewithin. Web pages are accessible by client programs (e.g., Web browsers) utilizing the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) via a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) connection between a client-hosting device and a server-hosting device. While HTTP and Web pages are the prevalent forms for the Web, the Web itself refers to a wide range of protocols including Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and Gopher, and Web content formats including plain text, HyperText Markup Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), as well as image formats such as Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) and Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG).

[0016] A Web site is conventionally a related collection of Web files that includes a beginning file called a “home” page. From the home page, a visitor can access other files and applications at a Web site. A large Web site may utilize a number of servers, which may or may not be different and which may or may not be geographically-dispersed. A Web server (also referred to as an HTTP server) is a computer program that generally utilizes HTTP to serve files that form Web pages to requesting Web clients. Exemplary Web servers include International Business Machines Corporation's family of Lotus Domino® servers, the Apache server (available from www.apache.org), and Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS), available from Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash. A Web client is a requesting program that also generally utilizes HTTP. A browser is an exemplary Web client for use in requesting Web pages and files from Web servers. A Web server waits for a Web client, such as a browser, to open a connection and to request a specific Web page or application. The Web server then sends a copy of the requested item to the Web client, closes the connection with the Web client, and waits for the next connection.

[0017] HTTP allows a browser to request a specific item, which a Web server then returns and the browser renders. To ensure that browsers and Web servers can interoperate unambiguously, HTTP defines the exact format of requests (HTTP requests) sent from a browser to a Web server as well as the format of responses (HTTP responses) that a Web server returns to a browser. Exemplary browsers that can be utilized with the present invention include, but are not limited to, Netscape Navigator® and Internet Explorer™. Browsers typically provide a graphical user interface for retrieving and viewing Web pages, applications, and other resources served by Web servers.

[0018] It will be appreciated that the invention can be implemented using any of a number of different types of network configurations. It will be further appreciated that the invention may, in general, be implemented using a variety of different communications technologies, including wireline, optical and wireless communications technologies. The invention may be embodied as methods, apparatus and/or computer program products. The invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable storage medium having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium. Any suitable computer readable medium may be utilized, including, but not limited to, hard disks, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, or magnetic storage devices.

[0019] Computer program code for carrying out operations of the present invention may be written in an object oriented programming language such as JAVA®, Smalltalk or C++. The computer program code for carrying out operations of the present invention may also be written in conventional procedural programming languages, such as “C”, JavaScript, Visual Basic, TSQL, Perl, or in a functional (or fourth generation) programming language such as Lisp, SML, or Forth. The program code may execute entirely on one computer, or may be executed in part on each of a plurality of computers. A variety of different conventional software tools may be used in creating web browser windows representations as described herein, such as Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.

[0020] According to some embodiments of the invention, in an environment where multiple web-enabled devices, such as uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) or similar networked devices or network “appliances,” are being monitored via the internet, a device may support a web page that produces a browser window with a color background representing the status of the network device. Software can be utilized to display multiple such “windows” for a plurality of networked devices, e.g., by tiling, cascading or otherwise displaying the plurality of windows on a computer screen. As the color of a window background or other prominent window display field or feature may be used to display status, status of each device can be made more plainly visible in a relatively simple fashion. The colored status windows may further be navigable to more detailed status and/or control pages.

[0021]FIG. 1 illustrates an apparatus <b>110</b> for monitoring network devices <b>120</b>, <b>120</b>′ illustrated in FIG. 1. The apparatus <b>110</b> includes a display <b>112</b> and a control circuit <b>114</b> that is operative to control the display <b>112</b> and to communicate with the network devices <b>122</b>, <b>122</b>′. For example, the apparatus <b>110</b> may take the form of a desktop computer, laptop, personal digital assistant, wireless terminal, or the like. The display <b>112</b> may comprise, for example, a cathode ray tube (CRT), liquid crystal display (LCD), plasma display or the like, and the control circuit may comprise a microprocessor, microcontroller or similar processing device and associate peripheral circuitry, including memory and communications interface circuitry.

[0022] Each network device <b>120</b>, <b>120</b>′ includes a respective control circuit <b>122</b>, <b>122</b>′, such as a network interface card or functionally equivalent circuitry, that acts as a host or server for a web page <b>123</b>, <b>123</b>′ that is color coded according to a status of the networked device <b>120</b>, <b>120</b>′. The control circuits <b>122</b>, <b>122</b>′ may provide other functionality, such as monitoring and/or control of other circuitry in the network devices <b>120</b>, <b>120</b>′ via the network. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, a network device <b>120</b>′ may be an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) that includes power supply circuitry <b>124</b> that is controlled and/or monitored using the control circuit <b>122</b>′. The control circuit <b>114</b> of the apparatus <b>110</b> is operative to access, e.g., retrieve, the hosted web pages <b>123</b>, <b>123</b>′ and to provide a display of the accessed web pages in a browser window on the display <b>112</b>.

[0023] For example, a network card, such as a ConnectUPS SNMP/WEB card produced by Powerware Corporation that provides network connectivity for a UPS, may include software and/or firmware that supports a web page that, when pointed at by a web browser, such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer, provides a visual web page representation <b>200</b> having a display field or feature, e.g., a background field <b>210</b>, colored to indicate various states of the UPS being monitored, as illustrated in FIG. 2. For example, 4 colors may be assigned as follows:

[0024] Green There is communication with the UPS and everything is normal

[0025] Yellow There is communication with the UPS and there is some sort of alarm or change in status (other than a low battery condition)

[0026] Red There is communication with the UPS and there is a Low Battery condition

[0027] Black Communication has been interrupted between the ConnectUPS SNMP/WEB card and the UPS

[0028] It will be appreciated that, aside from the color coding described above, provision of distinctive status display in respective browser windows may be provided in other ways within the scope of the invention. For example, referring to the example of FIG. 2, all of the background field <b>210</b> need not be uniformly colored as in FIG. 2. Text or other graphic content may be superimposed on the background field <b>210</b>. In some embodiments, a distinctive display may include graphic elements (e.g., caricatures, icons, or the like) with colorings or other graphic features that distinctively correlate to states of a device. For example, a predominantly red graphic may be used to represent a failure condition, a predominantly green graphic may be used to represent a normal condition, etc. In monochromatic applications, different grey scale values could be used. In further embodiments, different distinctive graphic elements may be used to represent different status conditions in lieu of using a color code.

[0029] According to further embodiments of the invention, other status-related web pages can be linked to such a status web page. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, a detailed status page <b>300</b> supported by the ConnectUPS SNMP/WEB card may include a text link <b>310</b> that a user can “click” on to take them to the color status page. According to still further embodiments of the present invention, navigation from the color-coded status page, such as that illustrated in FIG. 2, to, for example, a detailed status page, such as the page illustrated in FIG. 3, may be achieved by clicking on the colored space within the window.

[0030] According to additional aspects of the invention, a plurality of status web pages, respective ones of which are associated with respective network devices being monitored and which are visually coded according to a common visual coding scheme, such as a color code, image set, or the like, are concurrently displayed. For example, referring to FIG. 4, UPSs <b>420</b>, <b>420</b>′, <b>420</b>″ may have respective ones of ConnectUPS SNMP/WEB cards <b>422</b>, <b>422</b>′, <b>422</b>″ installed therein, each supporting a status monitor web page <b>423</b>, <b>423</b>′, <b>423</b>″ as described above.

[0031] Some of the UPSs <b>420</b>, <b>420</b>′ may further host textual status web pages <b>424</b>, <b>424</b>′ that are linked to the status web pages <b>423</b>, <b>423</b>′. The status pages <b>423</b>, <b>423</b>′ may serve, for example, as “home pages” for the UPSs <b>420</b>, <b>420</b>′. A personal computer <b>410</b> (or other terminal, workstation or the like) may be networked with the UPSs <b>420</b>, <b>420</b>′, <b>420</b>″ and may include an application program <b>412</b> capable of spawning a plurality of web browser windows therein, respective ones of which are pointed to respective ones of the web pages of the network cards. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, corresponding windows <b>510</b>, <b>510</b>′, <b>510</b>″ may include color coded background fields <b>512</b>, <b>512</b>′, <b>512</b>″, and may be tiled within a window <b>500</b> displayed on the computer, for example, in rows and columns (other arrangements could be used). Such a tiled displayed of embedded web browser windows may be generated using, for example, Internet Surfer software available as shareware at www.jackflacco.com.

[0032] Such a display can allow a user to quickly determine access at a glance, without, for example, searching through complex network representations to find particular devices. In particular, in embodiments using color coding of a background field of browser windows, a user may be able to quickly determine the status of all the UPSs, as the use of background coloring or other distinctive graphics can make it easy to detect states that indicate a need for further investigation. For example, in the exemplary implementation illustrated in FIG. 5, if 12 UPSs are working properly, a field of 12 green windows could be displayed. Failure of one or more of these could be quickly detected, as a red, yellow or black window could be quickly detected. It will be appreciated that similar advantages may be provided within the scope of the invention may be provided by using a visual coding other than color, for example, by using respective images of a set of predetermined images to represent respective status conditions.

[0033] According to still further embodiments of the present invention, a utility may be provided that discovers network devices that support such status monitoring, such as the ConnectUPS SNMP/WEB cards described above, and that responsively creates a monitoring display comprising a plurality of displayed color web pages. For example, software for a personal computer or other network terminal may be configured to search web addresses associated with UPSs and/or other devices, to determine if these addresses support status monitoring as described above, and then spawn appropriate browser windows to provide user monitoring of such devices. Such software could, for example, tile or cascade such windows on the terminal screen automatically.

[0034] For example, for a UPS application as described above, a configuration utility of a UPS monitoring/control program may be able to discover existing ConnectUPS SNMP/WEB Cards on the network and allow a user to select those cards (or all cards) to be elected as windows within a display space, e.g., browser window, generated by the application. Cards that already have windows displayed (e.g., as indicated by a database or registry) can be indicated as such to prevent duplicate windows, unless the user wishes duplicate display. The configuration program may also modify the application's Uniform Resource Locator (URL) database such that the next time the status/control program starts, the new windows will be displayed. If some cards have been removed from the network in the intervening time, windows corresponding to the removed cards can be deleted from the configuration database.

[0035]FIG. 6 illustrates exemplary operations according to some embodiments of the invention. A query message is broadcast on a network containing a plurality of network devices (Block <b>610</b>). For example, such a query message may be transmitted by an application program executing on network-connected workstation and may express the query by, for example, using a port address addressed to a port having a predetermined association with the status monitoring web page functionality. Devices that support the functionality may receive and recognize the query message, and respond by sending messages that identify their network locations, e.g., IP addresses (Blocks <b>620</b>, <b>630</b>). The application program may then selectively access the identified web pages and display the accessed web pages in respective browser windows (Blocks <b>640</b>, <b>650</b>). For example, the application program may display a pop-up window that may be used to select devices for which a status display window is desired, such that the application program responsively displays the status web pages of the selected devices.

[0036] In the drawings and specification, there have been disclosed typical embodiments of the invention and, although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being set forth in the following claims.