Method and apparatus of matching monitoring sets to network devices

Abstract

Monitoring computer devices operating on a network is disclosed. Computer devices are all different and require monitoring settings that are tailored to their specific requirements. One example method of assigning a sample set to a network device operating on a network may include identifying the at least one network device, and identifying at least one object identifier associated with the at least one identified network device. The method may also include transmitting the at least one object identified to a memory location, and comparing the at least one object identifier to a plurality of sample sets and assigning relevancy scores to the plurality of sample sets based on the comparison. The method may also include assigning at least one sample set having a greater relevancy score than the other sample sets to the at least one network device. The sample sets may be SNMP sample sets.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that perform:
 initiating, from a managed computer, communication between the managed computer and a remote computer management server, wherein the communication is formatted to allow pass through to at least one of a firewall or a gateway that communicates with the managed computer by performing formatting changes to the communication in accordance with different network communications protocols until one protocol of the initial communication is allowed to pass through the at least one firewall or gateway of the managed computer, the network communications protocol allowed to pass being further used to format subsequent communication between the managed computer and the remote computer management server during an ensuing communication session; and   receiving an indication from the remote computer management server if at least one operation is performed on at least one of: the managed computer itself and a device attached to the managed computer.   
     
     
         2 . The non-transitory computer readable medium as in  claim 1 , wherein the network communications protocol is an HTTP protocol. 
     
     
         3 . The non-transitory computer readable medium as in  claim 1 , wherein the network communications protocol is an HTTPS protocol. 
     
     
         4 . The non-transitory computer readable medium as in  claim 1 , wherein the network communications protocol is an FTP protocol. 
     
     
         5 . The non-transitory computer readable medium as in  claim 1 , wherein the network communications protocol is a TCP/IP protocol. 
     
     
         6 . The non-transitory computer readable medium as in  claim 1 , wherein the network is the Internet. 
     
     
         7 . The non-transitory computer readable medium as in  claim 1 , further comprising instructions for executing on a recurring basis the instructions for initiating communication from the managed computer. 
     
     
         8 . The non-transitory computer readable medium as in  claim 1 , further comprising instructions for initiating communication from the managed computer. 
     
     
         9 . The non-transitory computer readable medium as in  claim 8 , wherein the regular interval is one minute or less than one minute. 
     
     
         10 . The non-transitory computer readable medium as in  claim 1 , further comprising instructions for determining, prior to initiating communication between the managed computer and a remote computer management server, whether a connection is open to enable communication from the managed computer to the network. 
     
     
         11 . The non-transitory computer readable medium as in  claim 10 , further comprising instructions for, if the connection is not open to enable the communication, the instructions for initiating communication between the managed computer and a remote computer management server do not operate to initiate communication between the managed computer and a remote computer management server. 
     
     
         12 . The non-transitory computer readable medium as in  claim 1 , further comprising instructions for routing communication between the managed computer and the remote computer management server through a single network communications port. 
     
     
         13 . The non-transitory computer readable medium as in  claim 12 , wherein the routing is through the single network communications port that is allowed by the at least one of the firewall and the gateway of the managed computer for other network communication. 
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory computer readable medium as in  claim 1 , further comprising instructions for authenticating the managed computer to the remote computer management server. 
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory computer readable medium as in  claim 1 , further comprising instructions for encrypting communication between the managed computer and the remote computer management server. 
     
     
         16 . The non-transitory computer readable medium as in  claim 1 , further comprising instructions for generating a new encryption key each time the managed computer initiates communication with the remote computer management server. 
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory computer readable medium as in  claim 1 , further comprising instructions for successively comparing different combinations of a specified number of recent encryption keys stored by the managed computer. 
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer readable medium as in  claim 1 , further comprising instructions for successively comparing different combinations of a specified number of recent encryption keys stored by the remote computer management server. 
     
     
         19 . A method, comprising:
 initiating, from a managed computer, communication between the managed computer and a remote computer management server, the initiating comprising querying, if the remote computer management server has a management action to be performed on the managed computer, wherein the communication is formatted in accordance with a network communications protocol that can be used to format communication that is allowed to pass through at least one of a firewall and a gateway that communicates with the managed computer by performing formatting changes to the communication in accordance with different network communications protocols until one protocol of the initial communication is allowed to pass through the at least one firewall or gateway of the managed computer, the network communications protocol allowed to pass being further used to format subsequent communication between the managed computer and the remote computer management server during an ensuing communication session; and   receiving an indication from the remote computer management server if at least one operation is performed on at least one of: the managed computer itself and a device attached to the managed computer.   
     
     
         20 . A system, comprising:
 a managed computer that initiates communication with a remote computer management server, wherein the communication is formatted in accordance with a network communications protocol that can be used to format communication that is allowed to pass through at least one of a firewall or a gateway that communicates with the managed computer by performing formatting changes to the communication in accordance with different network communications protocols until one protocol of the initial communication is allowed to pass through the at least one firewall or gateway of the managed computer, the network communications protocol allowed to pass being further used to format subsequent communication between the managed computer and the remote computer management server during an ensuing communication session; and   the remote computer management server that sends an indication if at least one operation is performed on at least one of the managed computer itself and a device attached to the managed computer.