Abstract: An efficient asset survey tool is disclosed. For networks having 3,000 nodes, equipment and configuration information may be collected in a few hours, even with no previous information collection. Certain implementations exploit services available at the nodes including TCP/IP related applications and remotely executable configuration information commands. The asset survey tool may be operated as a stand-alone tool or as an automatically invoked component of a more complete asset database management system. In a preferred embodiment, the asset survey tool operates non-intrusively with no need for installation of special software at surveyed systems.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for efficiently scheduling tasks on a network. A user may schedule node-specific tasks across the network without specifying particular times for each node. One application of the present invention is scheduling of survey tasks across the network. A user may select times at which a task is to be performed or exclusion times when a task is not to be performed at the node level, subnet level, or level of the whole network.

Abstract: A system for managing asset information pertaining to a network. A network information database may both provide a snapshot of the current state of the network and also track changes in configuration over time. Queries to the database concerning changes in network configuration may be readily generated.