Abstract: A system and method for managing network devices using a metadata gateway. The metadata gateway provides translation of metadata to and from a database format and Interface Definition Language (IDL), which is operable across a plurality of platforms and across a plurality of programming languages. Metadata may be retrieved through the metadata gateway by a client manager application sending a request for type information for a managed object attribute or event in IDL through a CORBA Object Request Broker (ORB) to the metadata gateway, which then reads the type information from a metadata repository, where the type information is stored in a database format. The metadata gateway then translates the retrieved type information from the database format to IDL and sends the translated type information to the ORB, which sends the translated type information for the attribute or event to the client manager application.

Abstract: A thread-safe debugging system and method including a thread-safe debug service library and a thread-safe remote control library residing on at least one client computer system. The client and server libraries provide APIs which allow multi-threaded applications executing on the client computer system to take advantage of debug services in a thread-safe and dynamic manner. The remote control library provides third party applications the capability to initiate and manage the debug services on the client dynamically and remotely. The debug services may include providing debug output, listing the one or more debug objects in the multi-threaded application, listing the state of each debug object, turning on or off any debug object by name or pattern, directing the debug output to a remote location, allowing multiple remote diagnostic applications to view the debug output of the application, and logging statistical or performance information.

Abstract: A gateway between client manager applications and an enterprise manager may be provided to manage various networked objects. In one embodiment, CORBA-based TMN manager applications may be communicatively coupled to a CORBA Object Request Broker (ORB) and may be operable to send Interface Definition Language (IDL) requests to, and receive IDL responses and CORBA events from, managed objects through the CORBA ORB. The client manager may first be authenticated to the gateway by username and password, or other validation information associated with the client manager, which may be represented in a user profile. Once the initial client authentication is accomplished, the gateway may provide object-level access control between manager applications and managed objects at an individual object level so that one of the managers is granted access to one of the managed objects while being prevented from interfacing with a different one of the managed objects.

Abstract: A CORBA Gateway between CORBA-based applications and an enterprise manager may be configurable to manage various networked objects, such as printers, scanners, copiers, telephone systems, etc., which may be interconnected via networks. CORBA-based manager applications may communicate managed object-related messages, such as events, requests, and responses, with the managed objects through a CORBA Object Request Broker (ORB). The CORBA gateway may translate the manager requests from IDL to PMI requests. Similarly, the CORBA gateway may translate the enterprise manager PMI responses and PMI events to IDL/IIOP responses and events which may be passed on through the CORBA ORB to the manager applications in the form of IDL responses and CORBA events. In some embodiments, the client may choose the format in which to send and receive message information. To provide text based events, requests, and replies, an extension IDL interface may be used.

Abstract: A system and method for using a management interface such as Portable Management Interface (PMI) in a thread-safe and efficient manner. A secondary scheduler receives PMI management requests from multi-threaded manager applications in a thread-safe manner, such as through a lock. The secondary scheduler monitors the flow of PMI-related requests into PMI to ensure that, at any point in time, only one management request (e.g., callback function) is running on the PMI thread. When a request in the secondary queue is ready for scheduling with the primary scheduler, the secondary scheduler then accesses the primary scheduler in a thread-safe manner, such as through a lock, to send the request to the primary scheduler. The management requests are dispatched from the primary scheduler and executed on managed objects though a Management Information Server.

Abstract: A system for providing service attribute information including a directory server containing a hierarchical data store associating users with service attributes through data inheritance, wherein the hierarchical data store includes an organization level and a role level, and attribute templates defined with respect to services and levels, an application for generating a query to the directory server for a service attribute of a particular user of the application, wherein the directory server, in response to the query, is for using inheritance rules from the hierarchical data store to determine and report a service attribute for the particular user of the application.

Abstract: A CORBA Gateway between CORBA-based applications and an enterprise manager may be configurable to manage various networked objects, such as printers, scanners, copiers, telephone systems, cell phones, phone systems, faxes, routers, switches, etc., which may be interconnected via networks. Various embodiments of the CORBA Gateway may include an Event Gateway which manages object events. The CORBA Event Gateway is designed to leverage existing Event Distribution Server (EDS) sinks to provide EDS filtering functionality and EDS object level access control functionality. The approach leverages existing EDS solutions by providing a common sink for all events/notifications and using a unique Event Port Registry to manage the subscriptions of various TMN clients that subscribe for such events/notifications. Generally, the approach described provides the capability to filter events according to criteria presented by client event subscriptions.

Abstract: A system and method for authenticating users over a network. At least one pluggable authentication module (PAM) is used to authenticate users of network services. Each PAM includes a client-side authentication library and a server-side authentication library which may each be implemented in accordance with a specification expressed in an interface definition language (IDL), wherein the IDL is operable to define interfaces across a plurality of platforms and programming languages. The client-side authentication library is implemented for a particular client platform and deployed on the client computer system to provide a client-side interface to retrieve and encrypt a user profile. The server-side authentication library is implemented for a particular server platform and deployed on the server computer system to provide a server-side interface to receive the encrypted user profile from the client-side authentication library and decrypt the user profile to authenticate the user for network services.

Abstract: A system and method for generic and dynamic mapping of managed object metadata. The data to be mapped may include type information about an attribute, action, or notification of a managed object. The first data type is entered into the mapping system, and then a corresponding second data type is determined and returned. In this manner, data types related to the attributes, events, or other parameters of managed objects are converted between various data description languages, such as OMG IDL and ASN1. A single interface is defined to describe substantially all data types and all managed objects. Having a single object interface for all TMN managed objects saves significant resources in that there is no need to statically compile and store separate interfaces for the many objects, which may increase the scalability of a network management system dramatically.

Abstract: A system and method for a synchronous task scheduler. The synchronous task scheduler may be used with a CORBA Gateway between CORBA-based client manager applications and an enterprise manager. The CORBA Gateway may include components such as an Event Gateway which manages events from managed objects, and a Request Gateway which manages requests and responses of managed objects. The Event Gateway and the Request Gateway may be designed as multi-threaded systems. A thread pool may be used to increase efficiency and performance of the CORBA Gateway. To ensure ordered delivery of events or replies to the CORBA gateway clients in a multi-threaded environment using a thread pool, a synchronous task scheduler may be used. There may be a synchronous task scheduler associated with each client manager to preserve the chronology of messages sent to each. The synchronous task scheduler may maintain an internal message list, and deliver one message at a time from that internal list.

Abstract: A system and method for managing network devices. The framework may provide a suitable system for managed object data type conversions between various data description languages, such as an interface definition language (e.g., OMG IDL) and an abstract syntax notation (e.g., ASN1). This conversion facility may be used in both request and event network traffic, so common libraries may be used. Two separate libraries may be used: a converter framework library and a converter implementation library. The framework library provides a collection classes that may be used by the clients of the converter libraries. Most classes in the converter framework library are handle classes (or wrappers) to the real implementation (or body) classes in the converter implementation library. Framework classes hide the details of the real implementation classes and provide a simple, consistent interface to any data type converter via IDL.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to the application of the Class of Service (CoS) feature in a directory server. The CoS feature allows user entries in a directory to be associated to service templates for multiple registered services in the directory. Once a service is registered, a CoS definition (service definition) may be created for that service under the organization entry. Once a service gets activated, an associated CoS template (service template) may be created for that service using its service definition. The template entries contain a list of shared attribute values and changes to these values get automatically applied to all the entries sharing the attribute. By creating these service definitions and templates under an organization entry, all the service privileges can be made available to all entries under the organization. Similarly, policies for resources can be defined for an organization and policy specific attributes can be made applicable to all the entries in the organization.